Poking around in a church cellar, a priest (Donald Pleasence) finds an otherworldly vial filled with slime. Frightened, he brings his discovery to a circle of top scholars and scientists, who eventually learn that the strange liquid is the essence of Satan. The slime then begins to seep out, turning some of the academics into zombified killers. As the possessed battle the survivors, student Kelly (Susan Blanchard) is infected by a large quantity of the liquid and becomes Satan personified.
"Maybe the director's most underrated film. Close to a decade's experience in horror pays off, with Carpenter working the audience with jump-scares and revolting demises like an old pro. But the true acheivement is a sense of ecstatic entropy and corruption that seeps out of every pore." - Phil Hoad, The Gaurdian