Alone in the Dark

Reviewed by Thomas Sanchez
March 2005

Director: Dr. Uwe Boll Genre: Action/Thriller/Horror MPAA: Rated R Review Rating: 2 out of 10

Alone in the Dark is a movie about Edward Carnby (Christian Slater), a paranormal detective who used to work for a secret government agency called the 713. He doesn't remember much about his past, other than he was a young orphan when he lost some of his memory in an unfortunate experience. In order to find out what happened to him, he must investigate an ancient civilization called the Abkani, who disappeared unexpectedly hundreds of years ago.

Carnby has just come back from an excavation with an ancient artifact in hand. A short time soon after, a superhuman man who is somehow immune to bullets chases him. Carnby later meets up with his ex-girlfriend, Aline Cedrac (Tara Reid) who works as an archeologist at a museum. The museum is actually holding an exhibition of Abkani artifacts at the time. Almost immediately, the two are attacked by the ancient monster that has somehow managed to survive for hundreds of years.  As the movie goes on you find out that a secret organization called 713 has actually been tracking these creatures since they discovered them about 2 years ago.  Then the movie goes into nothing but action mode, as if they gave up on the movie's story line completely and added the action just to keep viewers entertained. After all the mayhem, they finally uncover the truth about what has been going on all these years.

The graphics they used to portray these beasts were beautiful. The beast's transition from light to darkness, visible to camouflage as well as the use of props were outstanding.  And unfortunately, that's the only thing outstanding in this movie.

All in all, this movie had no right to come out in theaters. This thing should have either gone straight to DVD, or stayed a video game. All the actors in this movie did not fit their corresponding roles. Slater is no action hero and Reid is no bookworm archeologist. She might as well have been an extra in the movie with all her simplistic one-liners. Stephen Dorff, on the other hand, played a great hardheaded know-it-all agent of 713 and the special effects crew did a marvelous job on the creatures and lighting. As for director Uwe Boll, he now has two video game-turned-movie failures under his belt: House of the Dead and now this monstrosity, Alone in the Dark.

The only way I can honestly say you should watch this movie is if you're a big special effects buff and could care less about the plot. I give this movie 2 out of 10 only because they tried.