Alone in the Dark

Alone in the Dark (1982)

When the lights go out, the terror begins.

A quartet of murderous psychopaths break out of a mental hospital during a power blackout and lay siege to their doctor's house.

Date of release
1982-11-12
TMDB
5.8 / 10 (176)
Runtime
1h 33m
Genres
Horror, Thriller
Director
Jack Sholder

Casting

Interesting facts

  • Filmed in: New Jersey
  • Awards: 1 · Nominations: 0. Including: Sitges Film Festival Best Actress award

Alone in the Dark is a 1982 American slasher film co-written and directed by Jack Sholder in his directorial debut, and starring Jack Palance, Martin Landau, Donald Pleasence, Dwight Schultz, and Erland Van Lidth. The plot follows a psychiatrist's family who are besieged by four escaped mental patients during a power blackout.

Production

Alone in the Dark was the first film produced by New Line Cinema, which had previously been exclusively a film distribution company. According to director Jack Sholder, he had listened to New Line founder Robert Shaye mull over the idea of getting into production of low-budget horror films, and pitched the idea of "a group of criminally insane guys escaping from a mental hospital during a blackout in NYC and creating mayhem and then getting round…

Sholder has said that the character of Dr. Leo Bain is based on Scottish psychiatrist R. D. Laing, who espoused a similar philosophy regarding the treatment of mentally ill patients.

The casting of esteemed actors Donald Pleasence, Jack Palance, and Martin Landau resulted in the film's original budget of $800,000 being increased to $1 million.

Principal photography of Alone in the Dark took place in New York and Bergen County, New Jersey over a period of 35 days in the fall of 1981. The home featured in the film was an actual psychiatrist's residence in Palisades, New York.

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