Director John "Bud" Carlos cannot fill even the toes of Tobe Hooper's shoes, as he tries in vain to replace Hooper as the director for this muddled mess of a film. The film doesn't know where it is going at all. Is it science fiction about an alien coming to our planet to bring death and destruction? Is it horror where men and women are turned into zombies? Is it a comedy where two cops say inane lines all the while one of the "fat" cops eats doughnuts and various other foodstuffs? If I had to pick I would go with sci-fi, but that is only because the film promotes the alien theory in the end. But much of the film makes it appear as if zombies were an integral part of the plot. The whole scene played by pathologist Casey Kasem(AKA Shaggy)suggests that. This film is just bad all over. The story is its major weakness, but how about the inspired casting of Cathy Lee Crosby as the female lead and William Devane as the male lead. Neither one is a great actor...neither one is a particularly good actor come to think of it...yet, both are expected to carry a film with major script problems on their very small acting shoulders. Devane comes out a bit better, but he has nothing to work with. Throw in some other mediocre talents like Richard Jaeckel and Biff Elliot as the two "stupid" policemen, Keenan Wynn hamming it up as only he can, and Casey "I'm not an actor" Kasem into the mix and you start to realize just how bad this film probably is. Special effects are nothing more than a red light beam coming from an alien that is a tall guy in an outfit. The film was choppily edited, poorly lit, and rather tiresome in a bad television movie kind of way.
Review of The Dark
