For a few years, the high-water marks for motion pictures based mostly on video video games have been Paul W.S. Anderson’s 1995 fight film “Mortal Kombat” and his 2002 zombie flick “Resident Evil.” One can see what a sorry state we have been in if these two mediocre movies have been the high-water marks of something. Adapting video video games to the massive display has lengthy been difficult for Hollywood. These movies are sometimes lambasted as horrible and have sometimes bombed (“Kombat” and “Resident” however). Alternatively, Rocky Morton and Annabel Jankel’s 1993 adaptation of “Tremendous Mario Bros.” is deeply beloved by a passionate cult of weirdos who love its zany concepts (a cult I belong to), however most folk did not like how far the movie strayed from Shigeru Miyamoto’s Nintendo property.
There are various explanation why it is exhausting to adapt video video games into good motion pictures. For one, most video video games are predicated on motion and interactivity, whereas movies are passive and character-driven; the 2 media do not overlap neatly. Many video video games additionally elevate their premises from extant B-movies anyway, so adapting them again to movie seems like making a duplicate of a duplicate. (How would a “Metroid” movie, as an example, look terribly completely different from Ridley Scott’s “Alien?”) On high of that, many fashionable video video games have turn into so advanced that their tales and premises not lend themselves to useful, 120-minute movie packages. (Hence, the “Halo” movie was ultimately scrapped in favor of a TV series.)
Some latest movies have bucked the development, although. “The Tremendous Mario Bros. Film” was an enormous field workplace hit, “Werewolves Inside” is genuinely good, and youngsters appears to like these “Sonic the Hedgehog” motion pictures. Heck, even the mediocre “5 Nights at Freddy’s” attracted a big viewers.
However the mid-2000s have been a a lot completely different time. It was the time of “Doom,” “Resident Evil” sequels, and German director Uwe Boll. Certainly, Boll made 5 totally horrible online game diversifications within the 2000s, turning into infamous as one of many worst filmmakers of the trendy period.
And of the lot, his 2005 movie “Alone within the Darkish” may simply be the worst.
Alone within the Darkish is the worst-rated online game film on Metacritic, and that is saying one thing
The primary “Alone within the Darkish” online game was launched in 1992, however was solely accessible to play on residence PCs. It has been credited by the Guinness E book of World Information as the primary 3-D horror sport ever made. The primary “Alone within the Darkish” sport made for a house console was 2001’s “Alone within the Darkish: The New Nightmare.” Its launch noticed the franchise explode in reputation, so a function movie adaptation wasn’t far behind. The unique sport was set within the Nineteen Twenties and had gamers flee monsters to flee from a haunted mansion in Louisiana. The primary sequel was additionally set in Nineteen Twenties Louisiana, though the second sequel was set within the Mojave Desert in California. “New Nightmare” was the primary sport to be set within the current. In that sport, gamers needed to find mystical tablets with eerie, evil qualities.
Taking its cues from the 2001 sport, Boll’s “Alone within the Darkish” is about varied character retrieving magical artifacts of some sort and investigating their connection to a newly appeared pack of killer monsters that stalks and kills our heroes. Christian Slater stars as a mystical investigator with amnesia who’s looking for the items of his previous. In the meantime, Tara Reid performs the curator of the museum the place the majority of the movie’s motion takes place and Stephen Dorff portrays a solider-like agent working for the mysterious Bureau 713.
“Alone within the Darkish” options further twists involving the extraction of monster DNA, in addition to a number of scenes of individuals getting picked off by unconvincing monsters. The monsters can incubate inside human our bodies and produce their very own EMPs, ensuring the lights flip off wherever they go (therefore the title “Alone within the Darkish”). The truth that the monsters need to be in the dead of night seemingly saved the movie’s creatives some huge cash when it got here to visible results.
What critics mentioned about Alone within the Darkish
Nobody favored “Alone within the Darkish.” It presently has a 1% approval ranking on Rotten Tomatoes based mostly on 119 opinions. Ann Hornaday, writing for The Washington Post, felt that Boll’s movie was virtually unhealthy sufficient to be fulfilling, however by no means fairly reached that threshold of leisure, making it merely unhealthy. Scott Brown, writing for Entertainment Weekly, gave the movie an F, stating that it was so unhealthy, it counted as being postmodern. He additionally described it as a “film-like mass.” Jack Matthews, writing for the New York Day by day Information, argued that “Alone within the Darkish” seems like carrying a blindfold and deciding on one thing horrible at random at Blockbuster Video … after reaching into the trash can. And the Pulitzer-winning punsmith Justin Chang, writing for Variety, mentioned that Uwe Boll ought to put down his joystick, and quick.
In August 2024, Metacritic compiled 42 of the more high-profile films to have been based on video games and ranked them by favorability. The perfect-loved online game film was “Werewolves Inside,” and even that one solely had a 66-point optimistic appraisal. Nonetheless extremely rated was Anderson’s “Mortal Kombat,” as was the latest “Pokémon: Detective Pikachu.” “Alone within the Darkish” got here in lifeless final with a rating of 9.
Boll got here out poorly throughout the board on that very same listing. His “Home of the Lifeless” was ranked fortieth, his “Within the Title of the King: A Dungeon Siege Story” was thirty ninth, his “BloodRayne” was thirty sixth, and his “Postal” was thirty fourth.
Regardless of his horrible monitor document, Boll stays energetic, capable of safe massive identify actors in a pinch and full movies rapidly and underneath price range. In particular person, he is a charmer and has nice concepts. He made two movies — “First Shift” and “Bandidos” — in 2024 alone, and he has three extra in manufacturing. This was after Boll said he’d retire in 2016. “Alone within the Darkish” is fairly horrible, however Boll would not appear to thoughts. He was on to the following factor earlier than you even noticed it.
For a few years, the high-water marks for motion pictures based mostly on video video games have been Paul W.S. Anderson’s 1995 fight film “Mortal Kombat” and his 2002 zombie flick “Resident Evil.” One can see what a sorry state we have been in if these two mediocre movies have been the high-water marks of something. Adapting video video games to the massive display has lengthy been difficult for Hollywood. These movies are sometimes lambasted as horrible and have sometimes bombed (“Kombat” and “Resident” however). Alternatively, Rocky Morton and Annabel Jankel’s 1993 adaptation of “Tremendous Mario Bros.” is deeply beloved by a passionate cult of weirdos who love its zany concepts (a cult I belong to), however most folk did not like how far the movie strayed from Shigeru Miyamoto’s Nintendo property.
There are various explanation why it is exhausting to adapt video video games into good motion pictures. For one, most video video games are predicated on motion and interactivity, whereas movies are passive and character-driven; the 2 media do not overlap neatly. Many video video games additionally elevate their premises from extant B-movies anyway, so adapting them again to movie seems like making a duplicate of a duplicate. (How would a “Metroid” movie, as an example, look terribly completely different from Ridley Scott’s “Alien?”) On high of that, many fashionable video video games have turn into so advanced that their tales and premises not lend themselves to useful, 120-minute movie packages. (Hence, the “Halo” movie was ultimately scrapped in favor of a TV series.)
Some latest movies have bucked the development, although. “The Tremendous Mario Bros. Film” was an enormous field workplace hit, “Werewolves Inside” is genuinely good, and youngsters appears to like these “Sonic the Hedgehog” motion pictures. Heck, even the mediocre “5 Nights at Freddy’s” attracted a big viewers.
However the mid-2000s have been a a lot completely different time. It was the time of “Doom,” “Resident Evil” sequels, and German director Uwe Boll. Certainly, Boll made 5 totally horrible online game diversifications within the 2000s, turning into infamous as one of many worst filmmakers of the trendy period.
And of the lot, his 2005 movie “Alone within the Darkish” may simply be the worst.
Alone within the Darkish is the worst-rated online game film on Metacritic, and that is saying one thing
The primary “Alone within the Darkish” online game was launched in 1992, however was solely accessible to play on residence PCs. It has been credited by the Guinness E book of World Information as the primary 3-D horror sport ever made. The primary “Alone within the Darkish” sport made for a house console was 2001’s “Alone within the Darkish: The New Nightmare.” Its launch noticed the franchise explode in reputation, so a function movie adaptation wasn’t far behind. The unique sport was set within the Nineteen Twenties and had gamers flee monsters to flee from a haunted mansion in Louisiana. The primary sequel was additionally set in Nineteen Twenties Louisiana, though the second sequel was set within the Mojave Desert in California. “New Nightmare” was the primary sport to be set within the current. In that sport, gamers needed to find mystical tablets with eerie, evil qualities.
Taking its cues from the 2001 sport, Boll’s “Alone within the Darkish” is about varied character retrieving magical artifacts of some sort and investigating their connection to a newly appeared pack of killer monsters that stalks and kills our heroes. Christian Slater stars as a mystical investigator with amnesia who’s looking for the items of his previous. In the meantime, Tara Reid performs the curator of the museum the place the majority of the movie’s motion takes place and Stephen Dorff portrays a solider-like agent working for the mysterious Bureau 713.
“Alone within the Darkish” options further twists involving the extraction of monster DNA, in addition to a number of scenes of individuals getting picked off by unconvincing monsters. The monsters can incubate inside human our bodies and produce their very own EMPs, ensuring the lights flip off wherever they go (therefore the title “Alone within the Darkish”). The truth that the monsters need to be in the dead of night seemingly saved the movie’s creatives some huge cash when it got here to visible results.
What critics mentioned about Alone within the Darkish
Nobody favored “Alone within the Darkish.” It presently has a 1% approval ranking on Rotten Tomatoes based mostly on 119 opinions. Ann Hornaday, writing for The Washington Post, felt that Boll’s movie was virtually unhealthy sufficient to be fulfilling, however by no means fairly reached that threshold of leisure, making it merely unhealthy. Scott Brown, writing for Entertainment Weekly, gave the movie an F, stating that it was so unhealthy, it counted as being postmodern. He additionally described it as a “film-like mass.” Jack Matthews, writing for the New York Day by day Information, argued that “Alone within the Darkish” seems like carrying a blindfold and deciding on one thing horrible at random at Blockbuster Video … after reaching into the trash can. And the Pulitzer-winning punsmith Justin Chang, writing for Variety, mentioned that Uwe Boll ought to put down his joystick, and quick.
In August 2024, Metacritic compiled 42 of the more high-profile films to have been based on video games and ranked them by favorability. The perfect-loved online game film was “Werewolves Inside,” and even that one solely had a 66-point optimistic appraisal. Nonetheless extremely rated was Anderson’s “Mortal Kombat,” as was the latest “Pokémon: Detective Pikachu.” “Alone within the Darkish” got here in lifeless final with a rating of 9.
Boll got here out poorly throughout the board on that very same listing. His “Home of the Lifeless” was ranked fortieth, his “Within the Title of the King: A Dungeon Siege Story” was thirty ninth, his “BloodRayne” was thirty sixth, and his “Postal” was thirty fourth.
Regardless of his horrible monitor document, Boll stays energetic, capable of safe massive identify actors in a pinch and full movies rapidly and underneath price range. In particular person, he is a charmer and has nice concepts. He made two movies — “First Shift” and “Bandidos” — in 2024 alone, and he has three extra in manufacturing. This was after Boll said he’d retire in 2016. “Alone within the Darkish” is fairly horrible, however Boll would not appear to thoughts. He was on to the following factor earlier than you even noticed it.
