Solidrariol Am I Missing Something?

Neive Bellamy Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

Arianna Moses Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

Sienna-Rose Mclaughlin The movie really just wants to entertain people.

Michael Ledo The movie was simply bad and not even "best in bad" type of campy. The movie has a needless 1950's prologue and epilogue. But let's not stop there, how about some 50's soundtrack music. Break out Peter Gunn. William Devane plays a Steven King type of author whose daughter has been brutally murdered by the alien. He tore her head off, although we really don't get to see any blood or gore. The police are baffled in what turns out to be a serial killer known as the Mangler Zombie. Cathy Lee Crosby plays the late night blond TV newscaster, long before FOX required them all to get implants and wear shiny lip gloss. She ends up with William Devane in a lame seduction scene. Oh BTW there is no sex or nudity to go with the no blood and guts. How it got an "R" rating, I couldn't tell from the movie.There is also an elderly woman who plays a Jean Dixon type of person who sees the alien killing in the future of a young wanna-be movie star whose name she doesn't know. She is upset that the inept secular police don't take her seriously.The alien, we are told, kills to get stronger, although there was no way of telling. We really didn't know why there was one lone alien predator in California. When the alien attacked two things happened first: 1) The lights went out. 2) The alien had his own theme kill whisper music like Jason...daaaark...nessss. Oh and one more thing, the alien had frickin' laser beams shooting out of his eyes.The movie is borderline camp, which is not where you want to be.

thelastblogontheleft OH MAN, this movie was something. I'll preface this by saying that Nate actually chose this one. Considering how many horror movies I make him watch in the month of October (okay, who am I kidding, it never really ends), it seems only fair to let him choose which one we watch once in a while. If you pair a ridiculous and loosely sci-fi plot with the cinematic style of the 70s, Nate is going to be on board, so we dove right into The Dark, and… it was an adventure.Apparently Tobe Hooper was originally hired to direct this — he's actually listed as an uncredited director on IMDb — and it pains me to think of how much cooler it could have possibly been. When he signed on, the storyline was quite a bit different… but then he fell behind schedule and the producers fired him and brought on John "Bud" Cardos, who had previously done quite a bit of acting and working as a stuntman in addition to directing a few other feature films. The plot was changed pretty significantly towards the end of the shoot — in an effort to cash in on the recent success of Alien — and I think the entire film suffered as a result.There really isn't much more to the plot than there's a mysterious killer prowling the streets of Los Angeles and everyone is trying to either avoid getting killed or catch the killer or both.** SPOILERS! **So I actually loved the opening scene of this film. The initial crawl, actually, was awesome, too… but I wasn't prepared for how little any of that would really come into play (aside from the fact that they just wanted to cover their asses so they could show a vaguely otherwordly creature instead of just a dude killing people). The music was all whispers and chaotic piano punctuated with the clicking of heels on pavement… the lighting was so dark and contrasted that you could only see the occasional glimpse of blonde hair in a beam of light or shoes whisking along the ground… it was great.The creature itself — I'm not even sure what to refer to him as, or even that it IS for sure a "him", though they referred to it as The Mangler in the movie — is not much more than a less hairy werewolf in jeans. But wait, it can shoot lasers out of its eyes! Lasers that often don't seem like they're even coming from its eyes OR hitting its targets, but dammit, they are somehow still super effective! It growls and snarls a lot and it has superhuman strength (but don't they all?) but it limps along clumsily when it chases people. Ah, logic.The cops, Detective Mooney (Richard Jaeckel) and his donut-eating companion, Detective Jack Bresler (Biff Elliot), are awful. Like they literally do nothing but scowl and pick fights with random people until the end, when Mooney is ONLY in the right place at the right time because he's obsessed with Roy Warner (William Devane), a man he had once helped get put into prison.But it had some highlights, too. I loved the entire scene with "Sherm" (Keenan Wynn) and Zoe (Cathy Lee Crosby) in the parking garage, from him hilariously scaring her (twice) to his fevered sprinting from what he imagines may be the killer. At one point, Zoe asks him "you aren't afraid of the dark, are you?" and he responds with, "No, I'm afraid of what's in it". Awesome. I also loved seeing Casey Kasem as the police pathologist (I only wish he had played a more central role).It has all of the usual oversights of a crappy sci-fi B-movie. The effects are pretty terrible. The creature — The Mangler, the alien, the werewolf, whatever it is — has absolutely no backstory, explanation, or motive. Two characters watch The Mangler break through a wall of concrete blocks WITH ITS BARE HANDS and then not a minute later think they can hold it back with a locked wooden door. There are all kinds of mentions of The Mangler beheading and eviscerating its victims… but any time we see someone get killed, his laser eyes seem to just explode them. WHICH IS IT, WRITERS? Also, the thing is seemingly unaffected by countless bullets being fired at it, but ends up literally just going POOF! and exploding when touched by fire. Okay?Also, the very last scene shows a blind man — one who had been shown repeatedly throughout the film but never referenced directly — as a voice-over tells us that "only those who walk forever in darkness will have nothing to fear in the dark" and like DAMN that would be kind of a cool line if the movie itself wasn't such a disjointed mess. Come on, Tobe, come back around and do this thing for real.But despite all of that — every single bit — I STILL ENJOYED THIS MOVIE. This is the formula that can never be pinned down, friends. A movie can have everything it possibly should to be a quality movie and can be hated… and a movie can be a hot mess of bad effects and stale acting and a plot that is barely hanging together by some weak threads and it can be super fun. This firmly falls into the latter category. So, ya know, go give it a watch.

merklekranz I first became aware of this film because of the William Devane factor. Unfortunately Devane's character is extremely "boorish". All is not lost however because of the eclectic cast. The story is a mish-mash of "Jack the Ripper" and sci fi, with neither angle very impressive. What I do like is the quite sharp and often darkly amusing dialog. Overall the acting is acceptable, with Jaquelyn Hyde giving a standout supporting performance as a "medium" who can predict where the monster will strike next. You might remember her as "Mrs. Blair" in Woody Allen's hilarious "Take the Money and Run". With Richard Jaeckel, Keenan Wynn, and Cathy Lee Crosby also contributing, "The Dark" is almost saved from being a "bomb", but not quite. - MERK

lovecraft231 An alien being that fires lasers from it's eyes terrorizes Los Angeles. On it's trail is a T.V. Reporter (Cathy Lee Crosby), a vengeful father (William Devine), and a policeman (Richard Jaeckel). Also, Casey Casem shows up for some reason, and Dick Clark produced this travesty.Released in 1979, "The Dark" is a reminder that, no matter how nostalgic you may wax about 70's horror, not all of them were gold. Yeah, there were some gems and guilty pleasures, but there were some serious duds too. Now that I think about it, every decade is like that when it comes to movies.In spite of a seemingly fun cast of character actors, "The Dark" is a real chore to get through. It takes at least 80 Minutes until we finally get to see the monster, and while I'm all for waiting to see the monster, the script, acting, pacing, and directing all fall flat. It also doesn't help that the monster itself is about as threatening as newborn puppy, and as interesting as watching grass grow. Actually, watching grass grow is more fun than sitting through this.Interestingly, Tobe Hooper was originally supposed to direct this, but he chose good judgment by deciding not to, instead handing directorial duties to John "Bud" Cardos (who also directed the fun nature gone amuck Shatner vehicle "Kingdom of the Spiders.") In the end, a bad experience is had by all, and one is left wondering "Why did Dick Clark produce this?"