Self-important, over-dramatic, uninspired.

Dreadfully Boring

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

The film opens with a dream sequence where Byron "Preacher" Sutcliff (Martin Landau, forever Bela Lugosi and John Koenig to me) finds himself in a diner where he is chopped in half by a demented short order cook (Donald Pleasence!).That cook turns out to be Dr. Leo Bane, who runs a psychiatric hospital that is able to reach the unreachable. Sure, his methods are practically surreal and he randomly smokes weed during the day. But they work.Dr. Dan Potter (Dwight Schultz, Murdock from TV's The A-Team) is the new doctor in town, the replacement for Dr. Harry Merton who has moved to another hospital in Philadelphia. He's brought his wife Nell and daughter Lyla (Elizabeth Ward, who played the original Carol Seaver in the pilot for TV's Growing Pains before Tracey Gold won the role) to town and is preparing for a visit from his punk rock, post-nervous breakdown having sister Toni.The really dangerous people in Dr. Leo's care are all on the third floor. We already met the preacher, who loves setting things on fire. Then there's the paranoid prisoner of war Frank Hawkes (the transcendent Jack Palance), child molester Ronald Elster (Erland van Lidth, Dynamo from The Running Man who was also in Stir Crazy) and John "The Bleeder" Skagg (Phillip Clarke, The Reincarnation of Peter Proud ), a killing machine who bleeds from the nose when he kills. No one has seen The Bleeder's face, as he hides it from everyone but his close friends.Dan learns from security guard Ray Curtis (Brent Jennings, Witness) that the third-floor men all believe that he killed Dr. Merton and want revenge. He blows this off.A night at the punk rock club -- a place that Dan hates -- ends after the power goes out, as a nuclear power plant has caused a regional blackout. Lyla is at home with Bunky, her babysitter. And the men from the third floor kill their way out of Dr. Leo's hospital, with all three but The Bleeder staying together.Preacher makes the first move, trying to deliver a telegram to the Potter house. Then, Nell and Toni go to protest the nuclear power plant but are arrested, forcing them to bring in Bunky to babysit. However, Ronald gets there first and teaches Lyle origami. As for Bunky, well, she calls over her boyfriend Billy for some sex, but Preacher and Ronald kill them in a scene that has a disconcerting bit with a knife emerging from the bed.When Dan bails out Nell and Toni, they bring along Tom Smith, a man they met in jail. The police are all over the house, investigating the murders of Bucky and Billy. Luckily, Lyle was in bed sleeping the whole time after playing with Ronald.What follows is a night of murder and mayhem, with cops getting killed by crossbow bolts, Dr. Leo trying to reach out and hug the Preacher (he had previously told him that if he didn't settle down he would cut him in half, leading to the nightmare we saw at the start of the film) before getting killed with an axe, a fire in the basement, the reveal of The Bleeder and so much more."It's not just us crazy ones who kill," says Dan at one point. The end of the film and the closing scene are harrowing. I'm not giving it away. You need to hunt this down for yourself.Alone in the Dark was written off as just another slasher in the early 1980's. It's basically disappeared as there hasn't been a major re-release by a label like Shout! Factory or Arrow Video. That's a shame -- it's an intelligent film that is as comfortable discussing the existential philosophy of R.D. Laing as it is with showing people get skewered.

I saw this first on a VHS in the late 80s. Revisited it on a DVD recently. Its bah four psychopaths who escape from a mental institution and embark on a murder spree on a blackout night to kill their new doctor. A very bizarre openings in horror history. Very surrealistic. The explanation for this is given much later in the film when Donald Pleasence says what he said in Martin Landaus ears. Well its not your typical slasher from the 80s. Its more of a psychological drama/thriller. Sort of a lil Straw dogs n Halloween n home invasion films put together. Tension is there in the first act and then drops off in the second, only to pick up again in the third. The finale is good and will not disappoint. It features a very talented ensemble cast, Jack Palance (with his no nonsense facial expressions who thinks he is on a vacation while being in a mental institution). Martin Landau (whos at his creepy, grinning, crazy-eyed best). Lin Shaye of Insidious n Dead end fame in a tiny role. Donald Pleasence as the head of the institution. This film is noteworthy for having one of its killers don a hockey mask before Jason ever did so in a Friday the 13th film.

With a trash movie fan's dream cast - including Donald Pleasence, Jack Palance, and Martin Landau - it's a little odd that "Alone In The Dark" has remained still fairly unknown more than thirty years after it was first released. Actually, I think there is a reason why it hasn't found a substantial audience, and that reason is that the movie is admittedly quite slow. The movie really takes a long time to unfold from one main plot turn to another. And in the climatic sequence - the doctor and his family finding themselves under siege from the psychos in their home - it takes a long time to sink in for the protagonists that they are in serious trouble. Despite these major faults, the movie is still enjoyable. The aforementioned stars and the rest of the cast give pretty amusing performances (no one is taking things completely seriously), and while the core plot unfolds slowly, the movie moves from scene to scene at a brisk pace so things never get boring. Good production values and a sprinkling of black humor contribute further to making the movie in the end an enjoyable romp for horror fans with a sense of humor.

Synopsis:Dr. Dan Potter is assigned as a lead psychologist to four dangerous madmen at an alternative psychiatric facility. When a blackout knocks out the electricity at the facility, the lunatics are loose and are out for Dr. Potter and his family. Review: What is impressionable about Alone in the Dark (1882) is how much it had going for it even before the filming even started. This is Jack Sholder's first feature film, while he may not be a household name, he went on to contribute a great deal to the horror genre. Sholder wrote a rather simple but desirable script about four locked-up murderous psychopaths who escape and are out for blood. To top off the script, Sholder managed to hook an incredible line-up of leading men and a horror icon. These actors include the likes of Jack Palance, Martin Landau, Donald Pleasence and Dwight Schultz. As it came together on film, the script and cast were so profound and entertaining, it lives up to any pre-anticipated thoughts. With all that being said, Alone in the Dark is by no means a perfect movie, with its share of plot holes, bad dialog and predictableness. Actors were also limited as a typecast only to their known strengths, example Donald Pleasence plays an eccentric psychologist, no way, we have never seen that before… Tying up some of these loose ends would have established Alone in the Dark as one of the most prominent slasher movies of the 1980's. This little horror gym is very entertaining without a dull moment and doesn't nearly get the credit it deserves.