A Robert Shaye Production
ALONE IN THE DARK
Starring
Jack Palance  Donald Pleasence  Martin Landau  Dwight Schultz  Erland Van Lidth
Director of Photography Joseph Mangine  Music by Renato Serio
Written and Directed by Jack Sholder
New Line Cinema
1982

The power is out all over town. A black out. You've locked all your doors and windows and have found a place lit with candles to sit down. The only thing on your mind is the state mental hospital, The Haven. You pray that none of the psychos have escape. No one is listening.

"There are no crazy people Doctor. Were all just on vacation." - Hawkes

Dang! This one is good. I really fell in love with this one when I first saw it fifteen or so years ago. I still love it. Great acting provided by a super star cast. Landau as Preacher is superb as he likes to burn things and run around with big blades. Palance as Hawkes is a former POW and a paranoid schizophrenic. Along with Bleeder and Fatty they make up the "guys on the 3rd floor." Pleasence plays a Dr. of psychiatry again, but different from his portrayal of Dr. Loomis in Halloween. This time he is a little crazy himself and likes to smoke the green tobaky. Dr. Potter, Schultz the guy who played Murdock on the A-Team, tries to protect his family from the delusional madmen out to get him.

A fairly original film. Some might say there are similarities between Assault on Precinct 13 due to the fact that people are trapped somewhere and the bad guys are outside trying to get in. This is just a common theme for horror movies that has been around forever. Being trapped inside, somewhere, and wanting to escape, but can't because the bad dudes that want to kill you are outside with big grins and murderous weapons. This is the "scary" part. Just look at the plots of every Zombie move.

The Super Stars

The Victims