ALONE IN THE DARK (1982)
Label: Scream Factory
Region: A
Rating: R
Duration: 93 Minutes, 13 Seconds
Audio: English DTS-HD-MA 2.0 Stereo with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.85:1)
Director: Jack Sholder
Cast: Jack Palance, Martin Landau, Donald Pleasence, Dwight Schultz, Erland Van Lidth, Dwight Schultz, Deborah Hedwall, Elizabeth Ward, Lee Taylor-Allan, Brent Jennings, Carol Levy
Alone in the Dark (1982) is the debut feature-film from director Jack Sholder (The Hidden), an atmospheric slice of terror that begins with a wicked nightmare which we find out is that of Byron 'Preacher' Sutcliff (Martin Landau, Without Warning) a mental patient at the Haven; a mental health facility run by the eccentric Dr. Leo Bain (Donald Pleasance, Halloween), whose methods are unconventional
to say that least, and pretty fucking bonkers to say a bit more. Preacher is once of four patients being confined to the third-floor of the Haven, a high-security area secured by electronic doors that keep the violent patients, or "Voyagers" as Dr. Bain is fond of calling them, secure during the night.
Also on the third floor are three other patients with violent inclinations; we have Col. Hawkes (Jack Palance, Without Warning), a violent war veteran who was a POW, Frank ‘Fatty’ Eldridge (Erland Van Lidth, Dynamo from The Running Man!), a hulking child molester, and the unseen “The Bleeder,” a local strangler who was notorious for getting nosebleeds during his murder-spree. Preacher himself is an arsonist with a predilection for setting churches on fire with parishioners still inside, so yeah, it's a wild bunch of guys.
At the top of the film the asylum new doctor Dr. Dan Potter (The A-Team's Dwight Schultz) is reporting for duty to Dr. Bain, he having just arrived in town with his wife Nell (Deborah Hedwall, Mare of Easttown), his precocious adolescent daughter Lyla (Elizabeth Ward) and his 20-something new-waver sister Toni (Lee Taylor-Allan, Stargate), who has just recovered from a nervous breakdown. Unluckily for him the third-floor patients become delusional with the notion that Potter has murdered their former therapist - who they apparently well-liked by the third-floor psychos, and Hawkes leads the charge to devise a way that they can get their delusional vengeance on the new doc.
Their moment arrives soon enough when a regional blackout in the are disengages the security controls allowing the inmates to escape the third-floor, with Fatty grabbing the an orderly (Brent Jennings, Lodge 49) and nearly snapping the poor guy in half over his knee! They then flee the asylum and escape into town in a "borrowed" car, only to discover that the whole damn world has gone mad during the blackout, with rioters looting and burning local business, which allows them cover to arm themselves via a quick stop at a sporting good store, to pick-up knives and a crossbow, and then steal a van and make their way to Potters house; but not before running down a bike messenger. Once they get to Potter's house they hide out in the nearby woods and emerge after dark to lay siege to Potter's country house, putting his family, and his sexy babysitter Bunky (Carol Levy, The Fantasies of Miss Jones), in imminent danger.
I have always thought that this was a gem of a slasher/
home invasion flick, and while it's often lumped in with the early 80's slashers cycle it's not really a straight slasher, but more a black humor-infused home invasion thriller with a few decent kills courtesy of Tom Savini (Friday the 13th) and a star-studded cast of veteran actors who chew-the-scenery in the best possible way, making this an off-the-wall shocker worth seeking out if you're unfamiliar with it.
It's fun that we have four baddies here, with Palance's character being unhinged menace hiding behind a calm exterior, as to where Landau is just an grinning lunatic from start to finish, and Van Lidth as Fatty is shown to be a super-strong threat, and when he gets some alone time with Potter's adolescent daughter it makes you worry for her safety! The fourth killer is a sort of surprise shocker, but if you're paying attention it's not that much of a shock. It's also fun to see Pleasance given free reign to be as eccentric and weird as he wants to be, and he was definitely in a weird mood. So much so that I kept waiting for the movie to reveal that this was one of those 'the inmates are running the asylum!' twists, which it sort of hints at early on with a patient (a very young Lin Shaye, There's Something About Mary) masquerading as a receptionist at the start of the film. The notions dispensed about mental health facilities and people afflicted with mental health issues are a bit abhorrent, but c'mon, it's not meant to be serious, so take it with a grain of salt folks. Keep telling yourself, it's only a movie, it's only a movie... and you will be alright. Once you let go of that you can just get into it and go along for the ride as the violent escaped mental patients lay siege on Potter and his family, unleashing a lunatic spree of mayhem with mass casualties on both sides, including a poor cop (Gordon Watkins) who gets shot with a crossbow bolt right through the gut that pins to a tree. Add to that some panic and mayhem in the streets caused by the blackout, including a seeming rando in a hockey mask ripping a looter's throat out with a hand held garden claw, and a killer hiding under the bed that drags the babysitter's boyfriend underneath and then torments the girl by pushing his gigantic blade up through the mattress like a sick reverse-game of whack-a-mole. One of my favorite kills is someone taking a meat cleaver to the spine, only to rise up again, then someone takes a bat and drives the cleaver in deeper - brutal stuff. I also love the nutty way the siege is eventually diffused, and Hawkes going to punk club to watch The Sic F*cks only to realize that maybe he's not any more insane that everyone else these days.
Audio/Video: Alone in the Dark finally arrives on Blu-ray from Scream Factory in 1080p HD framed in the original 1.85:1 widescreen. This is sourced from a new 2K scan of the interpositive and has an organic layer of film grain
throughout with some pleasing fine detail and textures in the close-up. The difference between the DVD and this new 2K scan is night and day, the DVD was good for it's time (16 years ago) but is murky with weak blacks, poor contrast and muted colors when compared to this sparkling new Blu-ray presentation. This is a stunning improvement in all areas with some actual depth and clarity, deeper black and improved contrast, giving this flick new life with brighter, punchier. If you own that previous 2005 Image Entertainment DVD I can safely say that it has now been relegated to cool beer coaster status!
Audio comes by way of a crisp English DTS-HD MA 2.0 stereo track with optional English subtitles, a solid stereo track with good depth and separation, dialogue is clean and dynamic, even the whispered madness of Palanace's Hawke sound solid. The score from Italian composer Renato Serio is a bit too on-the-nose at times but it sounds very nice in the mix.
Onto the extras, we kick off with a pair of audio
commentaries; the first is an archival commentary with director Jack Sholder that is carried over from the 2004 DVD from Image Entertainment and has a ton of great anecdotes about the making of the film, including difficulties with Palance and how hard the shoot was for the first-time director. We also get a brand new audio commentary with Justin Kerswell of The Hysteria Continues Podcast and film historian/author Amanda Reyes, both are fantastic commentator who know their stuff and clearly love the offbeat movie, a fantastic edition. FYI - The Hysteria Continues podcast crew also covered the film on ep. 220. Hear it below:
Then were into some new interviews and featurettes
handsomely produced by Red Shirt Pictures; first up is the 40-minute Out of the Dark – an interview with director and co-writer Jack Sholder the director starts off with covering his early career, having several interests including writing before deciding he would like to be a film detector. How he connected with Bob Shaye at New Line Cinema, starting as a film editor, and writing the script for Alone in the Dark for New Line after editing The Burning for Harvey Weinstein and how that leas to his debut feature. He talks of how budget conscious New Line were, how his cinematographer was pretty great, and how the guy he hired to do effects was a boozer, which resulted in Tom Savini being brought on in a pinch and making props with grocery store items like Rice Krispies, bars of soap and food die. and getting into the casting process for the film, what it was like working with Palance and Pleasance, landau, difficulties making it, having to coax a somewhat reluctant Palance, how great Landau was, plus making cuts to get the R- rating and the film's reception and cult-status.
Also new is the 12-minute Sites in the Dark: The Locations of Alone in the Dark with former Fangoria editor Michael Gingold, who did the liner notes for the 2005 DVD, who takes us on a fun then/now set location visit. We end up at the mansion used for the asylum, the suburban home of the protagonists, and the former site of diner from the opening nightmare scene with some great backstory for the locations. It's cool that most of the locations are intact and still identifiable as being in the film.
We also get the 10-minute Choppers: The Sic F*cks Remember Alone in the Dark with Sic F*cks singer Russell Wolinsky and Tish and Snooky, the Fuck-ettes who get into how they started out, stories from the shooting of the concert scene, which took 8-hours and their legacy. They even tells a story about running into Palance years later, and inhaling amyl nitrite in-between shots.
Archival extras begins with the 19-minute Bunky Lives! – an interview with actress Carol Levy who begins with her early career in commercials doing memorable stuff for Colgate and Crest toothpaste, feminine hygiene product shoots in Puerto Rico, and becoming the Faberge Shampoo girl after Heather Locklear, then onto getting her break in The Chosen (not the excellent The Omen knock-off aka Holocaust 2000), then TV soaps, an episode of Tales from the Darkside. She also has a weird audition story, shooting her love scene and death scene, the make-up effects, and her parents reaction to seeing her in the buff onscreen. She also briefly touches on shooting the dual-role The Princess and the Call Girl with adult arthouse filmmaker Radley Metzger and her transition into a lucrative real estate career, and finishing up with an impressive piece of body contortion!
We also get the 17-minute Still F*cking Sick – Catching up with the The Sic F*cks with Tish and Snooky Russell, we get a lot of the same stories they re-told in the newer featurette plus stuff about Tish's moms idea to wear nun habits, their thoughts on the film, how Jim Belushi was a fan of the band, and the girls starting up Manic Panic in NYC in '77.
The disc is buttoned-up with a 3-minute Theatrical Trailer, 1-minute of TV Spot, 1-minute of Radio Spots and a 3-minute Still Gallery with promotional lobby cards, movie posters and various home video releases on VHS, Laserdisc and DVD. This one had some great alternate poster artwork, definitely worth checking out.
The single-disc release arrives in a sturdy Elite keepcase with a reversible sleeve of artwork featuring the original movie poster and a new illustration from Hugh Fleming that I liked quite a bit, and is also featured on the first-pressing slipcover and on the Blu-ray disc.
Special Features:
- NEW 2K scan of the Interpositive
- NEW Out of the Dark – an interview with director and co-writer Jack Sholder (39 min, 45 sec)
- NEW Mother Choppers: The Sic F*cks Remember Alone in the Dark (9 min, 39 sec)
- NEW Sites in the Dark: The Locations of Alone in the Dark (11 min, 39 sec)
- NEW Audio Commentary with genre film critic Justin Kerswell and film historian Amanda Reyes
- Audio Commentary with director Jack Sholder
- Bunky Lives! – an interview with actress Carol Levy (16 min, 24 sec)
- Still F*cking Sick – Catching up with the The Sic F*cks (16 min, 31 sec)
- Theatrical Trailer (2 min, 32 sec)
- TV Spot (33 sec)
- Radio Spots (1 min, 22 sec)
- Still Gallery (2 min, 33 sec)
Alone in the Dark (1982) has been a title that cult-horror fans have been clamoring for since the dawn of Blu-ray, so kudos to Scream Factory for licensing this from Warner Bros. and affording it new life in Blu-ray. The brand new 2K scan looks fantastic and the host of new Red Shirt Pictures produced extras, alongside the previously existing archival bonus content, are sure to be a crowd pleaser.
Screenshots from the Scream Factory Blu-ray:
