Alone in the Dark

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Alone In The Dark
Directed by	Uwe Boll
Produced by	Shawn Williamson Wolfgang Herold
Written by	Elan Mastai, Michael Roesch Peter Scheerer
Starring	Christian Slater Tara Reid Stephen Dorff
Distributed by	Lions Gate Entertainment
Release date(s)	January 28, 2005 (USA)
Running time	96 minutes
Country	Germany  Canada
Language	English
Budget	$20,000,000
Gross revenue	$8,191,971 (Worldwide)
Followed by	Alone in the Dark II

Alone in the Dark is a 2005 Brightlight Pictures horror film very loosely based on Infogrames' popular video game series of the same name. It is directed by Uwe Boll, and stars Christian Slater as supernatural detective Edward Carnby. The film's tagline is Evil Awakens.

Upon its release, Alone in the Dark received extremely negative reviews from critics and video game devotees alike. It grossed $2,834,421 in its opening weekend, but was significantly more successful on DVD.

Cast

• Christian Slater as Edward Carnby
• Tara Reid as Aline Cedrac
• Stephen Dorff as Commander Burke
• Will Sanderson as Agent Miles
• Françoise Yip as Agent Cheung
• Karin Konoval as Sister Clara
• Matthew Walker as Professor Lionel Hudgens
• Mike Dopud as Agent Turner

Characters

• Edward Carnby - Raised at an orphanage under Sister Clara, Carnby lost his memory when he was ten years old. At twenty, he was recruited by Bureau 713, gaining knowledge on the paranormal soon after. His current assignment is investigating his past along with researching the disappearance of the Abkani. Due to the experiments conducted on him as a child, he has the ability to sense paranormal activity and has increased strength and speed, which allow him to perform acrobatic moves that a normal human could not do.

• Aline Cedrac - An archaeologist and museum curator. She is the ex-girlfriend of Edward Carnby and knowledgeable about the Abkani and their culture.

• Richard Burke - The Commander of Bureau 713, formerly worked under the direction of Carnby.

• Professor H - Conducted top-secret experiments in Bureau 713, which were shut down after one of the orphaned children escaped—Edward Carnby. Hudgens still works for 713 but now as a science officer. Hudgens is deeply interested in the history of the Abkani, and has gained insight into the "Xenos", nightmare creatures linked to the Abkani's mythos.

• Fischer - Fischer leads the medical unit of Bureau 713. He is one of Carnby's few trusted allies and friends.

• James Pinkerton - Former Agent of Bureau 713 who went missing in action in the 1980s. He and Hudgens were in charge of the investigation of the disappearance of goldminers at Brutan Goldmine. Pinkerton became an experiment for Hudgens, who attached a Xenos creature to his spine. His abilities included increased awareness, strength, speed and willpower.

• Sister Clara - Sister Clara runs an orphanage and one of the orphans under her care was Edward Carnby. In the eighties, she was persuaded by Professor Hudgens to allow experiments on the orphans. She keeps this secret from everyone but is inwardly guilty for her immoral actions.

Game references and similarities

• The game version of Alone in the Dark features an ending that takes place on the morning after and is open-ended, showing a mysterious cab driver pick up Edward Carnby or Emily Hartwood and whose destination is unknown. The film version also offers an ending which takes place in the morning when something mysteriously startles Edward Carnby and Aline Cedrac.

• Alone in the Dark: The New Nightmare mentions Edward Carnby as part of a paranormal agency known as Bureau 713. The film version goes into greater detail as this is part of the focus of the film.

• Alone in the Dark: The New Nightmare features creatures that thrive in the darkness, have invisibility and can be harmed by light and electricity. The film version features creatures known as Xenos that can be invisible and can be harmed by light and electricity.

• The film version features a storyline with elements found in the games. The kidnapping of the orphaned children in the film is similar to the kidnapping of Grace Saunders from Alone in the Dark II. The disappearance of the orphans is similar to the disappearance of Detective Ted Striker from Alone in the Dark II. The closing of the gateway of darkness storyline from the film is similar to Alone in the Dark: The New Nightmare which requires the protagonists to close a gateway of darkness. The film version also features a scientist doing experiments on people which is similar to Alone in the Dark: The New Nightmare.

Alternate versions

An early version of the script

Blair Erickson came up with the first drafts of the script for Alone in the Dark. According to Erickson, Uwe Boll changed the script to be more action packed than a thriller. Erickson stated his disgust and his working relationship towards Boll on Somethingawful.com.

The original script took the Alone In the Dark premise and depicted it as if it were actually based on a true story of a private investigator in the northeastern U.S. whose missing persons cases begin to uncover a disturbing paranormal secret. It was told through the eyes of a writer following Edward Carnby and his co-worker for a novel, and depicted them as real-life blue-collar folks who never expected to find hideous beings waiting for them in the dark. We tried to stick close to the H. P. Lovecraft style and the low-tech nature of the original game, always keeping the horror in the shadows so you never saw what was coming for them.

Thankfully Dr. Boll was able to hire his loyal team of hacks to crank out something much better than our crappy story and add in all sorts of terrifying horror movie essentials like opening gateways to alternate dimensions, bimbo blonde archaeologists, sex scenes, mad scientists, slimy dog monsters, special army forces designed to battle slimy CG dog monsters, Tara Reid, "Matrix" slow-motion gun battles, and car chases. Oh yeah, and a ten-minute opening back story scroll read aloud to the illiterate audience, the only people able to successfully miss all the negative reviews. I mean hell, Boll knows that's where the real scares lie.^[1]

Unrated Director's Cut version

An Unrated Director's Cut was released in Germany, France and Australia and was #1 on the German DVD market for three weeks.^[2] This version of the movie, contains about eight to ten additional minutes of footage^[3], and it was released on DVD in North America on 25 September 2007.^[4] In the newest version of the film, virtually all of the scenes with Tara Reid in them have been removed by Boll himself.^[5]

Mistakes

• When Edward Carnby is being informed on all the people that have disappeared his informer states that "I tracked down the three you asked me about". But he shows him bios on four people.
• When a bullet is fired at a maddened woman it flies over her head but she still dies as if it hit her.
• In a scene where an agent of Bureau 713 is killed her head can be seen moving upwards at the end of the take showing her body.
• When Edward and Aline escape the laboratory it's daytime but it was night when they entered.

Original movie and game tie-in concept

Originally, the film version of Alone in the Dark was to be released with Alone in the Dark 5, the fifth title in the series; however, the creators of Alone in the Dark, Eden Games, delayed the game and reworked it entirely from scratch. This appears to be one of the causes for the public backlash from gamers on how the film version of Alone in the Dark appeared to deviate from the Alone in the Dark game franchise save for the fact that the film was in some ways a sequel to Alone in the Dark: The New Nightmare. Uwe Boll stated his disappointment on the region 1 DVD commentary but also said that Atari had face shots of Christian Slater for the newest game - Alone in the Dark 5, which was released on June 26 2008.

Possibly due to this reason, when Ben Croshaw reviewed Alone in the Dark 5, he complained that "I knew Atari were idiots when they let Uwe Boll make a god-awful action movie out of the franchise, but I never thought they were big enough idiots to use that film as inspiration."

Reception

Alone in the Dark was panned by nearly every film critic. Rotten Tomatoes ranked the film a score of 1% and ranks the film 15th of the 100 worst reviewed films of the 2000s. At Metacritic, it was a score of 9%. Reviews frequently blamed the film's violent content on its videogame origins,^[6] but those aware of the game series were less forgiving of Boll's change of tone.^[7]

Alone in the Dark was given several accolades highlighting this poor reception:

Alone in the Dark won three 2005 Stinkers Awards:

• Worst Picture
• Worst Director (Uwe Boll)
• Worst Special Effects

It also won one Calvin Award:

• Worst Picture

Alone in the Dark received two 2005 Golden Raspberry Awards nominations:

• Worst Director (Dr. Uwe Boll)
• Worst Actress (Tara Reid)

Sequel

Despite criticism associated with the first movie, Event Films are scheduled to release a sequel in 2009,^[8] with Rick Yune in the role originally played by Christian Slater and costarring Rachel Specter, Bill Moseley, Ralf Moeller, Zack Ward, Natassia Malthe, Jason Connery, Danny Trejo, and Lance Henriksen.

Production credits

• Co-executive Producers - Wolfgang Herold, Frederic Demey
• Executive Producer - Kenneth Del Vecchio, Matthias Triebel, Hans Baer
• Producer - Uwe Boll
• Writer/Director - Peter Scheerer, Michael Roesch

Soundtrack

The 2-disc soundtrack was released by Nuclear Blast, with Wolfgang Herold as executive producer. The German band Solution Coma's contribution was the title song. Finnish symphonic metal band Nightwish had a music video of "Wish I Had an Angel" directed by Uwe Boll, with clips from the film.

Disc 1

1. "Vredesbyrd!" – Dimmu Borgir
2. "What Drives The Weak" – Shadows Fall
3. "Cyberwaste" – Fear Factory
4. "Touch Of Red" – In Flames
5. "Devour" – Strapping Young Lad
6. "Peace" – Agnostic Front
7. "Landing" – Moby
8. "Gone Forever" – God Forbid
9. "Down Again" – Chimaira
10. "Lost To Apathy" – Dark Tranquility
11. "Blacklist" - Exodus
12. "Imperium"- Machine Head
13. "Stabbing the Drama"- Soilwork
14. "Daylight Dancer"- Lacuna Coil
15. "Panasonic Youth"- Dillinger Escape Plan
16. "Rational Gaze"- Meshuggah
17. "Wish I Had An Angel"- Nightwish
18. "Mother of Abominations"- Cradle of Filth

Disc 2

1. "Dead Eyes See No Future" – Arch Enemy
2. "The Devil Incarnate" – Death Angel
3. "Medieval" – Diecast
4. "Daughter of the Damned" – Fireball Ministry
5. "The Weapon They Fear" – Heaven Shall Burn
6. "Eraser" – Hypocrisy
7. "Blood And Thunder" – Mastodon
8. "The Great Depression" – Misery Index
9. "Ghost" -Mnemic
10. "Slaughtervain" – Dew-Scented
11. "Souls To Deny" – Suffocation
12. "Watch Out" – Raunchy
13. "As I Slither" – Kataklysm
14. "Outnumbering The Day" – Bloodbath
15. "Deconstruction" – All Shall Perish
16. "Minion" – Bleed the Sky
17. "On Earth” – Samael
18. "One Shot, One Kill" – Dying Fetus
19. "99" – The Haunted

See also

• List of American films of 2005
• Films considered the worst ever
• List of films based on video games

References

External links

• Official site
• Alone in the Dark at the Internet Movie Database
• Alone In The Dark at Allmovie
• Alone in the Dark at Metacritic
• Alone in the Dark at Rotten Tomatoes