20 years ago, Metacritic’s worst-rated Live-Action Video Game movie was released.
Paul W.S. Anderson’s 1995 combat blockbuster “Mortal Kombat” and his 2002 zombie movie “Resident Evil.” were the two most notable video game-based films for a long time.
If those two bad films were the pinnacle of anything, then it’s clear how regretful we were. Hollywood has always had a difficult time making video games suitable for the big screen.
These movies have mostly bombed and are frequently criticised as being awful (“Kombat” and “Resident” notwithstanding). On the other hand, a fervent cult of weirdos who appreciate its outrageous concepts (of which I am a part) adore Rocky Morton and Annabel Jankel’s 1993 adaptation of “Super Mario Bros.”
However, the majority of people disapproved of the film’s significant departure from Shigeru Miyamoto’s Nintendo IP.
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Alone in the Dark is Metacritic’s worst-rated video game movie
When the initial “Alone in the Dark” video game came out in 1992, it could only be played on personal computers. The Guinness Book of World Records claims that it was the first 3-D horror game ever created.
“Alone in the Dark: The New Nightmare,” released in 2001, was the first “Alone in the Dark” game designed for a home console. The popularity of the franchise skyrocketed after its publication, and a full film version followed shortly after.
Players in the original game had to escape a haunted Louisiana home in the 1920s while evading creatures. While the second sequel was set in California’s Mojave Desert, the first sequel was also set in Louisiana in the 1920s.
Set in the present, “New Nightmare” was the first game to do so. Players had to find mysterious tablets with sinister, spooky properties in that game.
What is ‘Alone In The Dark’ About?
Drawing inspiration from the 2001 video game, Boll’s “Alone in the Dark” follows a number of characters as they retrieve magical artefacts of some sort and look into how they relate to a new group of murderous monsters that chase and murder our heroes.
Christian Slater plays a paranormal investigator who is searching for the pieces of his past while suffering from amnesia. Stephen Dorff plays a soldier-like agent for the enigmatic Bureau 713, while Tara Reid plays the curator of the museum where the most of the movie’s action occurs.
Along with several sequences of people being picked off by unconvincing creatures, “Alone in the Dark” also includes extra twists concerning the extraction of monster DNA.
The title “Alone in the Dark” refers to the fact that the monsters can manufacture their own EMPs and incubate inside human bodies, ensuring that lights are turned off wherever they go. The filmmakers probably saved a lot of money on visual effects because the creatures must remain in the dark.
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What criticism did ‘Alone in the Dark’ face?
Nobody was fond of “Alone in the Dark.” Based on 119 reviews, it currently has a 1% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Writing for The Washington Post, Ann Hornaday said Boll’s movie was just horrible, never quite getting to the point where it was entertaining.
According to Entertainment Weekly writer Scott Brown, the movie was so awful that it qualified as postmodern. In addition, he called it a “film-like mass.”
“Alone in the Dark” is like putting on a blindfold and picking something awful at random from the trash can at Blockbuster Video, according to Jack Matthews, a writer for the New York Daily News.
Additionally, Variety writer Justin Chang, a Pulitzer Prize-winning pundit, advised Uwe Boll to quickly put down his joystick.
42 of the more well-known films that were based on video games were collated by Metacritic in August 2024, and they were ranked according to their favorability. Even “Werewolves Within,” the most popular video game film, received a favourable rating of just 66 points.
Anderson’s “Mortal Kombat” and the new “Pokémon: Detective Pikachu” were still well regarded. “Alone in the Dark” received a score of nine, placing it in last place.
On that same ranking, Boll performed poorly overall. His books “House of the Dead” came in at number 40, “In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale” at number 39, “BloodRayne” at number 36, and “Postal” at number 34.
Boll continues to work despite his appalling record, finding well-known actors when needed and finishing projects fast and within budget. He has brilliant ideas and is a charmer in person.
In 2024 alone, he produced two films, “First Shift” and “Bandidos,” and he is currently working on three more. Boll had previously stated that he would retire in 2016. He doesn’t seem to worry that the film is quite bad. Before you knew it, he had already moved on to the next thing.
