User reviews

I was handed this 'golden garbage' DVD for my birthday (Moe!) and all I can say is paybacks are a bitch. The Dark definitely belongs in the "Plan 9 from outer space" category. If you seek serious horror then avoid this like a Chris Tucker 'movie'. However, if failed attempts of the past make you howl with laughter than look no further than this turkey. Failing test screenings as a zombie movie it was reworked into an alien menace movie with hilarious results.

It all starts with an apology (or prologue if you prefer) that attempts to convince the audience that if electric eels can shock than who knows what's out in space(!?) This amounts to freeze framing the 'zombie movie' and superimposing laser bolts from the creature's eyes and an explosion onto the victim. That's great but the characters solving the crimes keep describing horrible mutilations (!?) I would say the acting is terrible but the lines they are given to say are horrendous. We never actually see a spaceship so 'it' apparently fell to earth on it's own. I'm dying to know how and why it's dressed like a mailman (or a factory worker in his coat sans the lunch box). The addition of a mysterious psychic (?) that shows up at inexplicable times means you know your in beer-cinema country.

Take it or leave it. I'm already stuck with my copy.

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

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.

An alien lands in Los Angeles and proceeds to decapitate humans using its laser-beam eyes.

A change of director mid-production (Tobe 'Texas Chain Saw Massacre' Hooper replaced by John 'Bud' Cardos) and a last-minute alteration to the plot (the original script's zombie replaced by a nasty extraterrestrial) undoubtedly contributed to The Dark's failure as an effective horror movie. But the worst thing about the film is the fact that it more than lives up to its title by being extremely dark, making it a real strain on the eyes throughout.

It's a shame, because there's a fun film in there trying to get out: Cardos isn't a 'great' director, but he's more than capable of delivering an entertaining B-movie as evidenced by his Kingdom of the Spiders and Mutant. The cast is also pretty good for this kind of fare, with William Devane and Cathy Lee Crosby making affable leads, and Richard Jaeckel suitably stoic as the beleaguered cop on the case Det. Dave Mooney. Also surprisingly good is Roger Kellaway's soundtrack, with dischordant music and eerie whispering voices providing plenty of atmosphere.

4.5 out of 10, rounded up to 5 for the pew pew alien eyeball police massacre at the end.

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?"

"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" tells the story of an alien creature that stalks the streets of Los Angeles after dark, viciously murdering one victim a night. No pattern of sexual or racial motivation is apparent, a fact that stumps the police, local newswoman Cathy Lee Crosby, and grieving father of the first victim, William Devane.

The acting is above average for a drive-in style horror film, and the final battle when the monster is cornered in an abandoned monastery, is pretty good for the era.

Keep in mind this is a 1979 film when you watch it. This is WAY before computerized special effects became mainstream in cinema. As a result, the sequences of the alien killing it's victims are not very clear, and you may need to view a scene several times before you figure out exactly what happened. The alien itself looks like a cross between Linda Blair from "The Exorcist", and Michael Jackson from "Thriller". Way too human for my tastes.

The alien could just as easily have been explained as a genetic mutation created in a lab, as there is really nothing to suggest it's extra-terrestrial origins. (Other than the characters coming to the conclusion that it's an alien, and a comet streaking across the city skyline in the opening sequence.)

Casey Kasem makes an appearance as a doctor working with the cops, and a pre-Miami Vice Phillip Michael Thomas makes a cameo, as a young man mouthing off to the police.

Also, an unintentionally funny scene occurs when Keenan Wynn explains to Crosby why "half of the men in L.A." watch her news program... "They're trying to find a way to get into your PAAAAAANTS!!!!" :^)

"The Dark" certainly does not compare favorably with modern horror films, or even horror film of the 80's. But it is worth a view, perhaps to see just how far we've come.

A fun late-night movie with genuine chills. The soundtrack is quite unique and atmospheric: lots of freaky vocals and shrill instrumentation. Roger Kellaway is the composer. Richard Jaeckel's detective character is brilliantly hard-nosed. The interplay between him and his partner is funny. Casey Kasem shows up as a coroner which is a weird surprise. Cool 70's monster flick that apparently had some production problems but is satisfying nonetheless for fans of the horror and sci-fi genres. It's the only movie I've watched with Cathy Lee Crosby in it. I remember her from my younger days in the 70's-80's as one of the three hosts of "That's Incredible" on TV.

I'd first watched this in a cinema in Istanbul in the early 1980s. The Turkish title was GERÇEK YARATIK (The Real Creature) and an English-language title as ALIEN TERROR was tagged on to the Turkish posters. - and ALIEN had been released a while ago in Turkey as YARATIK (The Creature). So the publicity for this movie was suggesting that it was related to the much-publicized ALIEN and that it was actually the real stuff! I was just 13 or 14 years old at the time... (and there was no internet back then!) Naturally, I was pretty much disappointed when I went ahead to see it and realized it was basically an ordinary urban murder thriller until the last scene. Nevertheless, I've recently bought its DVD to rekindle childhood memories and watched it last night. Now watching it with a more open mind, zero expectations, I find it not half bad as most reviewers have it. First of all, the cinematography in night scenes is simply perfect, beginning with the opening scene. I think the problem most of the other reviewers face ("too dark") simply stems from bad transfers of previous VHS and/or TV prints. The DVD's brand new digital transfer from original materials is really a beauty. Plus, the soundtrack is also very effective, as even the most negative reviews acknowledge. So, overall, the nighttime attack scenes are really brilliantly crafted. Top-notch horror filmmaking there. Having said these, the movie is sadly not competent in other departments and is a mess overall. Richard Jaeckel, who was great in MAKO JAWS OF DEATH, looks very wooden here as the main cop protagonist. William Devane shows some charisma and has got what is called as a screen presence, but is out of tune with his character as a father who had lost his daughter as a savage murder victim. All the secondary characters, esp. the boss of the female reporter, play it for laughs. A few of the lines are intelligently sarcastic, but the demonstration scene (what is it by the way? a student demonstration?) is very offensive: a bunch of youths protest that the city police is busy harassing them rather than tracking the murderer and they act like stupid monkeys (jumping around, etc!) during the demonstration! The director must be a feeble-minded cop-loving right-winger who strongly resents student activists deep in his heart and used this as an opportunity to make fun of them... Anyway, the incoherence of the plot, which, as is widely known, stems from a reworking of the script, is already well-covered in all reviews. I am not very much troubled by that precise aspect and actually find it interesting that you can trace two versions of one story in one movie! As everyone who has read anything about the movie knows, the original scripts did not entail an alien! The DVD has an informative video interview as well as a commentary track with the director Cardos. I've watched the interview and listened to part of the commentary. Cardos explains that the original version entailed a freak-child (and not a zombie, as has been claimed). He also says that none of the footage Tobe Hooper shot before being replaced has made into the final edit of the movie.

Low-budget and low-grade horror film will only make you want to re-watch "The Predator", just to remember how you can do this kind of stuff right. The attack sequences here are so poorly filmed that you can hardly see what's happening, and they are separated by LONG, suspenseless, pointless stretches of "plot development"; however, the plot never really develops. A deadeningly dull flick. (*)

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.

Yes, be afraid… Not so much because the plot is disturbing or the monster-effects are frightening (au contraire!), but actually because it's such an irredeemably bad film that there's a good chance you'll suffer from permanent brain damage! This has got to be one of the most embarrassing horror productions of the late 70's (and there are a lot to choose from), but what do you expect with a script that hastily got altered in the middle of shooting? That's right, the monster we're dealing with here is a genuine zombie-alien! Initially, it was just going to be a zombie, but since Ridley Scott's "Alien" broke a lot of box-office records in the meantime, the producers of "The Dark" thought it would be stupid NOT to cash in on that success! What do you picture a zombie-alien to look like? Apparently the writers weren't sure, neither, so eventually it's just an over-sized guy that constantly walks in the dark and occasionally shoots laser beams from his eyes. All by himself, without a spaceship or even some sort of earthly mission, the 'zombalien' prowls the streets at night, ripping off people's heads and making the local police forces look like complete imbeciles (which they are). William Devane stars as a lonely hippie-loser who does…nothing, really. The largest part of the film is just plain boring; the monster's attacks are shown on an entirely black screen with just some cheesy noises on the background, and Cardos' directing is very muddled. He really isn't to blame, as he took over from Tobe Hooper and never had something that even remotely looks like a script to work with. "The Dark" incomprehensibly wasn't rewarded with a special Oscar for the astonishingly inept visual & make-up effects! Those laser beam eyes, as well as the subsequent explosions are simply hilarious and pretty much define the term "cheesy".

There's a creature. It kills people. Then the film ends.

Yup.

This is one of those movies that makes absolutely no impression on the mind. People talk to each other, occasionally there's a killing of some sort, people talk some more, then it all wraps up without the slightest interesting event occurring. William Devane is wasted in his role, he's excellent at playing sinister characters in other contexts, but here he's squandered.

I'm honestly unsure why this movie exists. It might be the biggest "sci-fi horror" film that doesn't have a single reason to exist. It says nothing. Nothing happens. It accomplishes nothing. Nothing nothing nothing.

The end.

For a film called the Dark it does the worse thing possible, it's BORING. Sure parts of it are ok, including William Devane doing his best Peter Fonda impression. But in the end the film is just so slow and the cast try their best but to no avail.

Director John "Bud" Carlos cannot fill even the toes of Tobe Hooper's shoes, as he tries in vain to replace Hooper as the director for this muddled mess of a film. The film doesn't know where it is going at all. Is it science fiction about an alien coming to our planet to bring death and destruction? Is it horror where men and women are turned into zombies? Is it a comedy where two cops say inane lines all the while one of the "fat" cops eats doughnuts and various other foodstuffs? If I had to pick I would go with sci-fi, but that is only because the film promotes the alien theory in the end. But much of the film makes it appear as if zombies were an integral part of the plot. The whole scene played by pathologist Casey Kasem(AKA Shaggy)suggests that. This film is just bad all over. The story is its major weakness, but how about the inspired casting of Cathy Lee Crosby as the female lead and William Devane as the male lead. Neither one is a great actor...neither one is a particularly good actor come to think of it...yet, both are expected to carry a film with major script problems on their very small acting shoulders. Devane comes out a bit better, but he has nothing to work with. Throw in some other mediocre talents like Richard Jaeckel and Biff Elliot as the two "stupid" policemen, Keenan Wynn hamming it up as only he can, and Casey "I'm not an actor" Kasem into the mix and you start to realize just how bad this film probably is. Special effects are nothing more than a red light beam coming from an alien that is a tall guy in an outfit. The film was choppily edited, poorly lit, and rather tiresome in a bad television movie kind of way.

The Dark is truly one of the worst films I've ever seen. Certainly the worst I've reviewed since Jaws of Satan last winter. One must wonder how much of this film Tobe Hooper directed, or if he could have made it watchable had he stayed on for the whole job. Apparently it was originally supposed to be just another rampaging zombie file. But by the time it was finished, we had a villain wandering the streets of L.A. shooting people with lasers from his eyes. Yikes! The primary star is William Devane, an always watchable actor. He plays a successful author once convicted of manslaughter. Why did they need these two angles for his character? The answer... they didn't. Anyway, Devane's daughter is the first victim of the "Mangler" and he sets out to pressure the hapless police force to solve the crime. But each night, there is another victim and nobody has any plausible explanation. Kathy Lee Crosby plays a news anchor looking to soak up the ratings for this story for herself. There are other useless characters such as a psychic who can predict future victims. There is a struggling young actor with a drinking problem. There is a mind-boggling appearance by Casey Kasem as a forensic pathologist. He actually gives one of the better performances. How many Scooby Snacks did they have to give him to take the role? The Dark is one of the most boring films I've ever seen. That is its main problem. So little action its incredible. Considering how much is said about the "horrific" nature of the murders, we see little if any gore. The final five minutes where the killer is zapping an army of cops with his laser eyes is hilariously cheap, but at least there is finally some action in the film. A complete waste of your time. Do not handle heavy machinery until you have had at least 8 hours of sleep after watching this crud. 1 of 10 stars.

The Hound.

One thing about The Dark, it has a combination of themes never quite duplicated - but this may not be a good thing. As any familiar with this monster pic know, this was intended as a giant zombie monster-on-the-loose horror picture, or monster ripping heads off people. The monster is played by John Bloom, an actor who was around 7 feet tall in real life; it's usually too dark to see much of him/it, but there is a fairly exciting clash with police at the end and you get to appraise the zombie make-up then. With the sudden success of science fiction just after "Star Wars"(77), the producers decided to add a sci-fi angle before releasing this. What an odd and laughable mixture resulted - now the monster is supposedly a visiting outer-space alien? You sort of get a feeling throughout watching this that someone can't make up their minds. Yet, this may be why I've seen this more than once, and probably will again now that a new DVD version is coming out in widescreen.

William Devane plays a fortyish hippie father of the first victim, bugging the police about getting the killer; his expression throughout is a combination of self-satisfied (getting a good paycheck) and mortified (what am I doing in this mess?). Crosby is a TV reporter kind of above it all, until the end, that is. Jaeckel is the detective on the case, annoyed with everyone and not getting any answers (is it a zombie? an alien? damn it!). Wynn has the best scene in a dark garage, where some actual suspense builds; it looks like he's had it for a few seconds. Many of the scenes are TOO dark; it's difficult to see much of anything. The filmmakers also used a weird device on the soundtrack, a chorus of voices whispering 'the da-aaa-ark...' during scenes where the monster may be stalking a potential victim. This supposedly added to the suspense. I don't think this was ever used again, probably with good reason. But do wait until the very end when the narration kicks in, explaining mankind's first encounter with aliens; it's good for another laugh.

Cathy Lee Crosby used-up all the goodwill she earned from Circus of The Stars by appearing in this gape-inducing howler from 1979 about a homicidal alien wrecking havoc on a set that's supposed to be downtown L.A. but instead looks like that big alley behind the Wal-Mart in Raleigh, North Carolina. (That's Incredible appeared in 1980. Coincidence, you ask? Pennance, I argue.) Original director Tobe Hooper left after a few days (reportedly the first day) and was replaced by John Bud Cardos, but distanced himself from the blast by going uncredited. (Smart move, Tobe...so sorry Crocodile went straight-to-video.) And I imagine that Producer Dick Clark---yes, that Dick Clark!---must still have long conversations with his agent about removing this flick from his IMDB bio. 70's rock DJ Casey Kasem should get down on his hands and knees every single night and thank God for the voiceover offers he's gotten despite his Method work here as a police pathologist. And what of poor William Devane? (Ponder: Knot's Landing was considered a comeback.) Should I mention that Miami Vice's Phillip Michael Thomas briefly appears as a street hood named Corn Rows? (Let's just observe that point and not belabor it.) The Dark was originally a zombie movie. After poor screenings, the studio tried to repackage it as science fiction by removing much of the zombie footage, freeze framing the monster during attacks, and adding laser beams emanating from it's eyes. Believe me, it takes true genius to make a movie this giddily dumbstruck. It's absence from the AFI 100 List is a sham. You're gonna love it.

As a kid I really enjoyed this movie a lot, for reasons that completely escape me now. I watched it later in my adult life and I just saw a very uneven film that seems to make no sense. I would find out that the film is that way for a reason and the reason is the film was supposed to be a film about a sort of zombie that is roaming and killing people in Los Angeles; however, due to the science fiction craze during this time they decided instead to try and make it an alien. Not sure when this decision was made, but it was done somewhere midstream or later! Still, while I did not enjoy quite as much as I did as a kid, there is still some interesting things going on and the cast is full of people you have seen before, but probably do not know their name. Well, I knew Casey Kasem's name as he has a very bit part in the movie as I am guessing some sort of forensic expert. Other than that, I could not tell you who was who, only that I was sure I had seen a good deal of them in other things. The film also has a television quality to it as it almost does not seem like a film and considering it was rated R, it is rather tame too. Not too much gore in it and no skin to speak of.

The story has a killer on the streets of Los Angeles who only kills at night and only takes out one victim per night. This, for reasons unknown, sends the city into a panic even though I am guessing the freeways take out more people than this killer. Well the father of the first victim wants action and he kind of wanders around not really doing anything besides flirting and eating take out. The cops, well they are all over the place trying to stop the killer because the citizens are going insane with every death. I mean, it kills like three people and everyone acts like it is taking out a thousand people a night. A psychic seems able to predict this fiendish creatures moves, but will anyone listen to her in time to stop the creature as it grows stronger with every kill!

So I would say that a good portion of the film was done before they decided to turn their zombie into a laser eyed alien. For one, it would have made sense for the psychic to have some sort of connection with it if it was a zombie or something else that was from the spirit realm, but not an alien. A lot of the shots early in the film when it unleashes its eye lasers looks like it was added in and was an afterthought, while you can tell the shoot out at the end the alien slant was firmly in place. I think the zombie one would have been fine, though that shoot out at the end was the highlight of the film. It just did not make sense for it to be an alien and most of the scenes it is obvious that it was going to be a walking corpse deal.

So the film had its moments, but overall it was just a bit too much of a mess to be considered good or even okay. This film could be looked upon as a reason you should never switch what you are making while your making it. The film also could have used more of the monster, because at times it literally disappeared from the picture and you would almost forget you were watching something with a monster and just think it was an old cop television show or something. That car chase for example, just really did not seem to fit in with the whole crazed zombie or alien theme. It's worth a look though if you were like me and seen it in your youth and you want to revisit it. The return trip was not as good for me, but it had a few good moments to it.