THE DARK (1979)

  Easily forgettable title and an equally fairly forgettable film that deals with a monster from outer space, nicknamed "The Mangler" ripping people's heads off and shooting killer laser beams out of it's eyeballs. You would think that maybe with some better FX this would have made more of a splash but apparently this movie was originally supposed to be a pretty standard slasher-type deal with an actual human killer but then a little movie named ALIEN came out which caused producers to switch gears and do a bunch of re-shoots to scenes which I'm guessing didn't help the outcome of the final product. You get some decent acting by Cathy Lee Crosby, William Devane and even American Top 40 radio program host Casey Kasem but it doesn't help enough to give this one a higher ranking.   

 Director John 'Bud' Cardos(who replaced Tobe Hooper after he split) would go on to make that  zombie/monster movie MUTANT a few years later which has similar generic elements but I think was an overall improvement.  AKA THE MUTILATOR