Alone in the Dark (1982)

[trekgeezer]

Dr. Dan Potter (Dwight Schulz) is starting his new job at a psychiatric hospital called "The Haven" which is run by Dr. Leo Bain (Donald Pleasence), who has some strange treatment ideas.  Dan is in charge of the four psychopaths on the third floor which include Frank (Jack Palance), Preacher (Martin Landau), Fatty (Erland van Lidth), and Skaggs (Philip Clark). The trouble Dan has reaching his patients is that they think he killed their old doctor, who actually  just moved to another job.

Dan's sister comes for a stay with Dan and his wife and little girl . The wife and sister talk Dan into going to a concert given by a punk group called The Sic F**ks. Believe me the concert was sick but not in a good way.

During the concert a power black out happens and Dan's patients make a get away.  The four nutcases get in on a little looting during the blackout (a perfect opportunity to grab some weapons).

The next day, Dan's wife and sister go to a protest march at the local nuclear power plant and get arrested.  Mean while the escapees get prepared for a little siege at  Dan's house.

This is an okay slasher type movie by 80's standards, but it's very formulaic (like most of these things are), so their aren't a lot of surprises in it.



Caught this on IFC's Grindhouse last night.

[RCMerchant]

I think I liked this one more than you did. For me ,the great over the top and beyond hamminess by Jack Palance and Martin Landau make it a classic. Plus Donald Pleasence as the pot smoking doc? I LOVE this one!!!

Even before the film starts...it's insane!

  [youtube=425,350] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i95r-rdLY4A

[Mr_Vindictive]

I DVRd this one last night.  I've watched about the first twenty minutes or so and it's really quite good so far.  There has been one scene so far with Palance saying goodbye to Doc Potter that is great.  The one shot of Frank just goes on and on with Palance hamming it up.

Can't wait to watch the rest!

[ulthar]

I have not seen this since I saw it on the big screen, but I really liked it back in the day.

As I have said before, the thing I really liked about it at the time was that it was "real."  Jason and Michael were supernatural to a point...but this was just some escaped lunatics out on a spree.

Overall, I fun flick that I would recommend to anyone claiming to be a fan of the genre.

[trekgeezer]

I did like Palance and Landau' s over the top characters (actually Jack was little restrained).  I did like Palance's little statement to Dan "There Are No Crazy People Doctor. We're All Just On Vacation."

I also liked Jack's reaction to being called an a***ole.