Of course I had never heard about the 1979 movie "The Dark", but as I stumbled upon it here in 2024, and finding the movie's cover to be interesting, then of course I had to sit down and watch it. And with it being a horror movie that I hadn't already seen, then the allure of watching it was all the bigger.
The storyline in "The Dark", as written by Stanford Whitmore, was pretty straightforward. It wasn't a particularly outstanding script, and it made for an adequate enough single viewing. However, I doubt that I will ever return to watch it a second time, despite the fact that Tobe Hooper was one of the directors.
There are some familiar faces on the cast list, with the likes of William Devane, Cathy Lee Crosby, Warren J. Kemmerling, Casey Kasem and a few others. The acting performances in "The Dark" were actually good. And that certainly helped to lift up and otherwise somewhat bland storyline to make it more bearable to sit through.
I am not sure what I was looking at, in terms of the creature running around killing people. It was sort of a strange mixture between the Hulk from the TV series, mixed with Frankenstein's monster, mixed with zombie, mixed with whatever is capable of shooting lasers from its eyes. It was a confusing mixture to say the least.
The effects in the movie are adequate, when you take into consideration that they were made in 1979. Of course they are showing signs of aging, no doubt about that.
"The Dark" wasn't a movie that impressed me and I was only somewhat slightly entertained throughout the course of the 92 minutes that the movie ran for.
My rating of "The Dark", from directors John 'Bud' Cardos and Tobe Hooper, lands on a generous four out of ten stars.