Accept No Substitutes...

ALONE IN THE DARK-1982-Dr. Daniel Potter (Dwight Schultz) comes to work at a clinic for mental cases run by the eccentric pot smoking Dr. Leo Bain (Donald Pleasence). His star patients are Ronald Elster (Erland Van Lidth), a child molester, the paranoid Col. Hawkes (Jack Palance), ex-preacher Byron Sutcliff (Martin Landau), an arsonist and John Skaggs who strangles people when he gets a nose bleed. Hawkes believes Potter killed their former doctor and wants revenge (“There are no crazy people, doctor. We're all on vacation”). 

 At a club The Sic F*cks do “Chop Up Your Mother”. A blackout allows the nutty gang to escape. During a riot of stealing they get weapons. Skaggs leaves them but the rest go looking for Potter, whose sister meets a guy named Tom (Phillips Clark) at a “no nukes” rally and invites him to dinner at her brother's house. Tom helps fight off the loonies when they attack. Bain comes to help but Sutcliff cuts off his ear. (Bain is never seen again but I suppose he's killed) Despite helping the family (and killing Elster) Tom turns out to be “the bleeder” Skaggs but they kill him. 

When Hawkes closes in for the kill the electricity comes back on and a timely news report confirms the previous doctor is still alive. Hawkes evades the police, beats up a bouncer at a club and meets a weird woman while The Sic F*cks play. Hawkes pulls out his gun and points it at the woman. She just laughs. So does Hawkes. 

This was director Jack Sholder's first feature film and it's a great debut but after making NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 2: FREDDY'S REVENGE and THE HIDDEN he seemed to drift into TV movies. Both Palance and Landau went on to win Academy Awards.

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K-Horror

FEBRUARY 29-2006-This Korean horror tale begins with a young woman Ji-yeon relating a story to a reporter in an insane asylum where she is confined. It starts when she receives a bloody toll card from an unseen driver of a black car during a blackout. There is a murder and it seems there is someone going around impersonating her. It all has to do with a curse and a ghost that comes back every four years to kill. Two cops try to help her after her friend is murdered but wind up dead. It has a strange ending but really isn't better than any other Asian horror film in recent years. Directed by Jong-hun Jung.

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