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Year One
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Alone in the Dark
EMAILPRINTLions Gate Films Inc.
Overwhelming dislike
Based on 25 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 139 votes
Read user comments
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Movie Info
Genre(s): Action | Horror | Suspense/Thriller
Written by:
Elan Mastai
Michael Roesch
Peter Scheerer
Directed by: Uwe Boll
Release Date:
Theatrical: January 28, 2005
DVD: May 10, 2005
Running Time: 96 minutes, Color
Origin: Canada
Summary
RATING: R for violence and language
Starring Christian Slater, Tara Reid, Stephen Dorff, Will Sanderson, Mathew Walker, Craig Bruhnanski, Kwesi Ameyaw, and Brad Turner
Based on the best-selling Atari videogame series, this film features Edward Carnby (Slater), a private investigator specializing in unexplainable supernatural phenomena. (Lions Gate Films)
Also On Metacritic
FILM: Blackwoods House of the Dead In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale Postal
GAMES: Alone in the Dark Trilogy (PC) Alone in the Dark: The New Nightmare (PSOne)
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database View The Trailer Official Studio Site
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
Los Angeles Times Kevin Thomas
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.
Read Full Review >TV Guide Ken Fox
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.
Read Full Review >Dallas Observer Bill Gallo
Here is the horror-action genre at its silliest and most uninspired.
Read Full Review >Variety Justin Chang
Fans of the source material probably won't be switching platforms to catch this bizarre Lions Gate pickup, and non-fans definitely won't.
Read Full Review >The Onion (A.V. Club) Keith Phipps
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.
Read Full Review >LA Weekly Chuck Wilson
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.
Read Full Review >Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington
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.
Read Full Review >Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman
Slater narrates as if reading a restaurant menu. Reid seems to have learned each long sentence in segments, so she wouldn't be overtaxed.
Read Full Review >Philadelphia Inquirer David Hiltbrand
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.
Read Full Review >Seattle Post-Intelligencer Bill White
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.
Read Full Review >New York Daily News Jack Mathews
No better than whatever you might pick up while wearing a blindfold at Blockbuster, even if you happen to reach into a trash can.
Read Full Review >Boston Globe Janice Page
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?
Read Full Review >Baltimore Sun Chris Kaltenbach
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.
Read Full Review >Film Threat Elias Savada
Tedious, derivative exercise, stolen from a dozen or so horror/action films.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Desson Thomson
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.
Read Full Review >The Hollywood Reporter Michael Rechtshaffen
One of those rare instances of a movie being so bad ... it's still really bad.
Read Full Review >Village Voice Benjamin Strong
An embarrassingly unscary monster mash, is desperate to frighten its laughing audience any way it can.
Read Full Review >Entertainment Weekly Scott Brown
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.
Read Full Review >Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov
It's just the most inept filmmaking you can catch in theatres right now, or probably all year long.
Read Full Review >The New York Times Stephen Holden
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.
Read Full Review >The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Jennie Punter
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.
Read Full Review >San Francisco Chronicle Peter Hartlaub
So mind-blowingly horrible that it teeters on the edge of cinematic immortality.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 1.7 (out of 10) based on 139 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Keenan S gave it a1:
In my opinion: This is the worst video game film ever made. This film was an abysmal atrocity of cinema; so mind-blowing in failure, it's difficult to comprehend the sheer level of its ineptitude. The storyline is a hackneyed, garbled, and confusing mess. The action scenes are loaded with bad camera angles, lame martial arts fighting scenes, a boring car chase scene, and shootouts that some how made the film worse than it already was. The acting was horrendous in every way. The only actor who should showed some kind of talent was Stephen Dorff, and even he sucked. Christian Slater seemed bored and uncaring about his role. As for Tara Reid, she makes the performances in House of the Dead look Oscar-worthy in comparison. She's nothing more than a ditzy, stupid blonde chick who has glasses so she looks smart, but can't act worth a damn, or show even the slightest bit of intelligence. Avoid this horror film at all costs.
Vianyte X gave it a0:
Really awful. One of the worst films i've ever seen. There wasn't wasn't anything good in it to be honest and it was nowhere near a horror film. I've also found a lot of flaws in it like that time when a possessed(?) person tried to attack this commander person and the main character (i didn't catch the names) shot the person and missed(you could see the bullet streak) yet the person fell down.
Robbie B. gave it a3:
Slater is a likeable actor, as he is in this. But overall the movie's bland and out of proportion. The girl (Tara Reid) is hot, but a BAD actor. And the plot, well there isn't one, the good acting only comes from Slater, he's one of my favorite actors and there's nothing to dislike about him in this. But everything else is just terrible! Terrible CG graphics and (ofcourse) let's not forger Uwe Boll, JUST GIVE UP! He can't make anything good!! However I liked the part where the army guy shouts "get more bodies down here now" I don't know why. Anyway this get 3/10 stars! But what do I know, I liked Doom!
Ford N. gave it a2:
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?
Ben gave it a0:
This is definitely the worst movie I have ever seen, and quite possibly the worst movie of all time. I wish I could say I was exaggerating, but it's the honest truth. I'm not sure where people are getting the idea that the plot is bad because of the video games, because the movie's plot is completely different. It might not have been such a horrible movie if it were actually based on the video game. But it wasn't based on the video game, and it is a horrible movie. I can't really recommend this movie to anyone. It's not even so bad it's good. It's just plain bad.
samtam90 gave it a0:
Ridiculous and abysmal can't even BEGIN to describe how amazingly BAD this film is.
Daniel C. gave it a1:
This is the most ridiculous, repugnant film I have ever seen. Wikipedia states that Uwe Boll considers the end of the film 'Lynchian'. I think this just about perfectly sums up what a deluded, talentless man he is. I watched this film after hearing it referred to one of the worst films ever made. I can't quite put into words how angry it makes me that anyone would have the aestheic sensibilities to allow this film to be made when it could possibly have been stopped.
