The Dark

Years ago while watching this picture on TV for the first time, I figured about half way through 'Hey, this ain't a sci-fi alien-on-the-rampage flick! It's an occult zombie movie hastily re-edited in a fever of post-production panic to cash in on the popularity of the same year's Alien'. Phew. What a literal thinker I was. Looking at IMDB's 'trivia' section, I see I was right. Wasn't I clever way back then? No. It really IS that obvious.

Disjointed, silly B movie. Not without some pleasures though. Keenan Wynn's fearful walk through a darkened underground car park worked for me, and there are a few unintended laughs here and there eg. William Devane's rather strange reaction to the sight of his dead daughter lying on a mortuary slab: he burps, and somewhat skittishly too. I wonder what Lee Strasberg would have thought of that. Perhaps William was expressing his heartfelt feelings toward the movie he found himself in. Actors get up to these tricks, you know.

And then there's Casey Kasem's police pathologist who is asked by a cop what colour the murderer's (still assumed to be human) skin is. Shaggy Kasem's reply of 'It's grey' is pleasantly creepy and recalls similar moments from Kolchak: The Night Stalker. In fact, Carl Kolchak's shadow looms large over this picture, even down to the unexpectedly spectacular denouement featuring a growling monster throwing cops bodily in all directions. VERY Kolchak.

Actually, damn it, I recommend this movie. It's enjoyable trash if you're in the right mood. But be warned - thanks to/in spite of post-production re-cutting (complete with inept Ed Wood type voice-over to fill in the plot holes) IT MAKES NO SENSE WHATSOEVER. Might be part of it's idiotic charm.

THE DARK (aka: THE MUTILATOR) is a wonderfully bizarre movie about a serial-killing alien (John Bloom) that can decapitate or obliterate its human prey with one blazing glance. Writer Roy Warner (William Devane) is on the creature's trail after it kills his daughter. He teams up with TV personality Zoe Owens (Cathy Lee Crosby) in this endeavor.

This movie is highly rewatchable, and is even better the second time around! Director John "Bud" Cardos piles on the cheeeze, yet manages to make it work. There are some truly effective, creepy sequences, especially the wham-bam finale, when the extraterrestrial terror faces off against the police force.

Devane and Crosby are a good pair, and Keenan Wynn is his usual crusty self as Owens' crusty boss. Watch for Richard Jaeckel as the top cop on the case. Casey Kasem is the pathologist! Special mention must be made of Jacquelyn Hyde as mystical medium De Renzy. Her encounter with the monster -in her living room!- is a must-see!

Don't blink, or you'll miss Phillip Michael Thomas in his microscopic role...

The first smartest being Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Contrary to what other commenters say, this was not supposed to be a quasi sci-fi horror entry until AFTER initial screenings were sour. Then the producers decided to cash in on the ALIEN bonanza by adding prologue and epilogue and the laser-beam eye blasts. Devane was excited thinking he'd be working with Hooper, but with Hooper's leaving, he barely walks through the motions, Cathy Lee is only a little better. Wynn and Jaekal do well to hold things together, and John Bloom is perfectly cast once again as the lumbering creature. The best thing to be said about this is that it looks, sounds and feels like a 1970s ABC TV movie of the week, and why not? Just look at who wrote it and what else he has written. If you watch it thinking that it should have been made for TV, it's more enjoyable because your expectations might not be too high, and it comes off as fairly average. Actually, replace Devane with Darren McGavin, Wynn with Simon Oakland, make KFVI a newspaper, keep Richard Jaekal as Kolchak's nemesis, add a lot of Kolchak wit and cut it down to 50 minutes, and it's a good Night Stalker teleplay. Of course, don't forget the funky horns that announce Kolchak on the go.

"It is also a certainty that not all alien encounters will be friendly." A killer is viciously murdering random people in LA, when his daughter becomes a victim a writer teams up with a female reporter (like they so often do) to solve the case adjacent to the (in his opinion) inept police. The killer is nicknamed "The Mangler" and turns out to be a hulking alien creature that looks part man/ part werewolf. This aspect of the plot is very poorly done, how did it get here and why would a lone alien be acting like a serial killer on the back streets of LA? It also has laser eyes which look incredibly cheap and dated. Apart from one decapitation the kills are disappointing, annoyingly a voice whispers words such as "The Dark" in the build up to each one. Between these kills the film often drags, the cast is pretty decent but overall The Dark was a wasted opportunity. The trailer looks quite good but sadly this science fiction/horror is a mess. One scene has a protest going on and it looks like the film makers just roped in the nearest people (non-actors) for it. Look out for a pre-"Miami Vice" Philip Michael Thomas in a small role as a hoodlum. One of my horror movie reference books calls this movie "absolute junk", personally I think that's a bit harsh but at the same time its current IMDb score of 4.2/10 is spot on.

The Dark (1979)

* 1/2 (out of 4)

A former convict turned reporter (William Devane) sees that his daughter has been brutally mutilated so he sets out to try and find the killer as does a detective (Richard Jaeckel) working the case. It turns out that a space alien has landing on Earth and is doing the brutal murders.

THE DARK has an interesting production history that is actually a lot more interesting than the film itself. Originally Tobe Hooper was to direct this film and he got several days into the production when he either quite or got fired. The somewhat notorious John 'Bud' Cardos took over the production and the end result is a rather tame sci-fi picture that's biggest problem is the fact that it lives up to the title.

I say that because this film was shot way too dark and often times you can't even tell what's going on. I mean, I'm all for movies keeping the monster in shadows and what not but the problem here is that whenever the alien goes on the attack it's so dark that you can't see anything. Or, at least, you can't see anything too clear. The other big problem with the picture is the fact that it drags so slowly that the 90-minute running time seems double that. There are non-stop scenes of people talking and fighting yet none of it is very entertaining.

It's really too bad that the film is so lame and doesn't feature that good of an alien or gore effects because the cast is actually pretty good. Devane is always worth watching and he turns in a nice performance here. Jaeckel is also very good in his role as is Jacquelyn Hyde and Keenan Wynn in their small roles. You can also look quick for Casey Kasem and Vivian Blaine. Who knows what might have happened with the film had Hooper stayed on but as it stands, THE DARK isn't a very good movie and it's not nearly the best "alien run amok" movies from this period.