The original Alone in the Dark video game was released in 1992 and in many ways it was the first real survival horror title, and with what was at the time a unique mix of action and adventuring, it was hailed as somewhat of a classic. As with many games of the genre it relied on many movie ... Read review
Evil awakens. Edward Carnby (Christian Slater) is a private investigator specializing in ... more
unexplainable supernatural phenomena. His cases delve into the dark corners of the world searching for truth in the occult remnants of ancient civilizations. Now...
Postage & Packaging: £0.00 Availability: 3-5 working days
Advantages: There are none... well, you might laugh once or twice. Disadvantages: Everything about this film will cause your brain to melt..
The original Alone in the Dark video game was released in 1992 and in many ways it was the first real survival horror title, and with what was at the time a unique mix of action and adventuring, it was hailed as somewhat of a classic. As with many games of the genre it relied on many movie like cut scenes, a strong plot and eerie atmosphere that worked wonders into scaring the player stupid. Perfect fodder for a movie script then, well one would ... ...made the games so great. ALONE IN THE DARK director Uwe Boll seems to have taken this one step further, he hasn't made a better movie… but one that is perhaps more like a game than the games are themselves and done his best to make it as painful as possible for the viewer to watch at the same time.
The video game was actually inspired by the stories of H.P Lovecraft which meant grotesque mutant creations and plenty of creaky floorboard ... more
The original Alone in the Dark video game was released in 1992 and in many ways it was the first real survival horror title, and with what was at the time a unique mix of action and adventuring, it was hailed as somewhat of a classic. As with many games of the genre it relied on many movie like cut scenes, a strong plot and eerie atmosphere that worked wonders into scaring the player stupid. Perfect fodder for a movie script then, well one would think so anyway, yet we have already suffered through two Resident Evil films and they didn't ever really manage to capture any of what made the games so great. ALONE IN THE DARK director Uwe Boll seems to have taken this one step further, he hasn't made a better movie… but one that is perhaps more like a game than the games are themselves and done his best to make it as painful as possible for the viewer to watch at the same time.
The video game was actually inspired by the stories of H.P Lovecraft which meant grotesque mutant creations and plenty of creaky floorboard type atmospherics so you'd think given the movie like quality of its production, it would have translated well into a terrific film, and you know one day it still might, if they make a movie that is anything like that game. ALONE IN THE DARK is not atmospheric and has monsters that look like they came straight out of a first generation PSOne title (which to the uninitiated means the CGI in this movie looks ten years old) yet these are only minor problems compared to the other horrors created here by pretty much everyone involved. The story centres around a Paranormal investigator called Edward Carnby and well… something else about parasitic centipedes and monsters that can go invisible. To be honest I really have no idea what it was about, I had to check the plot summery on IMDB just to figure out how to write one for this review yet when I noticed they mentioned something about a big queen monster (which I don't remember), Shadow Island (which as far as I know isn't in the movie) and something about Carnby losing his sanity (when he doesn't do anything of the sort) I realised that everyone else must have been as confused by this film as me.
Boll's first film, HOUSE OF THE DEAD was actually another movie based on a video game and it is true that ALONE IN THE DARK does probably succeed in bettering that effort, although this is perhaps only true because it couldn't really have been any worse. That movie had some truly nauseating fight sequences where zombies did kung fu and the camera span around them so much you actually got dizzy. Here Boll simply shakes the camera around for 10 minutes during an early fight scene, we still can't see what's going on, and its about as exciting as banging your head into a wall repeatedly, but at least you don't feel sick at the same time. He seems to have also realised that splicing bits of the actual video game in with the movie action every time a bad guy dies is not a good thing so we can be thankful there is none of that crap here either.
Yet that last paragraph is about the only nice thing I can say about ALONE IN THE DARK as this is a horrible, horrible film that actually has three leads who have all previously appeared in good big budget movies but I wouldn't be surprised if they never work again with any director who ever sees them here. Its not so much that they are bad, but that everything else around them is. Christian Slater is good enough at playing hero as Carnby that you still manage to watch him without wincing too much even when his character tells everyone to enter a dark hole and then moments later says "we shouldn't be in here". In fact you kind of feel sorry for the guy because even though he has the most intelligent character in the film, he is still designed to look stupid. It's harder to feel sorry for Tara Reid however, who I think its safe to say is just stupid in general. It is incredibly hard to believe she's playing a genius anthropologist, even harder to believe that when all hell breaks lose she can actually keep her calm, go into action chick mode and fire a weapon straight but when at one point she is looking at a computer screen and then moments later she has different hair and is now wearing glasses the bad editing and pure laziness of it all takes the biscuit and destroys what little believability there is left. Stephen Dorff also makes an appearance as an agent working for a secret agency who gets in Carnby's way for no other reason than you need at least one not very nice person in a movie like this and is extremely annoying yet still probably comes off the best just because he has the least screen time.
ALONE IN THE DARK actually had a budget of 20 million dollars, which makes you wonder where it all actually went. Perhaps it was the slow motion every other second during the first twenty minutes of the film, perhaps it was to pay for the bizarre musical choices such as the seventies TV style track that seems to transform into something from the gladiator soundtrack halfway through what has to be the worst car chase ever filmed, or the heavy metal montage where a team of soldiers seem to just fire guns at a wall for five minutes in a pitch black room while banging their heads. One thing is for certain though, it didn't go into the post production there are several moments when things just don't seem finished, such as one point when a man falling can clearly be seen attached to a wire. The film is also poorly put together to the point of it making very little sense at all. I'm not entirely sure where the movie is suppose to be set ( I'm sure it told you, but I was too god smacked by the onscreen badness to remember), the transitions from scene to scene are awfully disorientating, you just don't know where you are in the story or what is going on, bits from scenes often seem missing and Uwe Boll's idea of stylistic uses of Bullet Time and other modern filming techniques are embarrassing at best.
ALONE IN THE DARK actually features a number of references to other movies, well I say references, in reality Boll is simply ripping off movies that this one should not be allowed mention of in the same sentence. The massacre from the museum in THE RELIC, the gooey saliva dripping from the ceiling in ALIEN and even the closing shot of THE EVIL DEAD are all here and all these scenes do is remind you that you could be having a much better time than you are. ALONE THE DARK isn't just terrible movie making, its pure torture, and I suggest to you that if a loved one ever mentions a plan to view it then you get a hammer and take two nails to their eyeballs to save them from the pain.
Advantages: Some decent effects. Disadvantages: Weak and disjointed plot.
72. Alone in the Dark (2005)
Or more accurately, small groups of people in dimly lit locations, shooting wildly at CGI and random extras with whited out faces. If I were to choose one word to sum up this film it would be 'why'. In fact, why oh why oh why? Really. What makes anyone think that taking a generic computer game that borrows from older films and stories, and turning it into a movie, will produce anything other than an unoriginal generic ... ...instant intelligence kit. Alone in the Dark is shockingly bad. How it ever secured a 2008 sequel I'll never know - I notice they have a completely new cast and different director. How did Uwe Boll get away with another tiresome game conversion after the mess of Bloodrayne? How is he now working on Bloodrayne 3 as we speak? Films from games already had a poor reputation, but alienating gamers by making a movie with only a passing resemblance to the ...
ThePolarOne 22.01.2009
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Alone In The Dark (DVD)
Advantages: Atmospheric, Special Effects Disadvantages: Uwe boll (Director), Acting
...basically a short making of Alone in the Dark, various people sing the movies praises, where they admit to not doing an interpretation of the games but that they took the characters and did their own story. So I guess after seeing this we cannot really complain about the film being nothing like the games. Uwe especially goes overboard on the praise bandwagon, so much so I had to have my sick bag close to hand; whereas Christian thinks the film is ... ...This deals with the Special Effects used in the film. We find out there are several Matte scenes that I didn't realise were Matte's so fair play to some areas of the special effects. Rather than ending up as a praise fest it is a more honest look at how they created the special effects, fairly interesting whether you liked the Sfx or not. Approx 9.5 minutes
Storyboard to screen
Shows 2 sequences, the Pinkerton Chase which is the initial fight scene ...
sjp1966 04.10.2006
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Alone In The Dark (DVD)
Advantages: None! None! None! Disadvantages: Every damn thing
...tabloid magazines/newspapers.
'''Awards'''
Alone in the Dark won three 2005 Stinkers Awards:
* Worst Picture
* Worst Director (Uwe Boll)
* Worst Special Effects
It also won one Calvin Award:
* Worst Picture
Alone in the Dark received two 2005 Golden Raspberry Awards nominations:
* Worst Director (Dr. Uwe Boll)
* Worst Actress (Tara Reid)
'''Trailer'''
http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi4088725785 / ...
Phelthew 02.07.2008
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Alone In The Dark (DVD)
Advantages: Absolutely none Disadvantages: Bad acting. Non-existent plot.
...chosen be me, and me alone (according to SHE) whilst all the good titles were picked by SHE.
So when, whilst browsing the shelves in our local rental store, SHE came across 'Alone in the Dark', it was obvious that it would be a true masterpiece of the cinematographer's art. And, in truth, reading the synopsis on the back of the box, it actually sounded quite interesting.
So, using £3.95 of our credit, we hired it out, bought ourselves a bag of ... ...chills and excitement. And this review is the result of the experience we had, so let's start with the cast.
THE CAST (see, I told you)
Christian Slater as Edward Carnby.
Stephen Dorff as Richard Burke.
Tara Reid as Aline Cedrac.
Various other bit-part players who end up dead.
THE PLOT
From what I can tell, director Uwe Boll took a bold and unusual step with this movie and decided to film it without a plot or storyline. Well actually, that's ...
GUMMO1471 08.11.2005
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Alone In The Dark (DVD)
Advantages: erm...good time filler if you are bored?! Disadvantages: Bad effects, Bad plot, Bad characters...the list is endless!
...the sort with un-known, un-trained actors playing the leads, only with semi-respectable actors in the roles. Still awful though. And not worth the money to rent, let alone buy. Could someone please tell Slater, that films like this are the reason his career is now as bad as it is! ...
chloe5974 12.01.2006
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Alone In The Dark (DVD)
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Advantages: Jumps and thrills Disadvantages: like a lot of other movies
of this movie?.................
First and foremost, the acting..........I actually thought the acting was very good with some solid performances from Tom Sizemore (Saving Private Ryan), who played the tough detective Agosta, Linda Hunt, and also Penelope Ann Miller as a rather scared but believable scientist.
The acting certainly did not let down the movie, with Tom Sizemore's character leading the way, and making you very relieved that you are not in his shoes.
The movie's horror thrills, comes largely from the set the movie takes place. Nothing scarier than a big museum blanketed by darkness with a lot of dead animals and forgotten relics on show. It certainly would send a chill down the back of my spine being alonein there.
And of course, THE BEAST!
This big ugly thing, half human, half beast not only has the biggest mouth claws ...
dempsey_review 16.01.2006
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of The Relic (DVD)
Advantages: Worth Seeing, Cheap, Really Fun Disadvantages: For specific audiences only, cover makes different picture from the film
performance on the main characters (starring Jonathan Haze and Jack Nicholson), although their emotions are certainly unreal and film has made some clear errors. Audio and voice quality are great as for old-age black and white movie.
This classic "horror" comedy is for you if you are bored black comedy fan with rainy weather outside indarknessalone at home, replace the Scary Movie for once...
The latest DVD release comes in colour, it is stated PG as for a little violence, but commented as only few scenes contains it, so can be accepted by the general public. Movie is directed by his own time black comedies maestro Roger Corman. No additional features are included, although as in any DVD selection of scenes is available. ...
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Release date
24/10/2005
No of Discs
1
Catalogue No
MP 417 D
Barcode
5060049147178
Screenwriter
Elan Mastai, Michael Roesch
Languages
Main Language
English
Technical information
Special Features
Into The Dark The Making Of Alone In The Dark, Shedding A Light The Visual Effects Of Alone In The Dark, Storyboard To Screen, Trivia Track, Music Videos, Audio Commentary With Director Uwe Boll
Professional reviews
Review
Rousing fight scenes and non-stop action (Fangoria Magazine, )
DVD Description
Investigating a supernatural force, Edward Carnby (Christian Slater) finds himself on the toughest case of his career. With an archaeologist (Tara Reid) helping him to trace his findings back through time for centuries, the mystery only gets more complicated the further they delve into it.
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