Alone in the Dark (2005)

director: Uwe Boll

writers: Elan Mastai, Micheal Roesch

starring: Christian Slater, Tara Reid

genre: Horror/Video Games

There is no way that I can say all the reasons on why this film is horrific. And that's the truth. Uwe Boll is famous now for making bad films and again makes a film based on a video game. Not that video games don’t have interesting stories. For example Final Fantasy or even Metal Gear Solid. But the point is he couldn't find a project that could be a little more original and from his own let's say creative mind.

The film is based on the 1992 video game by the same name. The film doesn't follow the game that much. Alone in the Dark is absurd, clichéd and done already plot that is quite painful to even remember because its such bad film. In summary the film is about Edward Carnby (Christian Slater) a detective of the paranormal. There is threat upon the world of the Akbani some kind of a ancient evil culture which if unleashed and will destroy the Earth. Now Carnby his girlfriend and scientist Aline Cedrac (Tara Reid) and old co-worker who is in government organization (Stephen Dorff) work together against the paranormal into stopping this force before its unleashed.

The film fails as a story, action film, video game adaptation and as movie in general in so many ways. Fight sequences out of nowhere which are totally not believable. Not to mention a sex scene which had no point to it. No character moments where we invest and care about them. Gun fights that makes you sleepy. And the biggest problem of all a threat to mankind that we never get a proper explanation. What are the motives of this ancient culture? Why are they monsters? How they come to be? What kind of society is this? Maybe im asking too much. But when you make a film you’re supposed to make it yes for a profit but also for the audience to be entertained and for it to make some sense.

The film is so bad its in IMDB's list of worst films ever with Uwe Boll's other films. Many people wondered as did I how does he continue to make films if there so bad and they make no profit. Well I looked up why he gets money and continues to make his films and the reason is that in Germany there is a special law that has a loophole that provides whole lot of the budget and if the film fails it repays the whole cost of the budget. That qualifies if the production is all German and if im not correct that they can only use this law for a very few number of films. Good for us so we don’t have to endure any more of his catastrophes.

Lets just hope a miracle happens and these kind of films never see the light of day. Because wooden performances, terrible special effects and weak scripts are things that put off people into thinking that cinema is a legitimate art form.

Personal Rating:

Review by Paul