Alone in the Dark (1982)

Admirable film.

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

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.

Working at an insane asylum, a doctor working to keep his extra- security patients under control finds his efforts thwarted when a massive blackout occurs and they escape into the city, forcing him to realize what they're after and stop them before they can carry it out.This was actually a rather entertaining slasher. One of the best aspects is its intelligence and original story that starts off in a cliché since the fact that the convicts get out isn't anything new, but rather is one take on two different routes than most would expect. This gets a lot of work out of the fact that the convicts escape early on rather than stalking the residents inside with the fear of them getting out so that this one spends the majority of time stalking an individual family instead of going to a specific location and killing off an assembled mass there. This makes the fact that their out and about a lot scarier than what would've been done the other way around. What really sells the movie, though, is the continuous high-quality suspense scenes throughout here which come off rather nice as several of the scenes are highly enjoyable prolonging that factor. The stalking in the van is pretty chilling, the bedroom sequence is an absolute standout knowing they're there and trying to get out while a later assault on a house from unseen sources in the woods nearby features enough good moments to become quite entertaining and effective while detailing the action and brawling for some suspenseful times. The early action from the looting helps this one out nicely as well, bringing along some rather interesting bits as there's a different element present to the action that works nicely, and even manages to set-up the action in the later half rather well. Along with some nice gore based on the respectable body count, there here are the film's good points as there wasn't all that much really wrong with this one. Among the film's biggest ones is that the film has a long set-up to get to the good points. There's way too much time to get to the blackout that sets about the main thrust of the film and puts it into motion, and that there's a really long time to get there is a little off to really make this one exciting. Another small flaw is the ending comes across as slightly confusing and a little out-of-place in the film as it just seems to go on with endless confrontations just to get some action in, especially as it seemed to head for one conclusion and comes out with one that doesn't connect at all. These here are the film's main problems that hold it back.Rated R: Graphic Violence, Language, Brief Nudity and a mild sex scene.

This movie seems to go highly unnoticed, which is insane since its one of the few slasher films I've seen that actually has thought put behind it. Everyone in this film acts very well, with little bad acting, Donald Pleasence (Halloween) gives a pretty funny performance as an insane doctor. The maniacs are all fun to watch. The body count sits at 8 kills, which is a little above standard for slashers, I Gave this film a 7/10 as there still are things in the movie that don't make it as good as it could've been, but this is definitely one of the best slasher films of the early 80s and a recommended movie to any slasher film. (this is also the first movie to use a hockey mask besides Jason in Friday the 13th part 3!)

Jack Sholder constructed this ambitious addition to the slasher genre with such a wonderfully demented sense of humor by combining off-beat dialog with the standard body count formula. Donald Pleasence runs a liberal home for the insane where the patients are "free" to walk about with very little restraint except for the walls and doors themselves. Dr. Dan Potter (Dwight Shultz) is a new doctor who's hired as a replacement for the last head-shrinker who moved to Philadelphia. The patients of the 3rd floor (Martin Landau in a hilarious performance as Boyd The Preacher, who set fire to churches, Jack Palance as a paranoid schizophrenic ex-colonel, and Erland van Lidth as an obese child molester), believe that Potter murdered his predecessor, and after a full-scale power-outage ensues, the wackos take advantage of their opportunity to escape and launch an assault on Potter's family. The first half of this twisted tale is played out for laughs as we're introduced to the patients at the institute by Donald Pleasence (who's character is as crazy as they are). Landau, Palance and Lidth are great as the murderous band of nut cases, but then this becomes just another "trapped-in-the-house" slasher film that effortlessly lags, at least until the power comes back on, and then the film meets an unsatisfying and abrupt cut-off ending. Nonetheless, this is funny and entertaining for genre fans as well as Landau and Palance completists.