Noite de Pânico

I don't know why I hesitated with this one. I guess I just always said I would rent it and didn't. Finally, a few nights ago, I just got it. And I must say, I liked it.

Set in New Jersey, my lovely state, a power outage in town releases four psychotic inmates of a mental institution, held in their own floor by electricity-controlled doors. Interesting twist. Before that, they had formed a grudge against their new doctor, Dan Potter, who they have convinced themselves as the killer of their old, beloved doctor, who has actually just transferred to somewhere else.

Also, Dan's slightly wacky younger sister Toni comes to stay with the family, and had recently recovered from a breakdown. Nonetheless, she is quite an interesting character, and joins the Potter family as the innocents in the attack towards the end of the movie.

The movie has a good setup, and some very creepy moments, especially when the child victimizer shows up at the home and pretends to be the daughter, Layla's, babysitter. Later on, of course, the real babysitter, Bunky, shows up, as does her boyfriend, and are taken out in some quite suspenseful scenes.

The best part of the movie, though, is when the psychopaths show up and attack the Potter home, and all inside. This includes a detective, Dan and his wife Nell, Toni and Layla, and a man Toni and Nell met at a protest and invited to stay for dinner. There is a very scary jump-out-of-your-seat moment, where some of Toni's old "ghosts" from her past haunt her once again. And, in one very good scene, is a scene of retaliation of the family, and shows a very interesting scene where Nell is struggling to get herself to stab the attacking killer, while Dan hollers at her, "Stab him!" Not to mention the fact that Nell has a really great scream. And she isn't the scream queen type. But her scream is perfect.

I don't want to give away too much, but see this movie. All the performances are good, and the characters are likable. A fun movie, too, especially towards the last quarter of the movie, during the attack. I recommend not hesitating like I did and getting this.

Hey, in this movie The A-Team's "Howlin' Mad" Murdock is the SANE one, being terrorized by crazy Oscar winners Martin Landau and Jack Palance while a trippy Donald Pleasance wanders around in an opium haze in this acceptable horror movie that features a few poorly-directed "suspence" sequences, a terrible stage show by "The Sic F*cks" complete with big cardboard axes, a hot sex scene featuring a character called "Bunky", some bad eighties fashions, a brief appearance by a Tom Savini-designed ghoul, a mailman getting run down by a stoner van, the "tongue excersizes" woman from "Kingpin", a killer in a hockey mask, a cool rioting scene, a guy broken over another guy's knee, crossbow-killings, and a lovable big fat child moleser.

So why not?

So I was in a slasher movie binge at the time and I watched this one right after "Tourist Trap" and "Alice, Sweet Alice".

I felt like this one was kinda "meh" but It had to be higher than Tourist Trap® because at least there was a lot of gore and people dying© which is expected for a slasher flick. (although I gave both movies a rating of 6 on IMDB, my personal rating would be 6.25 for Tourist trap and 6.75 for Alone in the Dark).

The story was reasonable but didn't get me caught up. I've spend basically the entire movie wondering if I should stop watching and go do something else like drawing, reading, etc...

That high concept title tells you a lot of what you need to know about this film.

Alone in the Dark has a great cast that's strangely underused, and its derivativeness and slight lack of spark make it an eternal underling to much better films, but it's still worth seeing for many reasons.

Donald Pleasance--the one of three stellar cast members who is almost not underused--turns in a typically, wonderfully goofy performance as a famed psychiatrist. He's heading an asylum, he's a bit crazy himself, he's fond of smoking weed, and he has experimental techniques, which turn out to be dangerous considering that he has a criminally insane ward. The two very underused actors are Martin Landau and especially Jack Palance, who are both members of the aforementioned ward.

Problems begin when the New Jersey town that houses the asylum experiences a blackout, allowing the patients to escape--if Donald Pleasance as a psychiatrist isn't strong enough to suggest a Halloween film, this scene of escaping loonies certainly is. This leads to the Night of the Living Dead-styled scenes, which are a lot of fun.

I suppose I can see how someone would find this film a mess--it does change gears frequently and doesn't worry very much about continuity or even coherence, but anyone who is a fan of these actors, or asylum films, or any of the many horror films referenced (including some playful jabs at the Friday the 13th films) should get a lot of enjoyment out of Alone in the Dark. There's a high camp factor throughout, including the scenes of going to a club to see a band called The Sick F*cks.

In some ways, it almost feels like producer Robert Shaye and director Jack Sholder--the same team that brought us A Nightmare on Elm Street 2 a couple years later--got a hold of this cast, some money and some time and just started making things up on the spot, seeing how much fun they could have and how crazy they could get while still producing a marketable horror/thriller film. While that's not likely to produce a masterpiece, and it certainly didn't, it did result in a film that's a hoot to watch, especially late at night or on a lazy Sunday afternoon.

When the story begins, Dr. Dan Potter (Dwight Schultz) arrives at a psychiatric hospital to begin his new job. The place is run by Dr. Bain (Donald Pleasance) and he seems, at times, to be as weird as the inmates. His relationship with the patients sure reminded me of the Poe story "The System of Doctor Tarr and Professor Fether" and the movie based on it, "Stonehurst Asylum". But the story goes a different direction. There is a huge power outage and the security system at the hospital goes out...and the inmates find the alarms and doors no longer function properly. Soon a group of dangerous psychotics leave to go on a killing spree...all the while Dr. Bain seems amazingly chill. What's next??

This is a slasher film at heart, but it has more depth and more story to it than a Friday 13 or Halloween-type movie. It also helps that there was an impressive cast--with Jack Palance and Martin Landau playing two of the super-dangerous psychotic escapees. Now this does NOT mean the film is especially brilliant, as like other films in the genre, it has some cliches--such as the identity of the fourth slasher as well as how the psychotics all attack one at a time instead of at once (thus making them easier to beat).

By the way, although Dwight Schultz is not a household name, Star Trek fans will likely recognize him as the extremely nervous and geeky Lt. Broccoli.