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ACTOR
William DevaneCathy Lee CrosbyRichard JaeckelKeenan Wynn
DIRECTOR
John 'Bud' Cardos,Tobe Hooper
SYNOPSICS
The Dark (1979) is a English movie. John 'Bud' Cardos,Tobe Hooper has directed this movie. William Devane,Cathy Lee Crosby,Richard Jaeckel,Keenan Wynn are the starring of this movie. It was released in 1979. The Dark (1979) is considered one of the best Horror,Sci-Fi,Thriller movie in India and around the world.
At night the Mangler stalks the streets of Los Angeles, killing and mutilating random victims. On the trail are a TV reporter, the father of one of the victims, and a police detective, but despite their efforts only the mysterious psychic DeRenzy knows what the killer is and how to stop it.
Same Actors
The Dark (1979) Reviews
It's grey, Scoob. Yikes!
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.
Maayybe something good, maayybe something bad
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.
Intriguing cast and some amusing dialog are what works best ......
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
Dick Clark presents-a really bad Horror cheapie
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's dark, alright...
There's a very thin line between cult-movies and bad B-movies. THE DARK constantly balances on that line, but when you make up the over-all score, it hopelessly falls into the latter category. It has definitely some elements that scream for cult-status recognition, but fails due to plot-stupidity, illogical events and dialogue-nonsense. And even though I liked it, at some moments, this is by no means a good movie. The acting maybe isn't too atrocious, but all the actors performances are just plain boring. The plot's boring too for that matter. It has an alien man-thing running around in the city killing people for apparently no reason. At no point whatsoever we learn anything about this alien. The police-detectives, the writer/investigator (whose daughter was killed by the creature), the weird psychic lady,... they all don't have a single clue about who's doing all the killing, but strangely a bunch of demonstrating citizens figured out that it clearly must be a creature or monster of some sort. It makes no sense. Well, actually, it does make sense that this movie doesn't make any sense when you read the trivia-section here on IMDb and find out that this movie originally was to be a zombie-movie. They re-edited it afterwards, adding footage and cheesy animated special effects, into a sci-fi/horror-flick. You can actually still see the alien stumbling around like a zombie in certain scenes. But as a result we get to see an alien that isn't a man in a laughable monster-suit, but a man with rather cool make-up. The scarcely lit close-ups of the alien are truly creepy. But the glowing eyes effects on the other hand are..., you guessed it: Cheesy. Aside from probably having one of the most appropriate titles ever (boy, this movie is dark!), it has something else going for it: The musical score, at times, is excellent and rather original. Along with some spooky violins you can hear voices whispering "Tenebreee..." and "Darknesss...". To my knowledge this has only been done in Argento's SUSPIRIA and the Friday THE 13TH-series. To people who haven't been digging deep into horror-movie-history, THE DARK will probably be a pretty bad B-movie. But I still think THE DARK is worth a watch, 'cause I consider it to be a C-movie. "C" for Curiosity. After watching it I found it rather strange that a 70's movie like, for instance, Larry Cohen's IT'S ALIVE developed a cult-status along the years and THE DARK didn't. Oh, well, if you think the whole aimless-alien-loose-on-earth concept of THE DARK is fun, then you should try finding a copy of the so-bad-it's-hilarious trashy sci-fi crap-fest NIGHTBEAST (1982).