Midnight Fear

When your main actor, David Carradine is hardly in it, and one of your other characters is so annoying you want to kill them yourselves you are in big trouble. Carradine plays Detective Hanley, an alcoholic officer who gets demoted after annoying his bosses with his attitude.

Whilst this is happening a woman has been murdered and the "culprits" arrive at the house where a Jenny (August West) is looking after it for a friend. She's there with David, such an annoying character you're begging for him to leave.

The two "murderers" are Paul and his mute brother John, the more the film passes the more sympathy you have with John.

There are a few surprises along the way but the main feeling is disappointment, it's just a bit boring.

Young and likeable Jenny is looking after a farmhouse whilst the family go away on vacation, their son David has the hots for her and hangs around. She is not the slightest bit interested and who can blame her, when it comes to being a nerd he is off the scale! I breathed a big sigh of relief when eventually he does go to join his folks, only for him to soon reappear as he won't take no for an answer off poor Jenny. Meanwhile two psycho brothers invade the farm. They have already skinned a woman alive and the drunken Sheriff (David Carradine) is on (and off) the case. This film can't decide if it wants to be a home invasion shocker, a slasher movie or a cop thriller. It's a bit of each all rolled up. There are a few very gory moments but the body count is too low to really qualify as a slasher. "We got a real loony on our hands" says one cop, without giving anything away there is more than one loon and the "twist" is very difficult to swallow. Quite frankly it's rather ridiculous. The two nasty brothers are well played and Carradine is very watchable as the drunken cop (sadly he had a drink problem in real life and perhaps to some extent he was playing himself). Jenny is a nice girl but she is far too calm when taken hostage, as for David the Nerd I rapidly began to hate this incredibly annoying character. On the soundtrack we are treated to some Beethoven and Bach, the contemporary music is too overdone though. The movie is very downbeat and I applaud it for that but sadly the plot is just too silly and this (plus David, arghhh!) really lets it down.

This creepy little movie creeps along at a snails pace, to a ridiculous and extremely contrived ending, that won't hold up to even a cursory scan for logic. The plot, such as it is, tries to be clever, but is such a stretch that you will be shaking your head at the stupidity on display. David Carradine is totally wasted as a one dimensional drunken detective character that you've already seen a million times in far better films. With most of the killings off screen, and endless boring small talk, the most interesting aspect of "Midnight Fear" turns out to be a mute, and watching Carradine light his cigarettes. Not recommended, even for David Carradine fans. - MERK

those twists and turns should keep you a bit surprised at the end. this is sort of a hybrid movie a mix of slasher horror,mystery & drama.Its the tale of a sexy young coed staying on a farm with her just a friend male college buddy who is a bit strange & immature. later She is held hostage by two brothers one a deaf mute and maybe violent[a bit of Mice & Men]who are looking for a way out of the area. but all three are being stalked by another killer. David Carradine is the drunk cop on & off the case who in a drunk stupor figures it all out. Decent all around performance and a decent plot with a few cheap thrills throw in make this a viewable movie.

MIDNIGHT FEAR is a virtually forgotten, low budget serial killer movie. It starts out as predictably as you'd expect, with boozy cop David Carradine investigating a particularly vicious murder (the victim was skinned) before turning into something different...and rather unique.

After the first half hour, the narrative becomes a set-piece centred around a remote farmhouse and the suspicious characters who inhabit it. The plot seems fairly straightforward, almost a slasher movie with a few brief snippets of unpleasant gore, but then it throws in a twist straight out of left field which had me reeling. What a surprise! What quality writing!

Yeah, I'm not going to get too carried away here, but MIDNIGHT FEAR is a lovely little surprise for fans of the genre: a tense, tightly-plotted little movie with an intriguing script, good acting, and an extremely downbeat climax. Apart from Carradine, we get fun performances from the likes of Craig Wasson (BODY DOUBLE) - who relishes his bad guy role - and twitchy, crazed Page Fletcher, giving the best acting job as the former asylum inmate. Altogether I found it to be a little gem of a film, so why not see what you think?