Alone in the Dark (2005)

A detective of the paranormal slowly unravels mysterious events with deadly results.

Director:

Uwe Boll

Writers:

Elan Mastai, Michael Roesch

Stars:

Christian Slater, Tara Reid, Stephen Dorff

Bottom Rated Movies #13 | 5 wins & 4 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Christian Slater	...	Edward Carnby
Tara Reid	...	Aline Cedrac
Stephen Dorff	...	Cmdr. Richard Burke
Frank C. Turner	...	Sam Fischer
Matthew Walker	...	Prof. Lionel Hudgens
Will Sanderson	...	Agent Miles
Mark Acheson	...	Captain Chernick (as Mark Atcheson)
Darren Shahlavi	...	John Dillon
Karin Konoval	...	Sister Clara
Craig Bruhnanski	...	80's Sheriff (as Craig Brunanski)
Kwesi Ameyaw	...	Deputy Adams
Dustyn Arthurs	...	Young Edward
Catherine Lough Haggquist	...	Krash
Ed Anders	...	James Pinkerton
Brad Turner	...	Beat Cop

Storyline

Edward Carnby, detective of the paranormal, unexplained and supernatural, investigates a mystery (the recent death of a friend) with clues leading to "Shadow Island" that brings him face to face with bizarre horrors that prove both psychologically disturbing and lethal, as he discovers that evil demons worshiped by an ancient culture called the Abskani are planning on coming back to life in the 21st century to once again take over the world... and only he and a young genius anthropologist with an incredible memory (and his ex-girlfriend), Aline Cedrac, stand in their way, at a gateway to hell. Standing in Carnby's way, however, is the impact that a brief encounter with an evil spirit called the Queen had upon his mind, as he slowly finds himself overpowered by the forces of darkness as they eat away at his very sanity...

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Plot Keywords:

monster movie | battle | creature | artifact | telepathy | 

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Taglines:

Can mankind defeat the army of darkness unleashed by an ancient evil cult?

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Genres:

Action | Horror | Sci-Fi

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for violence and language

Details

Country:

Canada Germany USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

28 January 2005 (USA)

Also Known As:

Alone in the Dark - Sozinhos no Escuro

Filming Locations:

British Columbia, Canada

Box Office

Budget:

$20,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$2,834,421, 30 January 2005

Gross USA:

$5,178,569

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$12,693,645

Company Credits

Production Co:

AITD Productions, Boll Kino Beteiligungs GmbH & Co. KG, Herold Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

99 min (Unrated Director's Cut) 94 min (edited)

Sound Mix:

DTS Dolby Digital SDDS DTS-ES (DVD release) Dolby Digital EX (DVD release)

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Nuclear Blast spend $30,000 on the soundtrack rights to promote their bands.

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Goofs

When the camera pans the dead soldiers in the darkness, a camera man, trying to be as still as he can, is standing in the darkness behind the light on the stand.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Prof. Lionel Hudgens: [narrating] In 1967, mine workers discovered the first remnants of a long lost Native American civilization - The Abkani. The Abkani believed that there are two worlds on this planet, a world of light and a world of darkness. 10,000 years ago the Abkani opened a gate between these worlds. Before they could close it, something evil slipped through. The Abkani mysteriously vanished from the Earth. Only a few artifacts remained, hidden in the world's most remote places. These artifacts...

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Alternate Versions

The German DVD release of the Director's Cut has additional gore scenes (e.g. Miles is now brutally killed on screen instead off screen as seen in the theatrical version) and a new martial arts fight scene. The love scene between Christian Slater and Tara Reid has been removed.

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Connections

Referenced in I Hate Everything: the Search for the Worst: Jurassic Shark (2015)

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Soundtracks

Peace of Mind
Performed by Angelzoom
Music by Bernd Wendlandt
Published by Valicon / EMI / Chili Dog / Universal Publishing / D.A.N. Music Publishing
Courtesy of Nuclear Blast

User Reviews

I went on a quest for the worst movie ever made that had a high budget, and It has been discovered.

True, there are many movies much worse then this movie. This movie was no Manos: The Hands of Fate, or Troll 2 (yes, I have seen them both.. twice) but at the same time this movie is No Alien, Predator or even Alien Vs. Predator (Yes, even that movie surpassed this). Movies like this make Battlefield Earth look like a Star Wars it is so bad. Razzie awards lookout, your biggest competition has just arrived in theaters. This film I'm talking about is of course Alone in the Dark. I'll try to take you though a step by step process on why this film was so bad.

Acting- I'll first start off with what perhaps was the best component of this film (next to the ending credits, which played 'Wish I had An Angel', the acting. Christian Slater must be proud of himself, he successfully proved that it is possible to act decent in a film worse then drinking antifreeze. Though all his awful dialog he had to speak, it made me wonder why he just didn't walk off the set halfway. Perhaps it was because of Stephen Dorff being in the film as well (somebody he wishes he could be but fails at it). Tara Reid is a bad actress but good looking and that's all that really matters in films like these. That is not to say the acting was perfect though, it was average, not good, and perhaps the only thing in the film not good.

The Soundtrack- Except for 'Wish I had An Angel', the soundtrack is pointless and bad heavy medal being pumped into the viewers ears, perhaps to disguise the awful story (something I will get to soon). A long and very expensive 2 CD soundtrack is now up for sale for those musically challenged.

The Directing- Directed by Hollywoods favorite director Uwe Ball who brought us the classic House of the Dead. Telling us "Yes, movies can get this utterly bad and that's just the beginning to my deadly saga of awful movies". At least it is said to be directed by Uwe Ball. Without being told I would have guessed a monkey was kidnapped from the Congo, brought here and forced to make opinions on how to make the movie under penalty of being shocked. The director of photography was probably a camcorder taped onto a skateboard and pushed forward until it hits a wall. On the scenes where the camera should stay still it is constantly moving, not allowing us to stop anywhere and when it should be moving in action, the camera stops for some reason.

The Producing- Who on earth is stupid enough to put money towards this bomb? I pity the fool... sometimes. Sometimes I'm glad he or she was taught such a lesson to never put money towards garbage worse then dog dung tied up in a bag.

The Writing / Storyboard- Trying to Analise the story is more painful then jamming an ice pick under a big toe and kicking a soccer ball as hard as I possibly could with it right after but I will still attempt it.

Edward Carnby escapes as a child from an orphanage where 20 children where to go under science experiments. He escapes and hides in an electrical outlet where he is electrocuted (this is the point where it got so bad i started to laugh out loud). Then it fast-forwards many years later where he's a paranoia detective. He get's attacked by some zombie that can't be shot to death, kills it and moves on with life. Later on he gets attacked by some crazy looking monster and he discovers secrets that nobody else knows.

Yeah, the plot is bad, really really bad. The film beings with expecting us to read approximately 10 minutes, which felt like 100, of random text about an untrue civilization called the Abskani. The film goes not to have one twist after another, more then the audience can handle, more then the audience wants to handle, more then the audience could ever care about. This storyline is rock bottom bad that even Double Dragon does better.

Overall, miss out on this movie. I gave it a 1 out of 10 but that is because there is no 0.