'Alone in the Dark' is an almost all but forgotten slasher from the heights of that era. It looks and feels almost identical to a Freddy or Jason flick(it should as Jack Shoulder is in the director's chair). It is a movie that evokes all the Pavlovian responses of blood and spooky stuff. It's a level above though and I think has a lot of cult campy fun awaiting viewers who seek it out. The script is way too much in it's silliness and contrived story lines but 'Alone in the Dark' is absolutely blessed with a stellar cast. The likes of Jack Palance and Martin Landau fall into the roles of our killers. They make the film as does the familiar face of horror legend Donald Pleasance.Jack Palance and Martin Landau as our crazed psychos,I feel as I have to reiterate that. It sounds odd but it is absolute brilliant casting. Heck Palance's presence practically could be a walking horror film in his mad intensity. Landau is having a blast too. He knows what this is and so he spends his time with his mad eyes glaring at the camera. I think had it been lesser character actors this thing would have not been able to find that right mix between too much and just enough silliness.Landau and Palance are brilliant but the main attraction of an already stacked cast is Donald Pleasance. Pleasance is very consciously parodying his Halloween role. There are moments of nonchalant deadpan macabre humor from Pleasance that are hilarious. There's a moment where Pleasance gives the mad pyromaniac Landau a match that is just so beautifully understated in this mad world. The central premise though is kind of hard to get by in that it is so silly, (a mental institution harboring psychos is powered by electricity, a storm causes a black out and they just walk out the door). If the film had gone for a more comedic edge it may have worked but it just seems like too much of a glaring 'Really?!' even for this kind of movie.

Working at an insane asylum, a doctor working to keep his extra- security patients under control finds his efforts thwarted when a massive blackout occurs and they escape into the city, forcing him to realize what they're after and stop them before they can carry it out.This was actually a rather entertaining slasher. One of the best aspects is its intelligence and original story that starts off in a cliché since the fact that the convicts get out isn't anything new, but rather is one take on two different routes than most would expect. This gets a lot of work out of the fact that the convicts escape early on rather than stalking the residents inside with the fear of them getting out so that this one spends the majority of time stalking an individual family instead of going to a specific location and killing off an assembled mass there. This makes the fact that their out and about a lot scarier than what would've been done the other way around. What really sells the movie, though, is the continuous high-quality suspense scenes throughout here which come off rather nice as several of the scenes are highly enjoyable prolonging that factor. The stalking in the van is pretty chilling, the bedroom sequence is an absolute standout knowing they're there and trying to get out while a later assault on a house from unseen sources in the woods nearby features enough good moments to become quite entertaining and effective while detailing the action and brawling for some suspenseful times. The early action from the looting helps this one out nicely as well, bringing along some rather interesting bits as there's a different element present to the action that works nicely, and even manages to set-up the action in the later half rather well. Along with some nice gore based on the respectable body count, there here are the film's good points as there wasn't all that much really wrong with this one. Among the film's biggest ones is that the film has a long set-up to get to the good points. There's way too much time to get to the blackout that sets about the main thrust of the film and puts it into motion, and that there's a really long time to get there is a little off to really make this one exciting. Another small flaw is the ending comes across as slightly confusing and a little out-of-place in the film as it just seems to go on with endless confrontations just to get some action in, especially as it seemed to head for one conclusion and comes out with one that doesn't connect at all. These here are the film's main problems that hold it back.Rated R: Graphic Violence, Language, Brief Nudity and a mild sex scene.

With a trash movie fan's dream cast - including Donald Pleasence, Jack Palance, and Martin Landau - it's a little odd that "Alone In The Dark" has remained still fairly unknown more than thirty years after it was first released. Actually, I think there is a reason why it hasn't found a substantial audience, and that reason is that the movie is admittedly quite slow. The movie really takes a long time to unfold from one main plot turn to another. And in the climatic sequence - the doctor and his family finding themselves under siege from the psychos in their home - it takes a long time to sink in for the protagonists that they are in serious trouble. Despite these major faults, the movie is still enjoyable. The aforementioned stars and the rest of the cast give pretty amusing performances (no one is taking things completely seriously), and while the core plot unfolds slowly, the movie moves from scene to scene at a brisk pace so things never get boring. Good production values and a sprinkling of black humor contribute further to making the movie in the end an enjoyable romp for horror fans with a sense of humor.

Who's the craziest? The forward-thinking doctor who keeps his most dangerous patients in a less than secure environment? The members of the public who riot and loot as soon as a blackout occurs? The new-wave punks who idolise a band that glorifies violence? Or the four absolute raving lunatics who escape from a high security asylum to avenge a murder that never even happened?Clearly, it's the latter, but with Alone In The Dark director Jack Sholder does entertain some interesting ideas about society in general, and whether there is a little craziness in even the seemingly most sane of us. This unexpected level of intelligence, along with excellent performances from a superb cast (which includes Martin Landau, Jack Palance, Donald Pleasance, Dwight Schultz, and Lin Shaye), some gratuitous nudity and violence, and a pretty cool surprise towards the end, all go to make Alone in the Dark one of the more enjoyable horrors of the early 80s.N.B. Ironically, Schultz, who plays one of the sanest characters in the film, would later find fame as insane Vietnam vet Murdock in The A-Team.