Why Alone In The Dark Is Called One Of The Worst Horror Movies Ever Made – Screen Rant

Alone in the Dark's failure with audiences and critics alike is not the biggest reason why it's called one of the worst horror movies of all time.

Uwe Boll's Alone in the Dark was a commercial and critical failure, but this is not thebiggest reason it's called one of the worst horror movies ever made. Many horror movies that are now considered good or even masterpiecesJohn Carpenter's The Thing for examplewere originally considered unwatchable. Alone in the Dark is not one of those movies. Today, more than fifteen years after its release, it is still considered one of the worst horror movies of all time. Instead of being one of cinema's unacknowledged greats, it is widely considered a great example of how not to make a horror movie (or any other kind of movie for that matter). Chances are good that its bad reputation will never change.

Alone in the Dark earns itsstatus for many reasons, but perhaps the biggest is that it lacks self-awareness,similarly to its director. The movie is clearly a tribute to horror movies of all kinds, including some very specific horror movie titles, like Alien and Relic, which Boll himself has said were a big influence. However, this tribute to the genre fails wildly because the movie doesn't seem to be aware of how much it actually owes to other movies. Much like the director, Alone in the Dark mistakes its mimicry for imagination.

Related:Why Alone In The Dark Got A Sequel (Despite The Brutal Reviews)

Instead of respectfully referencing its influences with a new twist or a fresh story, Alone in the Dark merely smashes together bland versions of them. It's a muddy pastiche of styles, each of which never has enough room to work in any effective way on the screen.Amid all the clumsily incorporated horror movie tropes, which are all valid out of context, Alone in the Dark never adds its own voiceperhaps because it doesn't have one. The movie is highly derivative, yet it seems completely unaware of this fact. It seems to regard its imitation as ingenuity, much like Boll himself.

Alone in the Dark undoubtedly deserves its reputation as one of the worst horror movies ever made; however, it is not completely devoid of value. Every failure for an artist is an opportunity to learn something. Even if Uwe Boll doesn't want to learn from his mistakes in Alone in the Dark, other directors still can. Looking back at the work of any artist is likely to reveal low points and high pointsmoments of failure that the director accepts, reviews, and uses later to make better movies. This is how an artist hones their craft. In interviews, Boll seems to resist developing his craft in this way. As a director, he has certainly evolved, but always on his own terms, never accepting feedback and criticism from others.

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Why Alone In The Dark Is Called One Of The Worst Horror Movies Ever Made - Screen Rant