Midnight

(**1/2 out of *****) Actually, I'm not quite sure what to think about this movie -- it's very cheap-looking, the original songs have that terrible '70s/'80s cheesiness, it's cruel and sadistic (in the opening, pre-credits scene, for instance, a young girl is caught in a bear trap and beaten to death with a stick!), the acting's mostly pretty weak, and the dialogue is awful (honestly, it couldn't be more stiff if you added heavy starch.) Just the same, there's something so luridly compelling and skin-crawlingly depraved about the whole thing (particularly the second half) that I guess I can understand why it has become something of an underground cult favorite among people like -- well, hell -- among people like me. Nancy Johnson plays a teenager who, after almost getting raped by her alcoholic stepfather (Lawrence Tierney, who ends up being the hero!), runs away from home and is picked up by a couple of young shoplifters (John Hall and Charles Jackson) on their way to Daytona. Unfortunately for them, they get sidetracked along the way in the typical, backwoods, deep-South `town from Hell,' where racist townsfolk, murderous psychopaths and satanic hillbillies (including horror movie vet John Amplas) abound. There are disturbing religious undertones (the movie opens with Johnson, a lapsed Catholic, giving her confessions to a priest) that don't exactly sit well alongside graphic scenes of throats being sliced open and blood being drank at a black mass. Still, there's just enough of a creepy, claustrophobic sort of "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" atmosphere to make this one worth sticking out to the grisly finale. The always-resourceful Tom Savini provided the bloody effects (mostly involving long butcher knives and gunshots to heads). Russo also wrote the book (and the screenplay) on which this movie is based, so he has no one to blame for the crummy, stilted dialogue but himself.

HIGHLIGHT: After a so-so first half, the movie takes a nightmarish turn as Johnson finds herself locked up in a dog cage with another girl, waiting to be sacrificed to Satan at midnight on Easter Sunday. Hey, that deserves half a star for some kind of originality.

This is actually a pretty good low budget horror film. It does bear the marks of a regional production (filmed in Pennsylvania), complete with the (mostly) amateurish acting that fans come to expect in such a thing. It does indeed start slow, so people may have a hard time sticking with it, but it's worth it in the end. The story is a familiar one, but is well realized by writer / director John A. Russo (an associate of George A. Romero who'd co-written the classic "Night of the Living Dead"), who adapted his own novel. Tom Savini supplies some typically well done splatter, but certainly the best aspect to the presentation are the very rural settings that give "Midnight" some potent atmosphere.

Melanie Verlin - in the first of only two movie roles - stars as Nancy, who has to live with a policeman stepfather (legendary tough guy and wildman Lawrence Tierney) who's a lecherous alcoholic. After he harasses her, she runs away from home, hooking up with seemingly nice young guys Tom (John Hall) and Hank (Charles Jackson). After they get her involved with their (mild) life of crime, she ends up in the backwoods where she's soon abducted by backward Satan worshipping lunatics. This lovely bunch of people force their victims into too-small cages in preparation for sacrifices to their dark lord.

One thing from this movie that people will likely remember the most is that staggeringly silly theme song that's heard a few times. Otherwise, this is pretty fun to watch. It's always a hoot to see Tierney in action, especially when his less-than-honourable character becomes an unlikely heroic figure. There's some delicious creepiness going on throughout, and Catholicism is a big theme. Nancy isn't an innocent type, but falls back on prayer when things look their bleakest. Verlin is reasonably appealing, but the standouts are obviously the antagonists: David Marchick as portly and bearded Cyrus, Greg Besnak as bald headed Luke, and John Amplas, star of Romero's "Martin", as Abraham. The electronic music score is priceless stuff.

The climactic action has its fair share of tension, but ultimately "Midnight" ends a little too abruptly. But until then it proves to be decent entertainment.

Seven out of 10.

My review was written in January 1983 after a screening at Liberty theater on Manhattan's 42nd St.

"Midnight" is a 1980 Pittsburgh-made horror thriller which, while lacking the scares of its many competitors, at least varies from the rigid format of recent shockers. Horror novelist John Russo, who scripted the Pittsburgh classic "Night of the Living Dead", develops enough twist on traditional Satanism and road movie formulae to keep the fans interested.

Heroine Nancy Johnson (Melanie Verliin) runs away from home when her cop stepdad (Lawrence Tierney) tries to rape her. Diverted from her goal of joining a sister in California by two young men who pick her up hitchhiking, she becomes a captive of a local family of devil worshipers who slate her for human sacrifice on midnight, Easter Sunday.

Familiar elements herfe include the devil cultist retaining their clan matriarch in mummified form (a la "Psycho") and the usual gimmick of a backwoods family preying on unsuspecting travelers. One switch is the emphasis upon the story's racial angles, with several black victims and local prejudice surfacing against the racially mixed trio on the road.

Special makeup effects by a top artist in the field Tom Savini are effective (particularly a realistic decapitation simulation), but the picture's low budget shows in unatmospheric, routine visuals, amateurish performance in small roles and a 1960s-style music track. Though the premise has heroine and her road buddies headed south, autumn locations (belying Easter Sunday premise) all look similar, evidently filmed within shouting distance of the Pittsburgh home base.

Forties star Lawrence Tierney has fun as the heroine's stepdad, veering from initial comical villainy to a stalwart protector in the final reel. Other leads, many of whom are familiar faces from George A. Romero films, perform functionally.

This is one of those movies you don't hear about as much as "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" or "The Hills Have Eyes", and that's too bad, because I found this regrettably unknown little horror film from John Russo to be quite entertaining and seriously creepy. Yes, it's very, very low budget - the sound, camerawork, and acting/dialogue are all very sloppy and unpolished, but bear with it. The film takes a little while to start up, but once it does, if you're a true horror fan it will definitely hold your attention. The film's low budget at times makes it seem so realistic that I felt a creepy feeling, it's hard to describe. Even with his limited funds, you can definitely tell that John Russo was trying to make a good, creepy, hardcore horror movie, and he definitely succeeded. The plot basically centers around a girl named Nancy who runs away frome home, hitching a ride with two guys. The trio gets themselves into trouble after robbing a grocery store and find themselves hiding out in the sticks, where the locals have warned them against staying because of several murders that have been committed there lately. What follows is how the teens run afoul of a psychotic family of blood-drinking Satanists who worship their mother's corpse and kidnap and murder young girls to use their blood for a black mass. Again, bear with the somewhat slow first half - what you get in the second half of the movie is well worth the wait. It's well worth the rental or purchase if this type of gory horror is your cup of tea. By the way, the Savini makeups are good, though they do seem to be trimmed somewhat - what a surprise - but the film is still rather gory. It has its share of stabbings, slittings and gunshot wounds to keep the regular gorehound satisfied. All in all, if you're into the "backwoods horror" scene, check out "Midnight", a regular "backwoods massacre"!

Extremely low budget, which shows and can be off putting but this film moves with confidence. Scenes may be a little dark or slower than we would like and the dialogue somewhat less than snappy but we have a terrible feeling the tale that is told may not be too far off the mark. Filmed in the backwoods northwest of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, this is bleak looking country and pretty bleak people seem to lurk. There is gleeful and brutal killing for the sake of it and then as we proceed more serious devil worship based cult killing involving the kidnap of girls and their being held in cages awaiting their sacrifice. These later scenes are particularly well done and the lighting, dialogue and performances all seem to be upped a gear as we head to the ending with Lawrence Tierney lumbering across the screen to attempt an heroic rescue after all his own misdeeds.