This Christian Slater Movie Is The Worst Video Game Adaptation Ever Made
Not every cinematic or episodic adaptation of a video game pans out very well. Some of them, like the apocalyptic thriller show "Fallout", have enjoyed good reception from critics and viewers alike. But when it comes to the duds, some end up getting left in the dust to attract flies and vultures. Over the years, the world has been privy to many great video game movies and shows, but also many bad ones. If we had to choose one that was worse than all the rest, we'd have to go with the 2005 film adaptation of "Alone in the Dark."
The movie stars Christian Slater as Edward Carnby, a paranormal investigator who stumbles upon a supernatural force that threatens humanity. Directed by Uwe Boll and written by Elan Mastai, Michael Roesch, and Peter Scheerer, "Alone in the Dark" ended up bombing hard at the box office. It was produced on a budget of $20 million, but the film only grossed $12.7 million worldwide. Both critics and audiences tore it to pieces. Rotten Tomatoes gave it a 1% approval rating (based on 120 reviews), and it only landed a 9 out of 100 score at Metacritic.
The overwhelming consensus is that the movie is about as close to actual garbage as it gets. Writing for The A.V. Club, journalist Keith Phipps makes an apt warning: "Beware the film that confuses before it even begins." The film is a confounding 90-minute journey with a meandering narrated introduction that explains next to nothing pertinent about what's happening. In a review for The New York Times, critic Stephen Holden described the film as "so inept on every level, you wonder why the distributor didn't release it straight to video, or better, toss it directly into the trash."
Good video game adaptations do exist — Alone in the Dark just isn't one of them
Before Universal Pictures took a successful stab at the Mario franchise with 2023's "The Super Mario Bros. Movie," Disney — operating under its now-defunct Hollywood Pictures label — tried its hand at a live-action Mario adaptation in 1993 with "Super Mario Bros." It infamously fumbled, but at the very least, it featured the triple-threat talent trio that is Bob Hoskins, John Leguizamo, and Dennis Hopper. The casting there may have had something to do with the movie catching another chance at adaptation, albeit in animated form the next time around. Ultimately, some video game adaptations go quite well at the outset, while others end up developing a cult following, like the 1994 "Street Fighter" release did.
In contrast, although the film is over 20 years old now, horror genre devotees can't even seem to enjoy the "Alone in the Dark" movie as a campy cult classic. One would think the chances of a cinematic comeback for such a film would be slim to none, but somehow, the movie received a sequel in 2008 that featured a brand-new cast and a story that's totally unrelated to the games. Unsurprisingly, this 2008 version didn't go well, either; "Alone in the Dark 2" was only released theatrically in the United Arab Emirates, where it grossed a mere $133,867, per Box Office Mojo.
Many of us are still reeling from the box office flop that was Eli Roth's 2024 adaptation of the "Borderlands" series, but other adaptations do at least have fans toeing the line between love and hate, such as HBO Max's "The Last of Us." But when it comes to bad game adaptations, there is at least one silver lining: you can always play the original video game source material to cleanse your palate from the taste of their less-than-stellar cinematic or episodic counterparts.