Alone in the Dark (1982)

★ 5.9 1h 33m 162 votes IMDb

Horror Thriller

A quartet of murderous psychopaths break out of a mental hospital during a power blackout and lay siege to their doctor's house.

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Cast

Jack Palance as Frank Hawkes Died 2006 · Lattimer Mines, Pennsylvania, USA Jack Palance (born Volodymyr Palahniuk; February 18, 1919 – November 10, 2006) was an American actor. Known for playing tough guys and villains, he was nominated for three Academy Awards, all for Best...

Donald Pleasence as Leo Bain Died 1995 · Worksop, Nottinghamshire, England, UK Donald Henry Pleasence OBE (October 5, 1919 – February 2, 1995) was an English actor who gained more than 200 screen credits during a career which spanned over four decades. Often typecast as villaino...

Martin Landau as Byron "Preacher" Sutcliff Died 2017 · Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA Martin James Landau (June 20, 1928 – July 15, 2017) was an American actor, acting coach, producer, and editorial cartoonist. His career began in the 1950s, with early film appearances including a supp...

Dwight Schultz as Dan Potter Age 78 · Baltimore, Maryland, USA From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. William Dwight Schultz (born November 24, 1947) is an American stage, television, and film actor. He is best known for his roles as Captain "Howling Mad" Murdoc...

Erland van Lidth as Ronald "Fatty" Elster Died 1987 · Hilversum, Noord-Holland, Netherlands

Director Jack Sholder

Cast Jack Palance, Donald Pleasence, Martin Landau, Dwight Schultz, Erland van Lidth, Deborah Hedwall, Lee Taylor-Allan, Phillip Clark, Elizabeth Ward, Brent Jennings

JPV852 8/10 Oct 04, 2021

Simple but entertaining suspense-thriller with a fun cast that includes Jack Palance, Martin Landau and Donald Pleasence. The horror element was decent and acting pretty solid for the most part. The one minor twist in the finale I had an inkling about yet was still effective. Would make for a great viewing on Halloween night. **3.75/5**

Wuchak 6/10 Jun 13, 2022

**_Inmates escape the loony bin with Pleasence, Palance and Landau_**

During a blackout, several violent patients break out of a progressive asylum in New Jersey (Jack Palance, Martin Landau & Erland Van Lidth) and threaten a new doctor and his family at their farmhouse (Dwight Schultz, Deborah Hedwall, etc.). Donald Pleasence is on hand as the eccentric head of the facility.

"Alone in the Dark" (1982) is a fairly obscure horror flick that borrows from “Silent Night, Bloody Night” (1972), “Halloween” (1978) and “Night of the Living Dead” (1968). Pleasence, Palance and Landau are a highlight; basically veteran actors making some extra cash in their twilight years and having a good time doing it.

Lee Taylor-Allan (Toni) and Carol Levy (Bunky, the babysitter) stand out on the feminine front. The latter is good-looking, but needed to eat some cheeseburgers.

While nothing spectacular, the movie has some welcome quirks and highlights, such as the idea of a “progressive” sanitarium, Toni’s situation (she’s recovering from a recent nervous breakdown), the contrasting of different levels of crazy whether inside or outside of mental institutions and the performance of The Sic F##ks at a local club. Speaking of the latter, a member of the band ran into Palance several years later and informed him who he was. Jack responded, “We were all sick f##ks in that movie.”

The film runs 1 hour, 32 minutes, and was shot in New Jersey (Ridgewood, Newark, Hillsdale and Englewood).

GRADE: B-/C+