Alone in the Dark review: Celebrity cast muddle through a macabre mansion mystery

The developers of Alone in the Dark picked two superb actors in Jodie Comer (Killing Eve) and David Harbour (Stranger Things) but neither lends much weight to this glossy yet muddled reboot of the 1992 survival horror classic. As in the original and its nods to HP Lovecraft, the plot centres on a detective assisting a woman whose uncle has vanished from a macabre Louisiana mansion.

Harbour plays investigator Edward Carnaby with Comer as distressed niece Emily Hartwood, the game giving you the choice at the outset of either character as the main protagonist for the entire running time. Instead of keeping the two together to spark off each other, though, the plot ensures their paths rarely cross for the remainder of the story – despite both supposed to be searching the same eerie property for clues.

Perhaps that’s the reason why Harbour and Comer’s performances seem so muted – they are (almost) alone in the dark. Whichever character you choose, you slowly explore the multi-storey building, which functions as some sort of 1920s asylum populated by a handful of oddballs, not all of who are patients. The mansion impresses with its meticulously faded detail and faint air of menace – every room creaking and groaning, doors closing behind you with a sudden thud, and the occasional jump scare.

But the real terrors emerge in the dream sequences, which are tied to the area’s voodoo history and transport you to decayed versions of existing rooms or other locations such as a moonlit desert and crumbling riverboat.

The developers give you plenty of eye-candy in their set designs, some thorny puzzles and deft questioning of your own sanity. But these positives are also juxtaposed with clumsy combat – particularly up close when the third-person camera loses the run of itself – and some insultingly easy lock/key obstacles where the solution is just a few feet away.

Other details make little sense. Why does Emily carry a tubular leather case containing a painting on her back for the duration of the game? What is the point of a rarely necessary dodge move that comes into play only in the closing phase?

The ending of the game encourages you to replay the narrative from the viewpoint of the other character – in theory, illuminating the story from a new angle. But with little difference in their abilities and relatively few divergences in how it all unfolds, you’ll probably end up disappointed.

That’s not to say this 2024 do-over is unworthy of one playthrough, especially now a month after release that many bugs have been ironed out. It has entertaining moments of visual splendour jostling against creeping dread but ultimately is a glimpse of unfulfilled potential.