What can be scarier than being stuck Alone In The Gloomy with Martin Landau and Jack Palance? This film attempts to reply that inquire of and does a graceful job. I’m a gigantic nut for any B dismay portray, and it’s nice sometimes to actually peep some sincere star power in them. Granted, Landau and Palance weren’t at the highest point in their careers when they did this. The film has Dwight Schultz, who you may remember as Murdock in the A-Team, as a novel therapist at an asylum rush by Psychiatrist, Donald Pleasance(who smokes pot in his office) . “The men on the 3rd floor” are the extremely risky lunatics who determine to raze Murdock coz they hold he has murdered their primitive therapist. There are 4 central killers-First is Marin Landau as “Preacher”, a bible quoting psycho. He’s extraordinary in this section. Palance is the paranoid Vietnam vet named Hawkes, who is basically the ringleader. He doesn’t have alot of lines, but since it’s Jack Palance, he’s wonderfully creepy and convincing. The third is played by Erland van Lidth as a child molester who is childlike himself. You may remember Erland as the opera singing Roman Stalker in The Running Man(“Reduce! Reduce! Go to commercial!!”) . The fourth is rarely seen and this makes him spicy. Since his face is always off camera, a name actor isn’t essential. He’s called The Bleeder, and comes off as the most risky of the 4 coz he doesn’t shriek and at one point pre-dates Jason Voorhees by wearing a hockey hide. Donald Pleasance is awfully nutty and laughable in his role of the doctor. In fact, you commence to wonder if he’s actually a mental patient himself. Schultz is decent as the straight man, a far roar from his Murdock character. This film starts and builds up wonderfully. It has a amazing buildup to the point where it becomes like Night Of The Living Plain with Schultz and his family trapped inside their home during a blackout with the band of crazies outside. Unfortunately the film falls kinda flat here. With such a great buildup and collection of characters, you inquire of alot more out of this confrontation than you accumulate. It’s actually kinda tiresome and not very intense at all. Despite this shortcoming, the film is well worth watching for the performances.
Not to be confused with the 2005 Uwe Boll film of the same name (of which I haven’t seen yet, but heard nothing but poor things about), Alone in the Dim (1982) is a unbelievable small nugget of cinematic nastiness that came out in the early 80s, unfairly lost in a morass of mediocre slasher films that were so very approved at the time. While it does have many of the trappings of movies within that genre, escaped psychopaths, attractive implements of death, a huge, frail house, a family in fear, it doesn’t really fit within the genre as it has some things a lot of those films didn’t, like an spellbinding fable, strong script, and a talented and experienced cast. Co-written and directed by Jack Sholder (A Nightmare On Elm Street Fraction 2: Freddy’s Revenge, The Hidden), the film features Jack Palance and Martin Landau, both of whom would later to go on to regain Academy Awards for their roles in the films City Slickers (1991) and Ed Wood (1994), respectively. Also appearing is Donald Pleasence (Halloween, Hasten from Modern York), Dwight `”Howling Angry” Murdock’ Schultz (“The A-Team”, Stout Man and Miniature Boy), do opera performer Erland van Lidth (Trail Crazy, The Running Man), Deborah Hedwall (“As the World Turns”), Lee Taylor-Allan (Stargate), Phillip Clark (“Another World”), Brent Jennings (Peer, Red Heat), and Carol Levy (The Princess and the Call Girl), as Bunky, the ill fated babysitter with the nice rack.
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After an entirely bizarre sequence that would effect any male viewer cringe, we perceive Dr. Dan Potter (Schultz) arriving at a nut farm known as `The Haven’. Apparently it’s his first day, and he and his family have unprejudiced recently re-located within the status so that Dan could derive the area. Hurry by an oddball named Dr. Leo Bain (Pleasence), Haven isn’t your typical loony bin, as the patients aren’t called `patients’, but voyagers, each `exploring their have space’, as Bain would achieve it…yeah, ok…anyway, the Haven features beautiful considerable your run-of-the-mill nuts, except for those housed on the third floor. These are the more uncertain ones, kept in check by a sophisticated security system, which Bain objects to, but the location requires. There’s Frank Hawkes (Palance), a once POW, now fulltime psychotic schizophrenic, Byron Sutcliff (Landau) aka Preacher, a scripture quoting (Vengeance is mine, sayeth the Lord!), ex-minister who likes to site fires, a 400 pound child lover named Ronald Elster (van Lidth) aka Fatty, and Skaggs, a serial killer better known as `The Bleeder’ because of his tendency to regain nosebleeds prior to carving up his victims. After their initial meeting with their unique doctor (the previous one left to assume another status), the boys on the third floor derive it in their heads that Dr. Potter killed their veteran doctor, and now intends to raze them, so they settle to their only option is to waste him first…and soon find the chance as the sophisticated security system keeping them from escaping has one, major flaw…it only works if the electricity is on…and wouldn’t you know it, the town suffers a blackout…oh yeah, the Haven’s backup generator conks out (comely convenient timing, if you ask me) . During the confusion, the boys grab themselves a car, hit the town, arm themselves at the local sporting goods store (looters are running rampant during the power outage), and then head over to the Potter plot…
I really did indulge in this film a lot, as it was the first movie I’ve seen in awhile that actually gave me the creeps, and created a beneficial deal of sincere suspense. I have to say, Martin Landau makes an extremely convincing psychopath, with his penetrating glares and mammoth, toothy, menacing grin. He sold his character more than anyone else here, and left a lasting impression. As far as Palance, I’ve always idea he be a dinky (okay, a lot) nuts, so playing a role like this probably wasn’t powerful of a advance for him. I idea he did well, but his veil time and character felt slight and lacking…I sigh this was to be expected, given the film features four homicidal maniacs. Pleasence was a riot in his role as the unconventional, easy-going, eternally optimistic, glum feely, weed smoking Dr. Bain…there’s one scene, in particular, that highlights this…arrive the waste, Dr, Bain shows up at Potter’s house (the crazies have been terrorizing the family during the blackout), learns his `voyagers’ are lurking about, and pleads with them to arrive out so they can `explore a few things together’. The film has a handful of these droll moments that I enjoyed primarily because I have a sick sense of humor. As far as Dwight Schultz, I belief he also did resplendent well, and it must have been difficult playing against so many accomplished performers. I did get his character to be a microscopic annoying, the consummate clinician trying to apply his skills in a rational matter even during time of severe trouble. Eventually he does resort to his more primal instincts, ones that we all section. I really got a strong sense of direction from this film, as tension is thick and almost always there, providing underlying aspect of uncertainty and uneasiness throughout, one of smart at any moment, something despicable could happen…which is magnificent exciting considering this is Sholder directorial debut, as normally one wouldn’t inquire someone to assign a film together as well as he did, but I do bear he started out as an editor, so perhaps he developed an notice for how sequences should play out and fit together as a whole. The pacing is strong, but really picks up after them men run, and rarely slows down until the raze. There is a number of puny surprises throughout, punctuated by a sizable one, which I managed to figure out well before it was presented…which, in turn, made me a dinky proud of myself as I didn’t reflect it was entirely positive, but, I suspect the average viewer will probably acquire up on it as there are a few, well placed clues. Regardless, even given what I suspected, the boom was classic and worth waiting for…as far as the ending goes, it was definitely unexpected, but absorbing. Serious gore hounds may be disappointed by the lack of blood, but what this is in the movie is effective…one scene in particular features the brutal disposition of the ward attendant, played by Jennings, during the inmates elope. All in all a creepy anxiety thriller, worth checking out if you’re fervent in something above and beyond the usual slasher characterize.
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Image Entertainment provides a really good-looking widescreen anamorphic (1.85:1) print on this DVD release, along with three audio options, Dolby Digital 5.1, DTS 5.1, and Dolby Digital 2.0. As far as special features, there are quite a few including a commentary track with writer/director Jack Sholder, a video interview with Carol Levy (16:28) who plays the character of Bunky, the babysitter, a video interview with Original York punk band The Sic F*cks and Adam Rockoff (16:28), who actually create within the movie, an modern theatrical trailer, extensive liner notes written by Fangoria’s occupy Michael Gingold, and an extensive promotional art gallery.
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