October 5th - Alone In The Dark (1982)

What’s a Halloween Horror list without a few slasher movies? Nothing.

Alone In The Dark. The first film released by New Line Studio, which became famous as the Studio that put out Nightmare On Elm Street.

This entry is especially appropriate as it is Donand Pleasence’s birthday today!




This suspenseful slasher stars several well known actors such as Jack Palance, Donald Pleasence, and Martin Landau. Alone In The Dark stands out among atypical slasher movies with one unknown killer. Instead, it’s host to four killers who are introduced at the beginning and known to the audience almost immediately.



The film is about four patients who remain on the top floor of a mental institution under high security conditions. When their doctor leaves and goes to work in a new hospital the four patients are convinced that their new doctor, Dr. Potter, is the one who killed their former doctor .

The killers are:

Jack Palance as Frank Hawkes, a psychotic former POW.
Martin Landau as Byron ‘preacher’ Sutcliff, a former man of god who’s also an arsonist.
Erland van Lidth as Ronald ‘Fatty’ Elster, an overweight child molester and a sociopath.
Phillip Clark as Tom ‘Skaggs’ Smith, a homicidal maniac known as the bleeder. He begins to bleed out of excitement when he's about to do/doing something terrible.




When a power outage leaves the windows and doors of the institution un-alarmed the four patients escape to seek out Dr. Potter. After visiting a local store, they equip themselves with weapons and go on search to physically manifest their vengeance. The following night they find the family and begin to terrorize them, forcing a coward of a father to fight back and take control.

This film is a well paced slasher, and with four killers, it's a nice difference from the rest of the hoard. The score is incredibly smooth, and somber, almost like a romanticized Carpenter score at times. The actors performances are over the top but never too much, or annoying. Personally, this slasher blew me away when I first seen it, which lucky for me, was a chance purchase because I didn't know if it would be good or not. I shortly started lending it out to anyone and everyone who liked slashers as much as I did and they felt the same way.

If these opening scene doesn't grab you then your slasher heart is dead.