The Dark screens tonight, Tuesday September 28th, at 9:45 p.m. as part of the "Terror Tuesday" series at the Alamo Drafthouse Ritz, 320 East Sixth Street in downtown Austin.
1979's sci-fi schlockfest The Dark looked a lot different on paper than what eventually ended up on the screen. Tobe Hooper (Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Lifeforce) was hired to direct a horror flick about a feral zombie-type killer who escapes its chains to wreak havoc on the citizenry, a la The Beast Within and The Shuttered Room. Executive Producer Dick Clark (the "American Bandstand" host who branched out into film production with such '60s B-flicks as Killers Three and Psych-Out) decided that, given the recent box office success of Alien and Close Encounters, among others, that the monster should be of extraterrestrial origin rather than a mutant in the basement.
An extraterrestrial with eyes that shoot deadly laser beams, to be precise.
By that time, Hooper had long since been replaced by journeyman director (and former stuntman) John "Bud" Cardos (Kingdom of the Spiders), who managed to give the film his trademark flat, fast, and cheap visual style while also coaxing hammy performances from a cast of slumming character actors including William Devane, Richard Jaeckel, Keenan Wynn, and Casey Kasem. Bland Barbie doll Cathy Lee Crosby plays the female lead, Vivian Blaine (best known as Adelaide from Guys & Dolls) plays "Courtney Floyd," and future "Miami Vice" star Phillip Michael Thomas plays "Cornrows."
As the Alamo's "Terror Tuesday" programmer Zack Carlson puts it, "This space-scented Hollywood cast-off was butchered by the studio before it even hit the abortion room floor. Originally planned as a zombie film to be directed by young upstart Tobe Hooper, the project got de-animated and re-mangled to capitalize on the decade's alien-mania. With stuntman/low-budget demigod "Bud" Cardos at the helm, the movie's lead zombie was magically transformed to a galactic maniac who shoots dollar store laserbeams from his eyes and treats human heads like Pez dispensers. This asteroid-riding mother tears through the streets of L.A. like The Ultimate Warrior shot up with PCP and unleashed on a Carnival Cruise ship. Casey Kasem, Cathy Lee Crosby, Richard Jaeckel and Rolling Thunder's William Devane are all lined up for the slaughter, but this spazzoid invader's not gonna let up until he's upset and/or decapitated every person in the unemployed celebrity phone book."
The Dark is mostly terrible, but worth watching for the cheesy mayhem in the laserific showdown with the LAPD in the final reel.
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