Director Uwe Boll’s adaptation of the horror video game, Alone in the Dark, was released in 2005 and has gone down in history as the worst video game movie ever made with an abysmal score on Rotten Tomatoes. Originally developed by Infogrames in 1992, the Alone in the Dark video game franchise typically follows private investigator, Edward Carnby, who spends his time searching for unᴅᴇᴀᴅ creatures who pose a threat to humanity. The video game franchise has seen the release of several sequels and a 2024 reboot of the original Alone in the Dark, which was met with positive reviews.

Since the 1990s, several movies based on popular video games have been released, which have seen varying degrees of critical success. Recent movies such as Detective Pikachu (2019), the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise (2020), and The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023) have been ranked as some of the best video game movies ever made, due to their faithfulness to the original source material and performances. Others, such as Uncharted (2022) and A Minecraft Movie (2025), have received mixed reviews but were financially successful. Despite the improvements, 2005’s Alone in the Dark ranks as one of the worst horror movies ever made.

Alone In The Dark Is The Lowest-Rated Video Game Movie On Rotten Tomatoes

Alone In The Dark Was Directed By Uwe Boll

The 2005 movie adaptation of Alone in the Dark starred Christian Slater as Edward Carby, alongside Tara Reid and Stephen Dorff. The movie depicted Edward Carby teaming up with his former partner, Aline Cedric, and Commander Richard Burke, to investigate the works of a mysterious tribe called the Abkani that disappeared centuries prior. The group is also forced to deal with attacks from supernatural creatures connected to the tribe. Alone in the Dark was panned by critics upon release and ranks as the lowest-rated video game movie on Rotten Tomatoes, with a score of only 1%.

Alone in the Dark was heavily criticized for its confusing plot, lackluster acting, Boll’s direction and production, poor horror sequences, and lack of faithfulness to the source material; many critics have cited it as one of the worst movies of all time. In an interview, the screenwriter, Blair Erickson, revealed that his original script was more faithful to the video game franchise, but Boll was “angry” with the result and demanded multiple changes (via Something Awful). Alone in the Dark was also one of several video game movies that bombed at the box office, grossing only $12.7 million off a budget of $20 million.

Alone In The Dark Somehow Got A Sequel 3 Years Later (And It Was Just As Bad)

Uwe Boll Served As Producer On The Sequel

Despite its critical failings and its poor box office results, Alone in the Dark received a sequel in 2008. The role of Edward Carnby was recast to Rick Yune after Christian Slater chose not to return and the squel depicts Carnby teaming up with a former witch-hunter named Abner Lundberg (Lance Henriksen) to track down a witch, Elisabeth Dexter (Allison Lange), who intends to steal the soul of a young woman named Natalie (Rachel Specter). Uwe Boll returned to the movie franchise as a producer, while both Peter Sheerer and Michael Roesch served as co-directors.

Similar to its predecessor, Alone in the Dark II proved to be a disappointment with viewers and was criticized as a dull and unnecessary sequel to a poorly rated movie. However, the sequel did receive praise from critics for being more faithful to the original games, its production and the performance of Rick Yune as Edward Carnby; it has been considered to be significantly better than the original movie (via IGN). The 2005 movie, Alone in the Dark, has since been recognized as a “so bad, it’s good” adaptation of the popular video game franchise.

Sources: Rotten Tomatoes, Something Awful, IGN