Alone in the Dark
Metascore
9 out of 100

Overwhelming dislike - based on 25 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 0 out of 25
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 25
  3. Negative: 24 out of 25
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  1. Los Angeles Times
    Reviewed by: Kevin Thomas
    50
    Since the film is based on the Atari video game of the same name, it also has much to appeal to headbangers: fast pace, lots of gadgets, monsters, explosive special effects, plenty of inscrutable plot twists and turns.
  2. TV Guide
    Reviewed by: Ken Fox
    30
    Too lazy to play your own d--- video game? Lucky for you there's horror director-for-hire Uwe Boll, who's making a career out of adapting successful Atari and Sega games into tedious popcorn fare that's the ultimate in cinematic passivity.
  3. L.A. Weekly
    Reviewed by: Chuck Wilson
    30
    Director Uwe Boll (House of the Dead) pulls off a nicely staged fistfight in an open-air market at the start, but soon loses his way amid mind-glazing exposition and endless gunfire aimed at bulletproof giant lizards.
  4. The A.V. Club
    Reviewed by: Keith Phipps
    30
    A fairly faithful adaptation of what a game is like, but without the pleasure of getting to play or the much-needed option of pressing the "off" button.
  5. Dallas Observer
    Reviewed by: Bill Gallo
    30
    Here is the horror-action genre at its silliest and most uninspired.
  6. Variety
    Reviewed by: Justin Chang
    30
    Fans of the source material probably won't be switching platforms to catch this bizarre Lions Gate pickup, and non-fans definitely won't.
  7. Chicago Tribune
    Reviewed by: Michael Wilmington
    25
    That this bit of pustulence is based on a video game of the same name is no surprise. It explains the thin plot, characters and abundant gunplay.
  8. New York Daily News
    Reviewed by: Jack Mathews
    25
    No better than whatever you might pick up while wearing a blindfold at Blockbuster, even if you happen to reach into a trash can.
  9. Philadelphia Inquirer
    Reviewed by: David Hiltbrand
    25
    Even Boll seems to lose interest as the story unravels. By that time, the supernatural cliches, plot inconsistencies, dead ends and red herrings have piled up so high you can barely see the screen.
  10. Charlotte Observer
    Reviewed by: Lawrence Toppman
    25
    Slater narrates as if reading a restaurant menu. Reid seems to have learned each long sentence in segments, so she wouldn't be overtaxed.
  11. Seattle Post-Intelligencer
    Reviewed by: Bill White
    25
    Director Uwe Boll ("House of the Dead") has made a cottage industry out of this kind of junk. Maybe it's time for him to close up shop.
  12. Boston Globe
    Reviewed by: Janice Page
    12
    Think of the lamest horror movie you've ever seen. Now think of Tara Reid in the lamest horror movie you've ever seen. See how much worse it could have been?
  13. Baltimore Sun
    Reviewed by: Chris Kaltenbach
    12
    Alone in the Dark will be the worst movie of 2005. The idea that anything could be worse is the only genuine scare the movie has to offer.
  14. The Hollywood Reporter
    Reviewed by: Michael Rechtshaffen
    10
    One of those rare instances of a movie being so bad ... it's still really bad.
  15. Film Threat
    Reviewed by: Elias Savada
    10
    Tedious, derivative exercise, stolen from a dozen or so horror/action films.
  16. Village Voice
    Reviewed by: Benjamin Strong
    10
    An embarrassingly unscary monster mash, is desperate to frighten its laughing audience any way it can.
  17. Washington Post
    Reviewed by: Desson Thomson
    10
    This is definitely for people who 1) love the video game, 2) think Slater and Dorff are eminently watchable, no matter what bad flick they're in and 3) are wearing industrial-strength ear plugs.
  18. New York Post
    Reviewed by: Russell Scott Smith
    0
    Just Tara-ble.
  19. San Francisco Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Peter Hartlaub
    0
    So mind-blowingly horrible that it teeters on the edge of cinematic immortality.
  20. The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
    Reviewed by: Jennie Punter
    0
    Just as the book is usually better than the film, one suspects the video game is probably more entertaining and coherent than the movie. In the case of Alone in the Dark, this is a certainty.
  21. Austin Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Marc Savlov
    0
    It's just the most inept filmmaking you can catch in theatres right now, or probably all year long.
  22. Entertainment Weekly
    Reviewed by: Scott Brown
    0
    Far be it from me to dismiss a man's effort (Uwe Boll) in a sentence, but the film on your teeth after a three-day drunk possesses more cinematic value.
  23. The New York Times
    Reviewed by: Stephen Holden
    0
    So inept on every level, you wonder why the distributor didn't release it straight to video, or better, toss it directly into the trash.
  24. Washington Post
    Reviewed by: Ann Hornaday
    0
    Supremely idiotic.
  25. Chicago Reader
    Reviewed by: J.R. Jones
    0
    Brain-dead adaptation of a popular video game.

User Reviews

All reviews »
User Score
1.7 out of 10

Overwhelming dislike- based on 187 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 11 out of 106
  2. Mixed: 2 out of 106
  3. Negative: 93 out of 106
  1. grandpajoe6191
    1
    Uwe Boll's infamous "Alone in the Dark" is a movie that will be known for centuries as 'one of the crappiest movies in cinema history'. From terrible performances and trash story (do you even call that a story?), it's a movie you will NEVER want to see again. Avoid at ALL COSTS!!!!… Full Review »
  2. FordN.
    2
    People sometimes talk about Boll's film as "so bad it's good", but actually they're not that good. I've seen two of his films - Alone in the Dark, and one starring that guy who was in Starship Troopers - and I have to conclude that Boll has no sense of empathy, no understanding of human relationships, and a childish sense of drama. His movies look like they were made by someone with the mentality of a sociopathic teenage boy - your typical internet troll, in fact! Funny how the trolls hate him... Jealousy?… Full Review »
  3. CameronS.
    4
    Wasnt a scary movie, story line was stupid, and the characters were inept.
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