Alone in the Dark

This felt more like a remnant of the 70s than a front-runner of the 80s horror scene. Though it borrows openly from films like Halloween, Sholder's approach is more serious and committed. Sadly that doesn't necessarily translate into a better film, especially when working in the horror genre.

The problem with Alone in the Dark is that it goes for pure suspense, but never really gets there. The psychopaths on the loose are rather plain and fail to be menacing, while the main characters are too daft to care for. Add a very slow first half and few confrontations between both groups and you're left with a pretty dull film.

The intro was by far the most interesting scene here, it all goes downhill after that. Performances are pretty bad, the film looks dim and lifeless, the score fails to add atmosphere and the kills look terribly fake. Would've been better if Sholder had loosened up a bit, but that clearly wasn't what he was going for. Not good.