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.
1982 Directed by Jack Sholder
A quartet of murderous psychopaths break out of a mental hospital during a power blackout and lay siege to their doctor's house.
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…
Noite de Pânico, Alene i mørket, Solos en la oscuridad, Armoton yö, Απόδραση από τη Φωλιά του Κούκου, Nel buio da soli, Junk in the Dark, Alleen in het donker, Pavor na noite, Sam u mraku, Ensam i mörkret, Одни во тьме, Ausbruch der wilden Wölfe, Zwei Stunden vor Mitternacht, Dément, Egyedül a sötétben
Alone in the Dark has FANTASTIC late fall vibes, now is the perfect time to throw this on, featuring a widespread blackout as we enter the darkest part of the year, with most of the leaves on the ground with only a few left on trees, a few scenes so cold you can see the characters' breath--it's also an entertaining early '80s slasher with an unforgettably clever twist/reveal.
Jack Palance & Martin Landau are incredible, but I find myself absolutely enraptured by Donald Pleasence taking leftover quirks from his role in Halloween 4 years earlier and amplifying them to absurd proportions that just work SO well, my only real complaint is that I wanted more scenes with his character.
Please cross your fingers for a blu-ray release, because Alone in the Dark certainly deserves one!!
Jack Sholder's Alone in the Dark is without question one of my favorite slasher movies... 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” of slasher jams 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 look on Jack Palance's face in…
Totally a top tier Javk Shoulder “golden era” slasher jam as far as I’m concerned—Martin Landau really need dat hat!
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
Mostly smart, often fun, early shot in the Slasher Film Wars of the 1980’s from the director of the The Hidden, featuring an incredibly stacked cast and a tendency to spend quality time on character building over horror antics.
In a world apparently spilling over with homicidal maniacs, a psychiatrist, Dr. Dan Potter, and his family move to a new town so he can start a job working for Dr. Samuel Loomis’ far-out, more mellow twin brother (not really, it’s just Donald Pleasence playing a stoner psychiatrist). Pleasence's character is apparently a specialist in hyper-decatastrophizing, too much so, actually.
(But then protagonist Dan might be a little too dismissive as well, at one point he shrugs off the fact that…
Maybe a life lesson of sorts, you know, even Dr. Leo’s hippy mumbo jumbo cannot save you once the lights go out. Turn on, tune in, drop out, the lights go out.
This is a great jam, both literally and figuratively, with a very clear following for obvious reasons. The score is fantastic eighties slasher moods and then a punk band thrown in for good measure, hell yeah. The thing is, I really adored this movie, the way it cross pollinated the themes of mental illness and alternative medicine. Tossing in a little New York blackout. Anarchy, murder, psycho killers, it’s the end of the seventies balled up into one fun slasher premise. The opening sequence was magic, just the…
A vastly underrated masterpiece imho courtesy of the decade that keeps on giving...the 80s baby!
Four patients at a psychiatric facility escape during a town blackout with plans to kill their new doctor. Simply because they think he killed their old doctor. Which isn't the case at all but goodluck explaining that too four psychopaths. They begin to terrorize the doctor and his family relentlessly. But the doc and his family aren't going down without a fight! Leading to a very intense back in forth fight for survival between the family and the psychos.
The top notch cast is rather unusual for an 80s horror movie. Everyone does well. Jack Palance and Martin Landau lead the escaped quartet of the…
Over the years, I’ve amassed a somewhat respectable collection of films. My family and friends have often asked, why, in this world of instant streaming, do I feel so compelled to acquire physical media. It’s a question I struggle with myself at times. Maybe it’s habit, something wired into me as a boy with baseball cards and comic books. Or maybe it’s the result of reading some article highlighting the fine print of what it actually means to “own” a conditionally-licensed digital film. Maybe I’m afraid society will collapse and fall into chaos and I feel it is my duty to curate and maintain a record of our culture and art. A record of our people. Of our civilization.
Maybe.
But I…
“There’s no crazy people here. We’re all just on vacation.”
I dunno...been meaning to watch this one for a while, and although the premise sounds great, the movie ends up feeling lacking. Felt like it took a while to get going, and never fully went there? Great atmosphere, and that opening and final scenes were something else.
Easily one of the best slasher films of the 1980's, Alone in the Dark is a chilling home-invasion/crazies-on-the-loose horror-thriller that also makes for a very strong debut from director Jack Sholder, with committed performances, fascinating characters, clever writing, a great sense of dark humor, and very well-constructed moments of suspense.
Pretty solid early slasher. It helps that there's such an awesome cast to add weight to the whole thing, but just the idea of maniacs on the loose during a blackout is really effective. The ending leaves me scratching my head a bit though...
finally a movie brave enough to ask the question "what if Halloween had four Michael Myerses?"
Dość typowy i całkiem angażujący slasher z lat 80tych. Na plus obsada i fajny klimat. Trochę jednak niewykorzystany potencjał bo pomysł był naprawdę dobry.
I knew from the start there was gonna be trouble when ComEd is put in charge of security
Def not what I was expecting: martin landau doing crazy faces and commanding a fat guy minion.
Prop-piece at the end done by a young Savini
I've been dying to watch Alone in the Dark for about a decade. I have no idea why I couldn't find it, seeing as almost everyone I know has watched it before. The poster art has become a lighthouse on the shore of a sea of movies, an angina to me that has kept me lusting after something that I could have over built up in my expectations. With this VHS rip kick I'm on, what a great movie for me to end my day on.
Okay, hold up. Donald fucking Pleasence and Martin Landau are in this. So I didn't do my research on AitD apparently, even Lin Shaye shows up, like what a stacked cast! Seriously though, whenever…
I quite enjoyed this little slasher! The ripped VHS version I watched wasn’t the best quality but it still preserved most of the atmosphere and intensity of the shots and cinematography. I love slashers and even when I like the characters I’ll still find myself waiting for the next kill but in this I found myself so invested in the characters I just wanted to see them make it out. Just a nice, cozy, and clever little diddy.
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