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Alone in the Dark II. Item #: CJ5032. Your Selected Format. Size, Product Type. 11' x 17' (27.9cm x 43.2cm), Poster. View Additional Products.
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' In 1967, mine workers discovered the first remnants of a long lost Native American civilization - The Abkani. The Abkani believed that there are two worlds on this planet, a world of light and a world of darkness.
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10,000 years ago the Abkani opened a gate between these worlds. Before they could close it, something evil slipped through. The Abkani mysteriously vanished from the Earth. Only a few artifacts remained, hidden in the world's most remote places.
These artifacts speak of terrifying creatures that thrive in the darkness, waiting for the day when the gate can be opened again. Bureau 713, the government's paranormal research agency, was established to uncover the dark secrets of this lost civilization. Under the direction of archaeologist Lionel Hudgens, Bureau 713 began collecting Abkani artifacts. When the government shut down his controversial research, Hudgens built a laboratory hidden within an abandoned gold mine.
There, he conducted savage experiments on orphaned children in an attempt to merge man with creature. Hudgens victims survived as 'sleepers' - lost souls awaiting the moment of their calling.' Alone in the Dark, released in 2005 and directed by Uwe Boll, is a very loose adaptation of that popularized and the genre of video games. The film uses a few character names and basic plot elements from 2001's, but this is where the similarities between the two continuities end.The film begins with an extended opening text crawl (narrated!) that tries to shed some light on the story, which involves, an experiment by a named Lionel Hudgens (Matthew Walker), and an orphanage from which he took many of his test subjects. One of these orphans, paranormal investigator Edward Carnby , is called upon to investigate the remnants of the Abkani, hoping to find out how that's connected to his past. What follows is a chain of events that brings Edward back to his old girlfriend, Aline Cedrac.
Eventually, the two of them run into members of Bureau 713 (of which Edward is coincidentally a former member), fight off hordes of aliens, and engage Hudgens in a final showdown.A direct-to-video sequel entitled Alone in the Dark II was released in 2008, starring Rick Yune as Edward Carnsby, Bill Moseley,. Uwe Boll produced, but did not direct, the second movie (the actual directors, Peter Scheerer and Michael Roesch, were also the directors for the sequel ). Alone in the Dark provides examples of:.: Hudgens' secret lab (which is also) where he performed his experiments on orphans is inside an abandoned gold mine.: So where exactly is 'New-FOUND-land', Dr. Cedrac?.: Carnby manages to initiate a somersault kick while lying on his back, violating several different laws of physics in the process.: One character dies from a bullet that obviously misses her by about two feet. Considering how all the bullet effects were CGI, therefore post-production, one can conclude that they clearly didn't give a damn.: If their appearance wasn't obvious enough, the monsters are even called '.: Stephen Dorff as Richard Burke.: Aline shows up at Carnby's home while he's sleeping and they just start boning.
And they never speak of it again.: For about the first half hour no bullets can be seen outside of Carnby's (pointless) bullet time sequence.
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(Welcome to, a series that explores the weird and wild world of direct-to-video sequels to theatrically released movies. This week, we take an unwise look at the sequel to what’s regarded by many to be the worst video game adaptation ever made. )Film adaptations of video games would kill to get even a sliver of the respect and success currently afforded movies based on comic book superheroes, but instead they’ll have to settle for articles about the apparent impossible nature of making a great one. Why is it so damn difficult bringing a video game to the screen? No one knows for sure, but in 2005 someone invested over $20 million in the hopes that Uwe Boll might be the filmmaker to break the curse with an adaptation of one of the first (and still one of the best) 3rd-person survival horror games.It’s okay to laugh. Alone in the Dark is the second of six different video games that Boll has brought to the screen — the others being House of the Dead (2003), BloodRayne (2005), Postal (2007), In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale (2007), and Far Cry (2008) — and its 1% score on Rotten Tomatoes is somehow more embarrassing than a flat zero. (It’s worth noting that the six films have a collective RT score of 21%.
That’s not an average, that’s a combined total.) The film bombed in every conceivable way, so of course three years later a sequel was released straight to video. And now, for you, I have watched Alone in the Dark II.The Beginning – Alone in the Dark (2005)Many, many years ago, an ancient civilization discovered — and stupidly opened — the door to another world filled with evils beyond imagining (except by underpaid and overworked interns at a third-rate digital animation company). Their existence ended with their disappearance, but legend states that before they vanished they hid special artifacts around the world that hold the power to reopen the doorway to the other dimension.
Edward Carnby (Christian Slater) is a modern day detective familiar with the supernatural, and together with a genius archaeologist (Tara Reid) and the bad-ass commander (Stephen Dorff) of secret government agency they might just be the only hope the world has at surviving the coming darkness.The DTV Plot – Alone in the Dark II (2008). The sequel does little to respect the first film and instead feels like a reboot of sorts. It does, however, show a bit more respect towards the original video game series. The first game, released in 1992 on PCs, is a small-scale adventure as Edward faces off against ghost, monsters, and puzzles in a haunted Louisiana mansion. It’s a creepy little affair, and the sequel returns to that more confined story line with its tale of an angry witch and the folks fighting against her evil efforts. Similarly, while the character of Edward Carnby remains throughout the game series the stories are individual tales of supernatural horrors and threats, and to that end this film’s standalone feel suits the source material well. It ultimately improves on the first to a degree by localizing the terror and focusing on the characters involved, but unfortunately, it’s not enough to actually make it a good film.How the Sequel Shits on the OriginalCan you shit on shit?
I mean, obviously you can, but does it make it shittier? I’ll leave that question to science, but for now I’ll point out that the sequel’s biggest diss towards the first film is in not addressing that ending. Spoiler incoming for a movie you’ve never seen or have regrets about watching, but the 2005 original takes a bold step with its ending by having Edward and his gal pal stop the demonic invasion but wipe out all of humanity in the process. It’s honestly the best thing about the movie, and it leaves the couple wandering alone in an otherwise empty world. That’s dark!The sequel, though, ignores all of that. It also posits Edward as a man working alone without the unwelcome aid of Bureau 713 and their vast military resources. Not a bad thing in the grand scheme seeing as the smaller scale is welcome, but it leaves the film and lead character feeling like they could have been called anything else resulting in the same outcome.
Additionally, while the scale honors the games it makes the odd choice of knocking Edward out of commission for a large chunk of the film. The witch hunters get more of the action — which it should be added, is never all that exciting and instead annoys as they continually shoot at the ethereal witch despite the bullets having no effect — but there’s no reason to care about them as characters. We don’t know them, we don’t want to know them, and then they’re dead. Witches man, witches.ConclusionThere was promise in a DTV sequel to a universally reviled film — could Alone in the Dark 2 be the home video unicorn? A DTV sequel that’s actually better than the first? — but unfortunately the movie is simply bad and underwhelming in its own ways. The first is dumb, this one’s boring.
The first is miscast, this one’s boring. The first features some unimpressive effects, this one’s boring. You get the idea. It’s a damn shame, too, as the games offer a wealth of material for fun cinematic adventures with the supernatural detective facing off against Lovecraftian creatures, ghostly pirates, and more.
You can skip the movies, but if you have access to a DOS PC or a 3DO I highly recommend you give the games a spin.
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March 2023
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