Rating: 6.7/10 (25,195 votes)
Director: John Carpenter
Writer: John Carpenter
Stars: Donald Pleasence, Jameson Parker, Victor Wong, Lisa Blount
Runtime: 102 min
Rated: R
Genre: Horror
Released: 23 Oct 1987

Synopsis: A sinister secret has been kept in the basement of an abandoned Los Angeles church for many years. With the death of a priest belonging to a mysterious sect, another priest opens the door to the basement and discovers a vat containing a green liquid. The priest contacts a group of physics graduate students to investigate it. Unfortunately, they discover that the liquid contains the essence of Satan himself, and they also discover that he will release HIS father – an all-powerful Anti-God! The liquid later comes to life itself, turning some of the students into zombies as the Devil comes forward to release his father. Will these students be able to stop him?
The movie opens with a dying priest clutching a metal box. The priest was protecting the box and soon it is found out why. The box contains a key that opens an area beneath a derelit church. The area contains a room that holds a terrifying secret.

A Vicar (Donald Pleasence) begs for help from a professor called Howard Birack (Victor Wong) and a group of physics students to investigate this room and a mysterious cylinder in the basement of the derelict Los Angeles church. The cylinder contains a twisting, green gooey liquid. The students attending the experiment are Walter, Susan, Wyndham, Kelly, Lisa and Catherine. Among these people investigating this is a Metaphysican who is named in the film as Marsh (Jameson Parker). Next to the cylinder is a book inscribed in three different languages which they try to decypher.

After reading the written passages found next to the cylinder, it is discovered that the liquid is actually Satan, the devil incarnate. The liquid itself appears to be a living organism, producing increasingly complex data that is revealed by computer decoding to include differential equations and sending the computers into data overload. One of the students decides to call it a night and is brutally murdered by a tramp (Alice Cooper) with part of a bicycle frame. Another student called Wyndham is brutally stabbed with scissors after having bugs crawl on his face and body.

The next two days develops into something sinister, small jets of liquid escape the cylinder and possess the group one at a time, causing them to attack and incapacitate the remaining students. From outside Wyndham returns back from the dead and says he has a message from Satan for the rest of the group and just after he says the words: “You’re not going to like it”. His body erupts with beetles emerging from his body. He loses his head and more bugs crawl out until he whole body disolves and only his suit remains. A student called Conor tries to take his own life with a piece of stair bannister that he proceeds to jab into his throat.