The Dark (1979)

Just perfect...

best movie i've ever seen.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

Amusing in a so bad it's almost fun kind of way. But it's not fun. It's simply tedious. Unless you enjoy set pieces so dark you don't have a clue what's going on, apart from the fact you know an actor with false monster hands and a leather jacket is involved. Avoid. Thank me later.

Director John "Bud" Cardos, who'd given us the superior "nature strikes back" thriller "Kingdom of the Spiders", proved up to the task of replacing original director Tobe Hooper on this mostly routine but basically entertaining sci-fi / horror tale. The original concept for the movie was that of a killer zombie, but after poor screenings, it was decided to make the killer an alien and add a bunch of cheese ball laser effects.The story is that after the alien has savagely murdered his daughter, an author, Roy Warner (the amusingly cast William Devane), teams up with an ambitious TV newswoman, Zoe Owens (Cathy Lee Crosby) to track the monster down. The detectives on the case (Richard Jaeckel, Biff Elliot) can't seem to make any progress, but providing a substantial amount of assistance to Roy and Zoe is the psychic character De Renzy (Jacquelyn Hyde - now *there's* a name for you), who believes she knows who one of the aliens' victims will be.The sci-fi element provides just the right touch here, generating a fair amount of chuckles when we start to see the creatures' modus operandi. John Arthur Morrill handles the slick Panavision photography, while Roger Kellaway supplies a score that's quite a hoot. It features some decidedly over the top "whispering". The special effects are fun, and the pacing adequate. The best part has to be the climactic action when the alien unleashes hell on the cops that are trying to take it down.The actors are all good, particularly Jaeckel and Devane in his change of pace role. Keenan Wynn plays Crosby's boss, Casey Kasem is a pathologist, Vivian Blaine appears as a high society type, seven foot four inch John Bloom plays the titular murderer, and Warren J. Kemmerling is the typical police boss who demands that Jaeckel and Elliot produce some results. Look for the following people in bit parts: Vernon Washington ("Friday the 13th: A New Beginning") as a victim, Philip Michael Thomas of 'Miami Vice' fame as an outspoken youth, and none other than Paris Hiltons' mom Kathy Hilton as the requisite first person to die. Angelo Rossitto has an uncredited cameo as a news vendor.If you're like this viewer and have a weakness for movies like this, you're sure to have a good time with it.Seven out of 10.

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.

Disjointed. Suspense that proves to be wasted. Maybe with a bigger budget...but then again probably not. The citizens of Santa Monica, California are fearful of the dark of night. A series of decapitation murders has Detective Dave Mooney(Richard Jaeckel)baffled and under watchful eyes. Roy Warner(William Devane), a writer of bloody crime novels, is the father of one of the first victims. He also has history with Mooney; it was the detective that sent him to prison. Warner wants answers; so does TV reporter Zoe Owens(Cathy Lee Crosby). A police pathologist(Casey Kasem)finds "The Mangler" to be gray and of supernatural origin. The finale is weak and leaves you wondering why you sat that long for almost nothing. Also in the cast: Keenan Wynn, Jacquelyn Hyde and John Bloom.