"Alone in the Dark" tells the story of a paranormal detective's quest to discover the truth about himself. He grew up in an orphanage where he and a group of other kids were subjected to scientific experiments. He doesn't know anything else, and he has no memories past age 10. If the title sounds familiar it's because the film is based on the video game that bears the same name.
The best part of this movie is the DVD's case. The packaging with holograms looks kind of scary. Once you start watching the actual movie, there is little to be praised.
Christian Slater plays Edward Carnby, the confused orphan turned detective. The exact details of the hardship Carnby endured as an orphan are never explained, and you can't seem to muster up any sympathy for him. It might be Slater's bad acting or just the role, but viewers will wish Carnby had been killed off.
Then there's Tara Reid's character, Aline Cedrac. If you wanted Slater's character to die, you will be begging for Reid's to be eliminated. Reid is absolutely horrible in this movie, dishing out excruciatingly bad acting — even for her.
The acting is bad and the characters portrayed are weak, but the thing that really matters in an action/horror flick is the bad guy. So how do our villains measure up?
The creatures who are destroying the world fall short of terrifying once you actually get to see one. The picture on the cover of the DVD is supposed to be the creature, but it's misleading, making you think it is actually going to look moderately scary. In reality, these world-destroyers look like the enlarged black lung of a lifelong smoker.
Giant black lungs with skinny legs and thrashing tails are more comical than frightening.
The creatures don't have any scary powers either, and you never really see them kill anyone. They can vaporize when being attacked and they upset electricity. Every time a monster is about to pop out, the lights start flashing. The flashing lights not only looked ridiculous, but also took any element of surprise out of the attacks.
Inappropriate, cheesy music signals the beginning of the token sex scene, which was probably the best part of the movie thanks to its unintentional hilarity. Carnby is sleeping in his stereotypical hero loft on his bed, which is of course simply a mattress on the floor. Cedrac comes in and starts snooping through his stuff. All of a sudden the tone instantly changes, and romantic music starts playing.
Without any kind of transition Cedrac is in bed with Carnby, who is magically awake with his head buried in her chest. Everything goes dark, and two black silhouettes roll around for about five minutes, after which they are breathless and satisfied. I know sex isn't ever realistically portrayed in movies, but this was a far cry from anything imaginable, even for the big screen.
When the movie finally ended, it was difficult to discern what the point of the whole thing was. First, you get a shot of the empty city. There are a bunch of abandoned cars in the street that are left with their passenger doors open but not the drivers' side. Did the drivers decide to leap out the passenger doors? Also unclear, is if the human race is supposed to be wiped out or if the city was simply evacuated. The movie is based upon an assumption of some great consequence, but it never delivers an explanation.
Overall, "Alone in the Dark" is an example of what not to do when making a movie and should be avoided at all costs.
