Alone In The Dark Details

Donald Pleasence is the head of a New Jersey lunatic asylum keeping its really dangerous criminal inmates — among them Jack Palance and Martin Landau — under electronic surveillance. When a power failure occurs, the violent psychos break out and head to the home of the asylum doctor. This is a repetitive mishmash of stalk-and-slash themes and jump cuts. Aside from a promising opening dream sequence, a fleeting apparition (created by gore veteran Tom Savini) and an interesting “who's really crazy?” denouement set at a punk rock concert, the debut horror feature from director Jack Sholder (The Hidden) is a below-par maniacs-on-the-loose saga that revels in its own shock excesses. And, by the way, no one in the entire movie is ever alone in the dark.

Based on a video game, this derivative drivel offers the scary notion of government agents of the paranormal equipped with enough fire-power to fight the next world war; otherwise, it's just an interminable night-time shoot out with giant lizards.