Walking home one night from work Shelly Warner (Kathy Richards) is attacked and murdered by an assailant. Shelly was decapitated. At the same time, at a private yacht party, a physic named De Renzey (Jacquelyn Hyde) gets a premonition of the violent death of a young wanna be actor, Randy Morse (Jeffery Reese). When she learns about the death of Shelly Warner, De Renzey goes to police detective Dave Mooney (Richard Jaekell) and his partner Detective Jack Bresler (Biff Elliot) to warn them, but they dismiss her as a crackpot.
Roy Warner (William Devane) is an ex-con who served time for the murder of his then wife’s lover. Roy had done his time and is now, using the pen name Steve Dupree, the author of several crime fiction books. He was also Shelly’s father. Mooney recognizes Warner because he was the cop who had arrested him for the murder. Warner, not happy with the job the police are doing, decides to investigate on his own.
The next night a security guard at an ice factory, Henry Lydell (Vernon Washington) is decapitated. Reporter Zoe Owens (Cathy Lee Crosby) convinces her boss, Sherman Moss (Keenan Wynn) to let her investigate the murders. The papers begin calling the killer, the Mangler. Warner and Zoe team up to search for the killer as the Mangler claims more victims.
“The Dark” was released in 1979 and was directed by John Cardos and Tobe Hooper. It is an American science fiction horror thriller. Originally Hooper was hired to direct the film, but delays in shooting caused the filmmakers to ditch Hooper and bring in Cardos.
Supposedly, the original script for the movie was about a mentally challenged child that was locked in an attic until he was an adult. During a house fire, he managed to escape and began killing indiscriminately. Then the killer was a zombie type creature of a resurrected insane 100-year-old cannibal. Most of the movie was filmed before a final change was made. Near the end of the shoot, the producers decided to try to cash in on the release of “Alien” 1979, so rewrites were done and additional footage shot to make the killer an alien from outer space. To help change the character they give it alien powers. He was given laser eyes that caused fiery explosions and superhuman strength. None of this really worked.
I can’t even guarantee that the original plot was any better, but to change plots midstream, so to speak, promoted confusion and caused people to basically disengage from the storyline. In addition, not everything was corrected in the new plot which, again, sows confusion. Basically, the titular monster went from being a homicidal maniac to an alien from outer space who looked like a werewolf in a lumberjack outfit that blows people up with his laser eyes and magically decapitates them.
I had hopes for the movie but unfortunately it didn’t really deliver. There are far too many characters that weren’t reworked into the new plot very well and some plot points that were never updated to reflect the new story.
DJ Casey Kasem has a cameo as a police pathologist. Keenan Wynn is fairly prominent as Sherman “Sherm” Moss, the television station owner. The Mangler, AKA The Dark, was played by John Bloom. One of the producers of the film was Dick Clark. Miami Vice’s Philip Michael Thomas has a small role as a punk.