Alone in the Dark Reviews

Four killers (Jack Palance, Martin Landau, Erland Van Lidth, and Phillip Clark) escape from an asylum during a statewide blackout and join looters who have broken into a sporting-goods store. Armed with a variety of weapons from the store, the psychos proceed to the home of doctor Dwight Schultz, the hated staff psychologist of the asylum, to terrorize him and his family. This was the promising directorial debut of Jack Sholder, who would go on to helm A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET PART 2: FREDDY'S REVENGE (1985) and the excellent science-fiction film THE HIDDEN (1987). Sholder, who wrote the script as well, sees his psychopaths as no better or worse than supposedly sane members of society and sets his climax at a punk-rock club where the band onstage blares out tunes such as "Chop up Your Mother." This black sense of humor, combined with the playful performances of its excellent cast (especially Donald Pleasance, as the head of the asylum), raises ALONE IN THE DARK a cut above the average maniacs-on-the-loose entry.