An unnamed representative of the church (Donald Pleasance) contacts Professor of Physics Howard Birack (Victor Wong) to help. It seems this artefact contains the very physical essence of evil, perhaps the devil himself and if it is physical it can be studied, quantified and contained.
Birack gathers a multidisciplinary team of researchers who set up in the church but withholds from them what it is they are there to study.
No good will come of this.
CW: some 80s sexism, insect swarms and an awful moustache
John Carpenter got high and watched an 80s pop science documentary on quantum physics and decided that matter and anti-matter had something to do with the duality of good and evil and went with it.
I remember being really disappointed with this at the time and my opinion hasn't changed.
It's got some nice imagery. "You will not be saved by the Holy Ghost. You will not be saved by the God Plutonium". Mathematics as incantation, palimpsest scripture revealing an alternative Bible, Alice Cooper stabbing a guy with a bicycle.
The trouble is beyond that there's just a lot of terrible technobabble, pretty standard possession/infection action scenes and some really really wooden performances that aren't helped by dreadfully slow pacing.
The best bit is the completely unresolved dream message from the future, a sign of the creativity that was brought to the concept but let down in the execution.
Weak 4/10 I'm sorry Carpenter fans it's just not a classic.