Jack Palance stars as an axe wielding serial killer who, thanks to a major power cut, escapes from the Haven Maximum Security Mental Institution. Along with a gang of psychopaths, he attempts to lay siege to the psychiatrists who have tormented the patients at this establishment over the years with their bizarre theories.

To the rescue is the late Donald Pleasance, in the pinnacle of his elderly horror career, as a nut-job who was Palance's inmate at the institute.

There is an opening dream sequence involving Martin Landau (who must have fleed the production) that has no relevence to the plot, and most of the characters who are introduced disappear with no explaination. As with Halloween, the entire duration of the film covers just one evening. After Alone ended, I found myself asking the question: "Who was alone and where was the dark?"

The low point: An African American detective investigating the rash of murders by Palance forgets his lines at a dinner table and, hence, begins improvising.

The high point: It was shot on film, not video (I guess that's a plus judging by some other movies on this site).

Director Jack Sholder was later responsible for Freddy's Revenge, the worst film in the Nightamre on Elm Street Series. Just a warning: This is WORSE. It has a run time of 92 minutes and recieves a modest cheese rating. Not boring; but not consistantly hilarious. Drinking before watching may induce the cheese effect and is recommended.