John Carpenter’s Prince of Darkness was an homage to the legendary sci-fi screenwriter Nigel Kneale – who then openly bashed the film. Prince of Darkness came towards the end of John Carpenter’s movie run of the 1980s, which yielded classics like Escape from New York and The Thing.

Carpenter’s Prince of Darkness is something of a spiritual sequel to Quatermᴀss and the Pit, a 1968 Hammer Horror film where an alien spacecraft is uncovered in the London Underground. Carpenter made the movie on a low budget so he could retain final cut, following a bad experience working with Fox on Big Trouble in Little China.

The result is Carpenter’s most underrated film, with Prince of Darkness being one of his most dread-inducing and unnerving works. The director made no secret of his Nigel Kneale influences either; Carpenter wrote under the pseudonym “Martin Quatermᴀss,” a character wears a “Kneale University” t-shirt and there are even visual nods to Kneale’s The Stone Tape.

Carpenter was heavily inspired by Kneale throughout his career, with Prince of Darkness playing like a mashup of Kneale’s Quatermᴀss and the Pit and The Stone Tape. Kneale was a famously salty, blunt fellow, however, and didn’t take kindly to being linked to Prince of Darkness.

Nigel Kneale Didn’t Appreciate John Carpenter’s Homages In Prince Of Darkness

Kneale felt Prince of Darkness was more “insult” than homage

From the original Quatermᴀss serials on the BBC to his bone-chilling adaptation of The Woman in Black, Kneale was known for blending great characters and dialogue with unique, high-concept stories. Kneale was also known for his biting wit and making blunt statements about the filmmakers who brought his work to life.

Carpenter and Kneale had worked together years prior to Prince of Darkness too. Despite their professional relationship ending on a sour note when Carpenter had one of Kneale’s screenplays reworked, Carpenter still made Prince of Darkness as a love letter to the British screenwriter. Kneale wasn’t impressed, telling The Observer (via Vice).

For the record I have had nothing to do with the film and I have not seen it. It sounds pretty bad. With an homage like this, one might say, who needs insults? I can only imagine that it is a whimsical riposte for my having my name removed from a film I wrote a few years ago and which Mr. Carpenter carpentered into sawdust.

It’s unknown if Kneale ever got around to giving Prince of Darkness a try, but even if he did, it’s doubtful he would have liked it much. The movie was ultimately a modest success, grossing over $14 million worldwide (via The Numbers), more than recouping its $3 million budget.

John Carpenter & Nigel Kneale Had A Bad Experience Working on Halloween 3

Kneale refused to rewrite Season of the Witch

Despite writing and directing the original Halloween, Carpenter had zero interest in cashing in and making sequels. Ultimately, legal pressure forced him into producing Halloween 2, where he made sure to kill Michael Myers off for good (or so he thought at the time).

When Universal asked for a third entry, Carpenter decided to make Halloween an anthology series focusing on a new story each time. Joe Dante (Gremlins) was originally attached to direct the sequel, and suggested Kneale would be a great choice to pen it. Carpenter agreed, and Kneale came up with a unique angle combining witchcraft with modern technology.

Carpenter and eventual Halloween 3: Season of the Witch helmer Tommy Lee Wallace agreed that Kneale’s work was intriguing, but the script he delivered needed a lot of work. Kneale refused to do any tweaking and departed the project, and later had his name removed from Season of the Witch entirely. Carpenter reflected on this collaboration with Vulture in 2014.

But Nigel Kneale didn’t want to change anything of his precious writing. And it wasn’t up to what we needed it to be. So we worked on it, Tommy Lee and I. Nigel Kneale is a brilliant writer, but by the time I met him, he was pretty irascible, and mean. He was a mean character. He started making fun of Jack Arnold, the director of the original Creature From the Black Lagoon. At that point, Jack Arnold had lost a leg. And Nigel made fun of him for that. Terrible. [Nigel] thought he was above us, us horror filmmakers.

Halloween 3 received a very mixed reception upon release, largely because the marketing campaign hadn’t made it clear that Michael Myers wasn’t part of the story. Season of the Witch received a very mixed reception back in 1982 and was labeled as a franchise killer. The series eventually returned with Myers front and center in 1988.

Regardless, Halloween 3 has earned a loyal cult following in the years since. Despite his name being taken off the credits, Kneale’s influence can still very much be felt in the final product.

Nigel Kneale Is A Towering Figure In British Sci-Fi

Kneale influence on sci-fi and horror is still felt to this day

Sadly, it feels like Kneale has become something of an obscure figure, despite the oversized influence he has had on countless filmmakers and writers. Kneale’s first serial The Quatermᴀss Experiment was said to have emptied pubs across the UK in 1953, making it one of the original examples of appointment television.

Kneale was known for weaving social commentary with sci-fi and horror, producing screenplays that were both thoughtful and terrifying. With The Stone Tape, Kneale pioneered the idea that ghosts are actually recordings of traumatic events captured within a building, which is still one of the most innovative takes on the classic British ghost story.

Kneale’s The Years of the Sєx Olympics was a 1968 TV special starring Brian Cox (Succession) that predicted the rise of reality TV and Big Brother by a good 30 years. Outside of Prince of Darkness, Kneale is an acknowledged influence on early seasons of Doctor Who – despite Kneale’s professed hatred of the show – and 1992’s Ghostwatch.

Traces of Kneale’s influence can also be found in Carpenter’s The Thing, Poltergeist, Stephen King’s The Tommyknockers and even the Alien franchise. Kneale also has many admirers, including Mark Gatiss, Joe Dante, Stephen King and even Ringo Starr.

Kneale was even instrumental in Hammer Horror’s early success, as the original Quatermᴀss movies – which adapted his BBC serials – were so successful they pushed the company towards horror. Basically, much of modern horror or sci-fi could trace some of its DNA back to Kneale.

Carpenter Remained A Nigel Kneale Fan Despite His Stinging Comments On Prince Of Darkness

Carpenter still loves Kneale’s work

Having made Prince of Darkness to honor his work, it can’t have felt good for Carpenter to hear Kneale’s wittering take on his homage. It didn’t affect the filmmaker’s feelings towards either Prince of Darkness or Halloween 3, which are both movies he felt were underrated. According to the above Vulture chat, the director still admires Kneale as a creator.

I really loved his original stuff. I just think he’s groundbreaking … but unpleasant to work with!

In what must be a prime example of separating the art from the artist, Carpenter expressed his love for Kneale – while acknowledging the man himself was a spiky character. Maybe Kneale himself was irritated by Prince of Darkness‘ existence, knowing it was likely the closest to an American take on Quatermᴀss that was going to happen.

Source: The Observer/Vice, The Numbers