Alone In The Dark (2005)

I’d never heard about the video game that Alone in the Dark is based on, but still wanted to give the movie a shot. Resident Evil (2002) was great, and House Of The Dead (2003) was interesting, if cheesy – and since those are the last two movies based on video games that I’ve seen, I definitely wouldn’t mind checking out this new flick Alone in the Dark.

I found out it had a couple of recognizable actors as well: Christian Slater, Tara Reid (from the American Pie series) and Stephen Dorff (Blade (1998)). With some star power backing it up, it couldn’t really go wrong, right? Luckily, that wasn’t a totally wrong assumption in this case.

Christian Slater has definitely grown up over the years. Most of us who grew up in the 80’s remember him starring in practically everything, from Heathers (1989) to Kuffs (1992) to Pump Up The Volume (1990) to (my favorite Slater flick) Gleaming the Cube. He was everywhere!

Then, he kinda dropped out of site for awhile, only to reappear in John Woo’s Broken Arrow a few years back. Then he disappeared below the radar again for a little while, and is now back again in Alone in the Dark.

Thankfully, he seems to have turned out pretty good despite his long absences, because he turns in a decent performance here. Sure, the dialogue isn’t perfect in this film, but he still manages to keep the viewer interested. Tara Reid doesn’t really shine very well in horror flicks – or at least not this one. Stephen Dorff, who already has a horror flick of his own under his acting belt (feardotcom (2002)), turns in an okay performance – at least enough to not really drag the film down.

The plot starts off decently enough, giving an intriguing premise and starting a puzzle that is sure to hook the viewers, but then Hollywood catches up to it. Because of Hollywood’s need for fast and furious action in filmmaking, the film rushes rather quickly into battles with the major foe of the film (aliens) and seems to gloss over some of the interesting plot points that could have helped raise the viewers’ interests in the film. As it is, it jumps so quickly into the action that the viewer may be a bit less interested in the film. The dialogue is also occassionally filled with typical horror movie material, and probably should have been worked on a bit more before the movie was finalized.

Be that as it may, the special effects are what really make a horror movie like Alone in the Dark, and this film keeps up a decent standard in all of it’s effects shots. The alien itself will most likely remind viewers somewhat of the popular Alien movies, albeit with a squished head instead of that big creepy head that people recognize easily from the Alien films. They also employed what looked to be copied images from the game, especially during one particular gunfight. Interesting at first (since the only images shown were when the guns – shooting a type of specially-made light-emitting bullet – went off), but then degenerated into a scene from a cheap game cinematic.

Despite it’s flaws, Alone in the Dark isn’t that bad of a movie. Sure, the dialogue is cheesy at times. Sure, Stephen Dorff continues his bizarre string of only so-so acting after his phenomal showing in Blade (1998). Sure, Tara Reid was better in the American Pie movies. And sure, any of the Alien films make Alone in the Dark pale in comparison. But, it’s got a decent plot, some pretty interesting death scenes and some pretty good special effects.

I’d have to say it was worth the rental, but I probably won’t be sitting Alone in the Dark watching it again anytime soon.