After Midnight

The bad reviews make me laugh. I get it because I definitely go against the grain of what's liked and disliked in the film world. There are perfectly good examples of movies with good ratings I definitely could not finish. But to each their own. It's probably obvious but Jeremy Gardner both directed and played the main character in this film. Which, fair , sometimes if you want something done a specific way you might as well do it yourself.

Someone made a comment that it looked like it was filmed on an iPhone camera. I'll have to disagree on that one. I've had a limited experience with film equipment but just enough to let you know that if something was filmed on a cellphone device , you'd know What I look for when picking a movie is whether or not it shows any originality and to me this did. I watched the trailer beforehand and it seemed intriguing enough.

This wasn't the best movie I've seen but nowhere near the worst. I don't want those minutes of my life back that I spent so in my opinion its a 7 or in the very least a 6.5 I think it's just the story of two guys who got drunk one night and said let's make a monster flick and that's what they did. Kudos.

Extra points for that Lisa Loeb song at the end. 90's teens only will appreciate what you did there.

The narrative jumps between the present and past, shown through flashbacks. Our protagonist's relationships with his partner and best friend make for lighthearted, often humorous fare, but the pacing drags down the film. The film lingers too much of his emotional state while simultaneously trying just a bit too hard to heighten the mystery of the nightly attacks. Presumably, this is something the viewer should care about, but then the film abruptly swerves into oncoming traffic with the nonsensical ending.

If you read all the bad reviews it becomes clear that they missed half the movie and the other half blew right over the heads. If you miss a key part then you wont understand parts later on. Also I believe that people going into this expecting a horror may have felt they were tricked. It really was not a bad movie...

I originally rated this a 4.9 but after a re-watch moved it up to a 5.9 The last scene is brilliant and I had missed a couple things during the first watch.

5.9

.. is strangely enticing. On one hand, it always looks put together on a showstring budget, featuring actors you've never seen anywhere else. On the other hand, the finer aspects of filmmaking are nailed really well & there will be moments where even hardened movie buffs would be impressed by what's on show. Now, I've only watched "The Battery" a few days ago & wanted to check out this one soon after. I admit there are some inconsequential dragging scenes in the first half (as was the case with "The Battery"). Yet, it always has you hooked because of its underlying mystery. What absolutely stumped me was a scene where the leads sit down and discuss at length in one (very long) continuous shot. And... Never fumble a delivery. I knew the actor/director had chops, but the actress too lays it down perfectly. A really special scene! The climax has a love it or hate it ring to it, and I absolutely loved it. The mood of film is what makes it a must watch, imo. What will repel people would be the incorrect genre labelling. I for one, am thankful for indie filmmakers in 2020 putting out stuff that isn't all predictable, monotone garbage.

So IMDb erased a very long review once again because they don't have a save draft feature like almost all writing sites have these days.

So this will be a very brief summary in replace of my normal reviews.

This movie is more of a study of a relationship between 2 Florida people. A woman who is not happy with the current state of her life. And a man who is somewhat happy with just living with her in the place they are at.

In between flashback scenes of this story unfolding we have a few moments here and there where the man is antagonized by some creature who comes calling to his Home just about each and every night After Midnight.

*1 Big STAR for when the creature comes calling on the Wine & Karaoke Party!!! LOL

And that was the end!!!!

6/10