Mr. Midnight: Beware the Monsters

I really enjoyed this and had a lot of fun watching.

It reminded me of Scooby Doo, or Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but in a very different setting, with very different types of ghosts and monsters. It was a lot of fun to watch, and I literally laughed out loud at parts because it was really campy and funny.

The kids were likable, and some of the adults were too (which rarely happens in teen movies). That was a really nice change of pace, as I find a lot of the characters in movies are pretty unlikable and I struggle to care what happens to them. I did care about these kids though.

I'm not in the right age demographic for this, but as an older lady, I found this thoroughly fun and entertaining.

I.

This is based on books and so not meant to be scooby doo. Also no dog but it feels like scooby. 4 kids investigating supernatural mysteries.

Even if this is set in (Indonesia I think) and the Fred character is a young Indonesian and the shaggy is a blond sort of good looking white guy, they make a better scooby team than any of the adaptations I've seen (11.2022).

Well filmed, well acted, nice use of the local legends. A change from the US or UK settings.

It's fun, a bit spooky but not super scary.

Any fans of the style should watch this.

I enjoyed it. Each episode got better.

Not sure what else to say.

I live in peranakan culture and i know that the Nusantara archipelago has a lot of culture including the assimilation of a lot of culture.

One thing that baffles me is the mismatch reality of how crowded singapore is and how it's potrayed in the series, which almost empty. The problem is that most horror movie does not really goes along with modern technology, its just makes all the mystery illogical.

Second, there's too many ghost that's not even in south east asia. For example Jikiniki is japanese. The chinese hopping vampires are not South east asian culture, and the lore itself does not match it. If you're bitten by a vampire, then you're become a vampire and you are mortally damaged by sunlight. In this case, the vampire immune to sunlight.

The dialogue is attrocious especially when they try to use Bahasa (indonesia/melayu) in the series. They speak even more rigid than a formal news anchor. And i "love" how they have no accent at all, makes it very "believable".

For example, Thai movies are making horror comedy, but they are still scary but funny as well. I don't know what genre is this series. It's not horror and it's definitely not comedy. More like, "look at me! I'm a diverse movie!"

And lastly!! I love it when they somehow can read ancient java/sunda script out of the blue.

I'm not too familiar with Singapore as I've only visited briefly on a layover but the whole corruption and poor infrastructure portrayed in the streets doesn't seem to ring true in not only one of the smallest countries in the world, but one that is also the most developed country in south-east Asia that have rigid rules and laws on social and environmental development.

I think the cheesy dialogue makes sense because from what I understand it's based on a popular children's book series so it definitely fit the intended audience, kids and young teenagers. However, the acting is terrible, especially from Caleb Monk. All he does is suppressing his own laughter, he smiles at the most random moments and it really makes him come off as a major creep from episode 1. The main character (Idan Aedan) is also pretty terrible but definitely not even close as bad.

The props and special effects makeup is really enjoyable and one of the best parts of the show. Love that they are using more traditional means to bring the spirits and monsters to life. Really enjoy that the monsters from many different traditions and cultures are portrayed but it'd be great if they addressed more where they originate from. I also think the story is overall great but I think the poor choice of actors and that sometimes the context gets lost in the rest of plot it takes away so much from the storyline.

This series is quite honestly painful to watch if you're over the age of 10 and have seen any good film/ series and for many people around the age of ten are still scared of some of the spirits with in the movie.

Personally I'm more terrified of the terrible acting, writing and animation than anything. The writing is terrible, there are a handful of conversations and interactions which aren't cheesy/ cringey or overly forcing and emphasizing their point. There's a plot twist or false cliff hanger every other episode and you couldn't predict in anyway what it would lead to with very minimal foreshadowing which is mostly overwhelmed by the terrible acting.

Not all the actors are terrible, and heck maybe it's the director's fault who told them to act obvious and make every gesture and nuance blown out of proportion by a factor of thirty. All though personally the performance given off by Idan Aedan, Chen Yixing and Yu-Beng Lim was the best all round, all though all seemed over exaggerated at times.

The animation is equally painful to see with some of the spirits and monsters seeming more like play-do at 12K and really zoomed in rather than actual living things.

BUT, if you're looking for something that the whole family can watch and relatively enjoy whilst relatively entertaining for all audiences than this wouldn't do a terrible job. All though being up against other Netflix original shows such as Dragon prince which are much better written and are much more enjoyable.

The cinematography wasn't excellent but it was also good enough to get by and at times carried the show through, and all though not something that I'm usually very good at spotting the wardrobe, backdrop and props where great especially given the low quality of everything else.

Personally, I wouldn't recommend this to anyone who isn't dying for a cringey, Halloween series that doesn't take itself too seriously and is 7+. Any other demographic would struggle to enjoy this series through all it's 13 episodes.