Edward Carnby

Alone In The Dark

Edward Carnby made his first appearance in the original Alone In The Dark game as one of the two selectable characters. The other being is Emily Hartwood, the niece of Jeremy Hartwood who killed himself in an old mansion called Derceto. In the game, the player has to guide either Edward or Emily separately through the mansion and fight against zombies, giant rats and ghosts. Carnby and Emily eventually encounter the ghost of the pirate Ezechiel Pregzt, and defeat it, before exiting the house. After this, Carnby would be referred to by journalists as the "Supernatural Private Eye".

Alone In The Dark 2

In this game, Carnby is send on an investigation to find a little girl named Grace Saunders who is kidnapped in a mansion called Hell's Kitchen. The main antagonists are Elizabeth Jarret and her lover, One Eyed Jack. During the investigation, Carnby finds the body of his dead friend Ted Stryker, another investigator who was sent to find Grace as well but was killed in action by a possessed clown. This motivates Carnby to carry on with the investigation. Although Carnby is eventually captured, Grace is temporarily free to explore her surroundings and together, they unite to put an end to Elizabeth and One Eyed Jack, and flee in a rowing boat.

Alone In The Dark 3

The premise in Alone In The Dark 3 is Edward Carnby visiting a ghost town called Slaughter's Gulch in the Mojave Desert. His mission is to find Emily Hartwood, the same protagonist in Alone In The Dark. During his investigation he stumbles upon Jed Stone, a feared outlaw thought to be dead. During the course of the game, Carnby is turned into a mountain lion as the result of a magical spell, and players must control Carnby as a lion for a short while. The player then briefly takes control of Emily at the end of the game to free Carnby from the predicament.

Alone In The Dark: The New Nightmare

Charles Fiske, Edward Carnby's partner and best friend has been reported dead off the coast of Shadow Island. Carnby decides to investigate his best friend's death which leads him to meet with Frederick Johnson, Johnson informs Carnby of three ancient stone tablets that Fiske was searching for. Johnson requests that Carnby should take up Fiske's investigation and to search for the tablets. Carnby accepts that it is his personal priority however, is to find whoever killed Fiske. Johnson introduces Carnby to Aline Cedrac, a young and intelligent university professor. Aline accompanies Carnby to Shadow Island to help recover the tablets as well as to assist Professor Obed Morton, who she believes is her long-lost father. As their plane nears the coast of Shadow Island, it comes under attack by a creature of the island, which forces them to parachute out of the plane. They are seperated, Aline landing atop the roof of a mansion and Carnby landing in some woods nearby.

Alone In The Dark

Originally called Near Death Investigation and Alone In The Dark 5, Alone In The Dark sets in a new storyline that ignores the previous games completely. The game starts off with Edward Carnby who wakes up in a skyscraper building in New York with no memory of who he is and how he got there in the first place. As he progresses through the building, he realizes that some strange force is killing everybody around him and turning them into demonic beings. Not only that, the building itself comes to life and its crumbling down bit by bit.

Carnby then meets Sarah Flores, an art dealer who is in the wrong place at the wrong time and decides to follow him. The two then confront Theophile Paddington, an old man who claims to know what is going on in this city. It seems that the chaos was caused by a mystical stone that Edward had in possession previously. However, the stone was stolen by a man named Crowley who was responsible for unleashing its power. By releasing the stone's potential, it sacrifices the memory of the carrier which explains why Carnby is suffering from amnesia. Paddington now has the stone and instructs Carnby to follow the "Path of Light" in order to stop the chaos. After passing the stone back to Carnby, the old man shoots himself in the head and dies.

During his journey at Central Park, where the source of the chaos is located, he discovers that his last name is Carnby, he is over a 100 years old and Paddington was a student of his. As he visits a museum instructed by the old man, Carnby meets the ghost of Paddington who explains more about the stone. It contained Lucifer after he was cast out of heaven, until Crowley released him. Lucifer now wants to use the stone to bring about the end of the world. Theophile tells Edward that there is a secret in Central Park that will allow Edward to stop Lucifer. As Edward makes his way back to Central Park, Sarah remains at the museum, e-mailing excerpts from Theophile’s diary that she believes will help Edward. Once at Central Park, Edward meets Hermes, who holds a stone similar to the one that Edward has.

Edward and Hermes return to the museum to find Crowley holding Sarah at gunpoint, demanding Edward’s stone. Edward shoots Crowley in the head, then Hermes opens a cavern in the museum that leads to Lucifer’s gateway to reality. Hermes combines his stone with Edward’s then tells Edward that Lucifer will soon be reincarnated. As Lucifer begins to take Edward’s body, Sarah grabs the stone to prevent Edward from being possessed. At this point, the player is presented a choice to shoot Sarah to prevent her from being possessed, or do nothing. If the player chooses to shoot Sarah, Edward becomes possessed by Lucifer. Otherwise, Edward and Sarah say goodbye as Sarah is taken over.

Movie Adaptation

In the film adaptation of Alone In The Dark directed by Uwe Boll, Edward Carnby was portrayed by Christian Slater. The film was heavily panned by critics for its bad acting and awful special effects. Originally, the script was to stay close to the source material as much as possible by involving Edward Carnby investigating paranormal activities in a dark horror, HP Lovecraft style. Uwe Boll rejected the script and decided to make the film his own way. The film ended being more action-oriented and lighter in tone that involved gun battles, car chases and love scenes. It had little to do with the gaming franchise altogether. It received the score of 1% in RottenTomatoes and had won several awards for worst director, worst picture, worst special effects and worst actress (Tara Reid).

In the sequel Alone In The Dark II, Edward Carnby was portrayed by Korean American Rick Yune.

Music

Upon the release of some of the early footage for Alone in the Dark (2008) popular European Trance artist Tiesto published a song named after the character Edward Carnby to go along with the released footage. Whether the song was made out of some deep passion for the franchise or the character on Tiesto's part or if there was some corporate handshaking is unknown.