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

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.

Given that John "Bud" Cardos took over directorial chores three or four days into shooting after original director Tobe Hooper proved woefully out of his league handling a full-scale production crew, "The Dark" definitely isn't the wretched, foul-smelling unmitigated stinker it's often derisively written off as being. Granted, this modest sci-fi/horror tale of a pernicious extraterrestrial decapitating several Los Angeles residents (the first victim is played by none other than Paris Hilton's real life mom Kathy Richards!) does suffer from a rather slow, meandering pace, a few dreary lulls in the action, choppy editing which frequently borders on confounding, and a muddled script (the alien angle was tossed in at the last minute; the beast was originally supposed to be a flesh-eating zombie), but otherwise it's technically sound. Cardos manages to create a reasonable amount of tension, stages the kill scenes with laudable restraint, and really delivers with the excitingly over-the-top grand payoff ending, a fiery, all-hell's-broken-loose, packs one hell of a bunch final face-off in which the rot-faced intergalactic ghoul turns many of L.A.'s finest pigs into smoking strips of crisp bacon by shooting laser beams from its eyes. John Morrill's cinematography gives the film a slick, attractive look which successfully bellies the movie's low budget (Lee Frost was an assistant cameraman), making especially impressive use of dissolves and super-impositions. Roger Kellaway's first-rate freaky score also warrants appraisal, boasting an odd, eerie, unintelligible ghostly whispering vocal ("the daaa-rrk!") that takes on a truly unnerving black mass-like incantatory quality.

The superior B-movie cast rates as another significant plus. The always strong and commanding William ("Rolling Thunder," "Red Alert") Devane as an ex-con turned best-selling crime novelist who's obsessed with catching the alien after it butchers his only daughter, Richard Jaeckel as the rugged, hard-nosed cop on the case, Jacqueline Hyde as an eccentric old gypsy fortune teller, and Keenan Wynn as a gruff, but fair television station manager all contribute excellent performances. Appearing in nifty bits are Vivian ("Parasite") Blaine as a haughty jet-setter, biker film vet Gary Littlejohn cunningly cast against type as a police officer, and a pre-"Miami Vice" Phillip Michael Thomas as a belligerent gang leader. The massive, shambling John Bloom, a bulky, imposing hulk of man who played the monster in Al Adamson's "Dracula Vs. Frakenstein" and the retarded guy in "The Incredible Two-Headed Transplant," makes for a marvelously menacing murderous fiend. Even the novel casting of pint-sized Top 40 disc jockey Casey Kasem as a pathologist works surprisingly well, mainly because Kasem himself plays his minor part commendably straight. Only Cathy Lee Crosby as a crusading up-and-coming female TV reporter who wants to prove herself to her skeptical sexist pig male colleagues disappoints, proving once and for all that she's more of a pretty face than a genuine actress. Overall, this unjustly maligned movie ain't half bad.