Horror Battle: Alone in the Dark (1982) vs Alone in the Dark(2005)
Have you ever been talking about a film with someone, and it becomes clear that you are talking about a different film? Confusing everyone involved. It can sometimes be confusing when two films that have the same name. The most infamous of these were the two Jack Frost films, released within a year of each other. But one is a horror film, and one is a family film. However, it could be argued that Michael Keaton as a snowman is as terrifying as the snowman in the horror film. Sometimes, the same title happens to films in the same genre, and the battle can begin here. So, over a series of articles, I will look at two (or more) films with the same title but are different. This means I won’t be looking at remakes, sequels, prequels and requels. So there won’t be Halloween (1978) vs Rob Zombie’s Halloween vs Halloween (2018). So considering all that, here is the latest battle, Alone in the Dark (1984) vs Alone in the Dark (2010)
In the Blue Corner: Alone in the Dark (1982)
Director: Jack Sholder
Stars: Jack Palance, Donald Pleasance, Martin Landu
IMDb rating: 6
Taglines: They’re out… for blood! Don’t let them find you!
In the Red Corner: Alone in the Dark (2005)
Director: Uwe Boll
Stars: Christian Slater, Tara Reid, Stephen Dorff
IMDb rating: 2.4
Taglines: Evil Awakens
Alone in the Dark (1982)
Alone in the Dark (1982)
In 1982, there was an irrationally misunderstood slasher with a classic horror film cast that was intelligent and evil about individuals with mental health issues. That film was Alone in the Dark. In simple terms, it is a horror film with siege elements. Alone in the Dark tackles the idea that the only thing that separates the “normal” from the “crazy” is the ability to control their instincts. The film runs with this message, accusing society and its instability when a power outage causes mass riots and looting, and the release of people with a mental health condition take this as a chance to murder. I had only heard of this film when it was featured in In Search of Darkness 2. This is strange when you consider the cast included icons like Jack Palance, Donald Pleasence and Martin Landu; it’s an above-average budget for an 80s slasher.
It was co-written and produced by Robert Shaye, and his sister Lin Shaye has a small part; it should be better known. So it is not the worst 80s film, but it could have been better. There are four dangerous mental health patients: Colonel Hawks (Palance), Byron Sutcliff (Landau), Frank “Fatty” Eldridge (Erland van Lidth) and “The Bleeder”(Phillip Clark). “Bleeder” is so-called as, and he has a nosebleed when he commits murders.
A trait that I have witnessed re-used in the 2001 Valentine. We also don’t see “Bleeder” face until the film’s end. When the power cut happens, they decide to escape, first killing an orderly and a doctor. Then, they plan to visit Dr Dan Potter (Dwight Schultz) at his home as they believe he had killed the previous doctor at The Haven, the institute they had escaped from. Therefore, Dr Potter, his wife (Deborah Hedwall), his young daughter (Elizabeth Ward) and Potter’s younger sister (Lee Taylor-Allan) are fighting for their lives against the lunatics. It may be me, but Palance and Landu are playing the same character from Without Warning, but the performance they give is much better. Hawkes is the most rounded character, as there appears to be more going on below the surface. Dr Bain (Pleasence) treats the inmates differently, giving them little jobs around the institute and some freedom.
He treats them no differently than other human beings. But there is something about how Pleasence plays the character: you can not help but think he is just as crazy as the people he looks after. Pleasence is incredible and terrific in the role. The film could be better, but there is enough to make the film enjoyable. The killers are scary, especially Landu, a crazed ex-preacher with pyromaniac tendencies, setting churches ablaze with the congregation inside. Later, he sees a postman on a bike and decides that he wants his hat, so they run him over in their van. After getting the postman’s hat, he goes to Dr Potter’s house, stating that he has a telegram for him. The maniac quickly enters the home, with creaky noises, things under the bed, and nudity to keep the film moving.
The death scenes are decent, including a man whose back is broken by the vast and scary maniac, another has their throat ripped out by a gardening tool, and a man nailed to a tree by a crossbow. There is also a scene with a babysitter and her boyfriend, who had been engaging in a sexual act. After the boyfriend goes to check for a noise in the closet, he pulls him under the bed. The babysitter is terrified as a large knife comes through the mattress, trying to stab her. Even though this is a brief moment in the film, Jack Sholder creates great tension. Another uncomfortable scene is when “Fatty” tries to convince Potter’s young daughter to go upstairs with him. However, the film’s score has an oddly serene tone to it. Whether it is the opening dream sequence to the end where we see the Sic Fucks play, Alone in the Dark is filled with strangeness. The film should be discussed more; apart from the escaped maniacs, the other characters are irritating or tedious.
Also, the final battle between Palance and Schultz is a little anti-climactic, as this was the film’s driving force. Alone in the Dark should have become a classic slasher, but it misses the mark. There are several slow points when little happens, although it is never dull. The body count is lower than expected for a film with this premise of four extraordinarily aggressive and threatening killers let loose. But what we do get is some creative kills. What the film does well is that it leaves a little mystery around the lives of the killers.
It certainly never tries to make them sympathetic. We just see a group of killers, well… go crazy. It would have been nice to have seen more of Palance and Pleasence, but sharing screen time with so many killers is so much time you can give each actor. However, it is certainly worth watching for the stellar cast.
Alone in the Dark (2005)
I knew I was in for a hard time with this film; like many people, I keep a record of the top ten films I enjoyed and did not enjoy over a year. Uwe Boll’s BloodRayne has previously been on the list of films I did not enjoy list. I am curious to know how he got the cast and decided to write the most contradictory characters for them, not in a good way. This is not Robin Williams as a creepy stalker in One Photo Shoot or Keanu Reeves as Neo in The Matrix films type of “miscasting”. This is Tara Reid, playing a scientist “miscasting”. The rather basic plot is that a detective of the paranormal solves enigmatic events with lethal results.
I do not often complain about the time lost watching a film, but there were better things I could have done in that roughly hour and a half. Somehow, Alone in the Dark is worse than BloodRayne, which was a slog. The downgrade from Ben Kingsley, Michael Marsden and Michelle Rodriguez to Tara Reid, Christian Slater and Stephen Dorff is noticeable, dragging the film down further. However, that is not to say that the actors only make or break a bad film if they are convincing to some degree. Reid failed to convince me at any point that she was Aline Cedrac, an intelligent museum curator.
Her line delivery seemed to suggest that she did not understand the words she was saying or sometimes struggled with the more technical terms and a sex scene that would make those from a Neil Breen film look like a professional porn shoot. She has not had a good role since American Pie, and she does have the reputation (rightly or not) of being nothing more than a dumb blonde party girl, which makes her believable as an archaeologist harder to swallow. But Boll does not consider this. Or his genuine thought that all we needed to be convinced was a pair of glasses. Whatever the issue, the poor acting is the worst part of Reid’s performance. As the paranormal detective, Edward Carnby, Dorff decides to counterpoint Reid’s expressionless, impartial performance by being overly excited.
The piece’s villain is Professor Hudgens (Mathew Walker), who wants to open the doorway between this world and the monster’s world. Why? A reason is not given, or it passed me by. Nor were any clues that led Carnby to rediscover the demons from his past, killing the people connected to Bureau 713. However, I believe the monsters were related to cruel experiments by Professor Hudgens 22 years earlier. The script by Elan Mastai, Michael Roesch and Peter Scheerer gives us absurd set pieces at a super fast speed. Boll seems to have a massive boner for action scenes, but they often don’t do anything to help the film. While I am not a huge fan of action, but if done well, I am okay with it in my horror films, this film does not get it right. The opening scene is Carnby fighting his way past an assassin, which is wrong. There is a plotline about improvements made to Carnby, but this needs to be explained in more detail. I have the same issue with the weapons used against the monster. While there is a scene about the weakness of the weapons, it never comes up again. So what we have is multiple action scenes between the humans and monsters as they destroy each other. Even after making scriptwriters make numerous changes, Boll will still ignore scripts, even going with what feels right. The issue comes from these gut feelings not always making sense, leaving the film to feel like a contradictory mess.
Boll also needs more time for character development, meaning they are often nothing more than cardboard cut-outs spouting the script’s awkward dialogue. Who knows what Boll thought he was giving us, but a film is not what we got. The film has the Star Wars-style text scroll, but unlike that film, Boll does not trust that his audience is not also looking at their phone, so we also get a word-for-word voice-over. I was already worried. Is it clear yet that I did not enjoy Alone in the Dark? Is it the worst film that I have ever watched? That medal still belongs to Jurassic Shark. The action is indeed better here and with a better cast.
But if you compare it to BloodRayne, which came out the same year, this is a worse film. Alone in the Dark fails as both a horror and action film. It needs to be more successful to fall into the so-bad-they-are-good category. However, it is done too seriously for that. Surprisingly, Alone in the Dark did not win any Razzie Awards. However, Reid was nominated for worst actress, losing to Jenny MaCarthy for Dirty Love. Boll was also up for worst director, losing to Dirty Love’s director John Mallory Asher. So when I wrote a list of the films that would be set up for this battle and when I realised that Alone in the Dark would be one of the battles, I thought it would be better to get it over and done rather than have the sense of imminent doom loaming heavy over me.
I hope my anguish was worth it for you guys. It is not even a film; I am glad I watched it. At least this was an experience that I suffered alone (but not in the dark) rather than subjected my friends to; I am still trying to get back into their good books after making them watch Hard Rock Zombies.
Winner: Alone in the Dark (1982)
There is no doubt that the winner is 1982 Alone in the Dark. It was a K.O. from the initial blow. I enjoyed the film but can easily see why it would only be for some. Alone in the Dark gives us a twisted slasher film. And while we have a bloody conclusion, it is more than just a slasher film with a “who are crazy people” theme that you see in films like David Cronenberg’s Shivers and George A Romero’s The Crazies. Another thing that sets Alone in the Dark apart from its contemporaries is that instead of teens being killed by a psycho, we have four terrifying killers terrifying a family.
While Alone in the Dark (2005) could be described as a scrappy fighter, it is also an underhand one. It is beyond the bad guy that you love to hate. You hate them. And while it was clear early on that it would lose, I did stick around for the whole film. This film would not have been improved by having a group of friends and alcohol. Ok, the alcohol might. This film cannot be recommended, even for those with a soft spot for “bad films”. I have never played the game that it is based on, but I get a sense that it pissed off those fans. I can not find any redeeming features to save this film; whereas films like BloodRayne have a great cast that helps the film, Alone in the Dark does not. If nothing else, I don’t want to give Boll any more time and money, as his attitude towards the negative reviews his films get is disgusting.
Blood Brother by Beverley Price
Strong Man and Black Petal are rebel warriors, always outside society, saving those who do not know they exist. However, you can only run away from your past for so long before it catches up with you. Having to return to Belfast, no longer a person of faith, is a difficult decision for a man who has left his identity behind. But it is something that they have to do. Once they return to their old haunting ground, Strong Man starts dreaming of a woman, a damsel in distress, someone that needs saving.
But how is she? Why is Strong Man connected to her? What is her connection to their enemy, Puppet Master? As Strong Man and Black Petal find them caught up in the religious fervour of Father Liam and his mission to create a blood disease and vampiric Shakespeare twins, questions are asked about their strength.
When friends are hard to find, not knowing who are your true enemies are, religion mania seemed into each pore of society and the secrets they keep from each other. Are they going to save the world once again?
Beverley Price
Beverley Price is a writer from a small town in Carmarthenshire, Wales, a three-time winner of the title “Chief Poet Skald of Suffolk”, a local eisteddfod.
She has had a poem published in an E-book called “Poems from Beyond the Grave” and “Serial Killers – A Pizza Eaters book”. Beverley has her poetry books, “The Flowering of the Black Petal” and “By Ink, By Pen, by Paper: A Tribute to Black Petal” under the alias Stormy and two novels “Blood Bound” and “Blood Brother”.
Beverley is a feature writer for the London Horror Society, looking at “so bad, they’re good” films, Hammer Horror and banned films in the UK.
Beverley is always open for conversations about horror, and the weirder, the better @stormywriter2. Also, check out my website at The-Poet | Vampire Novel (blackpetal82.wixsite.com)
