Synopsis
When the lights go out, the terror begins.
A quartet of murderous psychopaths break out of a mental hospital during a power blackout and lay siege to their doctor's house.
Where to watch
Alone in the Dark
1982 Directed by Jack Sholder
Cast
Jack Palance Donald Pleasence Martin Landau Dwight Schultz Erland van Lidth Deborah Hedwall Lee Taylor-Allan Phillip Clark Elizabeth Ward Brent Jennings Gordon Watkins Carol Levy Keith Reddin Annie Korzen Lin Shaye Dorothy Dorian James John Weissman Jana Schneider Robert Pastner Larry Pine Frederick Coffin Mallory Millet-Jones Laura Esterman Michael Earl Reid Paula Raflo Steve Dash Michael Medeiros E.D. Phillips Norman Beim Show All…
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Alternative Titles
Nel buio da soli, Solos en la oscuridad, Noite de Pânico, Απόδραση από τη Φωλιά του Κούκου, Sam u mraku, Alleen in het donker, Одни во тьме, Armoton yö, Pavor na noite, Ensam i mörkret, Ausbruch der wilden Wölfe, Alene i mørket, Zwei Stunden vor Mitternacht, Junk in the Dark, Dément, Egyedül a sötétben
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Add this to the list of Oscar winners in horror movies. If you've ever wanted to watch a bunch of veteran actors act insane, this is for you.
I should have liked it more, but I was pretty bored despite its awesome cast. However the ending climax and last scene totally make this movie.
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Jack Sholder's Alone in the Dark is an escaped maniac home invasion slasher jam and one I discovered later on in my horror journey… after movies like The Prowler, The Burning, My Bloody Valentine, and Slumber Party Massacre racked my brain. Due to this being out of print/lack of a fresh new release, I kinda feel like it’s often overlooked status-wise as far as standouts from the “golden age” and that’s a damn shame if you ask me... this thing has a lot going for it!
From the bonkers intro, insane cast, multiple villains running amok, an under siege family trapped in a house, mental asylum breakout, town anarchy, the unexpected twist, and the amazing look on Jack Palance's face in that wild final…
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Mr. Jack Sholder (A Nightmare on Elm Street 2 and The Hidden) directs this unique slasher starring Donald Pleasence, Martin Landau and Jack Fucking Palance.
This starts off on a fairly wacky note with all the odd going-ons at the mental hospital (by both the criminally insane and the doctor) but it eventually moves into pretty vicious home-invasion territory.
While the movie is quite campy, it has absolutely no problem becoming very tense at times. The performances are unsurprisingly great and the kill scenes are more than solid.
Very underrated.
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Totally a top tier Jack Shoulder “golden era” home invasion escaped maniacs slasher jam as far as I’m concerned—Martin Landau and that hat!
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Somehow Alone in the Dark manages to feel cut from the same cloth as all my childhood slasher staples while also entirely unique and unlike anything I've ever seen before.
Yup... just what I thought...
B.A.N.G.E.R.
A thorough home-invasion nightmare that starts ever so intricately in the walls of a psychiatric hospital then writhes in set-up mode for a full hour before unmasking a siege/slasher hybrid climax with a devious grin. That final chapter finds the new hospital psychiatrist Dan Potter and his family stuck in a proto-You're Next trap of confusion and corpses and it'll rip right through your senses.
Despite the splashes of gore and demented suspense, this is surprisingly story-heavy as it weaves in details and twists… -
I had seen this before and knew I liked it but really couldn’t remember any of it. Now that I have revisited it, I totally remember why. It’s a really well done movie. It gets put in the slasher category but really, I think this is more of a home invasion movie with slasher elements. As a slasher, it’s just ok but as home invasion horror, it’s pretty awesome.
A region wide blackout allows a group of asylum inmates to escape and terrorize one of their doctors and his family. The setup is good but, in itself, is nothing particularly special. What makes it stand out so much, though, is the fact that two of the escapees are Martin Landau…
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Before New Line Cinema became known as The House that Freddy Built thanks to Nightmare on Elm Street, they tried their hand at another horror movie that didn't bring them nearly the success, but garnered a huge cult following.
Alone in the Dark is basically Halloween meets You're Next. A group of mentally insane patients escape from a loony bin and come after one of the doctors. If you want to see veteran actors Martin Landau, Jack Palance and Donald Pleasance cut loose and have the time of their lives, all acting crazy as hell, then you'll love this one. And Donald Pleasance isn't even one of the patients. He runs the asylum and is as crazy as the residents.
Early 80s slasher gore and a total Reaganistic view of the mentally ill. This one is a blast.
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A stacked cast having a lot of fun in middle of nowhere New York makes what would be a solid slasher basically great. Everything great about it leads to everything else great about it, a beautiful chain reaction of clever, striking, or tense moments and characteristics.
The Sic F*cks bring their own brand of horror punk theatre to the midst of this, offering a strange validation to Dr. Bain's crackpot theories up until the spectacular ending, which cuts through even their chaos in order to emphasize the dangers of not taking seriously mental illness. Certainly, this isn't sensitive or right-thinking when it comes to mental illness; this is not a nuanced portrayal. But the target isn't the patients; it's the…
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This early 80s slasher distinguishes itself mainly through its casting (some big hitters in Donald Pleasence, Jack Palance and Martin Landau) and director Jack Sholder's ambition to do things differently to your run-of-the-mill blood-letting. What starts out as something like social satire ratchets up to full-bore home invasion territory.
At Dr. Leo Bains's rehab centre for the criminally insane, four patients (or 'voyagers', to use Bains's pointedly pretentious terminology) led by former soldier and POW, Frank Hawkes, deduce that replacement doctor Dan Potter must have murdered his predecessor and resolve to kill him and his family in turn. Hawkes's motley crew numbers a corpulent child molester, a gurning ex-reverend (Landau in fire and brimstone mode) and a guy who doesn't…
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Geoff T's Hoop-Tober 6.0 Challenge
Alone in the Dark (1982)Here's a fairly interesting one, a slasher produced by New Line Cinema before they struck gold with Nightmare on Elm Street, back when they just a small B-movie outlet.
Set in a small New Jersey town, an insane asylum is home to a notable group of patients, which includes preacher Byron, POV veteran Frank, obese sex offender Ronald, and some other guy named John, or whatever. Killing anyone who gets in their way, the four proceed to target psychiatrist Dr. Dan Potter and his family, whom they're convinced is responsible for the death of their last psychiatrist, who is actually alive and well in nearby Philadelphia.
In honestly, this film…
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A bunch of maniacs(which include Martin Landau and Jack Palance) escape from the mental hospital during a mass blackout. Being under the delusion that their new doctor has killed their previous doctor it soon turns into a home invasion flick as they target Dr. Dan and his family.
Donald Pleasence pops up as psychiatrist Dr. Leo Bain who is somehow even more incompetent than Dr Loomis! It's a fun little 80's gem that gets some solid performances from it's cast especially Landau who seems to be having the time of his life.
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Murdock IS the wild card.
When Edith Wharton suggested Alone in the Dark for the Collab - I was all "that's a really great film.......... but I've seen it a hundred times and its kind of slow," because I have it perpetual confused with Wait Until Dark (1967). All star ensemble of rogues terrorize a single location - it's a fair mistake. Which isn't to say that Alone in the Dark (1982) is unknown to me. Right after Landau picked up the Academy Award (1994), I was reading up on his body of work, and at the time this was pretty high on my watch list. Back then availability was a factor. So it was a nice surprise to finally…