Midnight Movie

After reading some reviews stating it was going to be a scary slasher movie I had high expectations as slashers are very rarely scary. It's normally just about bloodshed, preferably the most possible blood, lethal injuries inflicted in the most creative way possible. Midnight Movie wasn't scary. On the contrary it was the usual slasher story, where the group of characters get murdered one by one. Stupid decision-making like we're used to in these stories. If the acting is good it passes but unfortunately some of the actors were just not that great. Well with a low budget you get the actors you get, in this case mediocre at best. It's just an average slasher, not really worth your time.

It's 'count the cliché' time with Midnight Movie, a derivative supernatural slasher which looks and feels just like any one of a hundred other films you might find clogging up the horror section in your local rental outlet.

Undemanding teen audiences may possibly enjoy this film's easy-on-the-eye cast, MTV-style editing and some unexceptional gore, but seasoned horror fans will no doubt find themselves rolling their eyes and groaning in disbelief at what amounts to nothing more than yet another admittedly-slick-but-totally-logic-free piece of popcorn horror packed with cookie-cutter characters, cheap scares, unanswered questions and glaring plot-holes.

The story, for what it's worth, goes something like this: five years after horror director Ted Radford disappears from a lunatic asylum, leaving 70 dead in his wake, a cinema decides to present a midnight screening of his cult movie The Dark Beneath. Before you can say 'surely Radford doesn't emerge from his film to kill members of the staff and audience', Radford emerges from the film to kill members of the staff and audience. Yawn!

Glossing over such trivial details as exactly how the director achieves his magical return to life and why he is so obsessed with scaring people in the first place, the weak script concentrates instead on presenting a myriad of predictable scenes in which the scared occupants of the cinema at first attempt to escape, but then begin to fight back.

Midnight Movie hits a 'cliché all-time-high' when it is revealed that the killer—a bargain-basement Leatherface wannabe armed with a custom-built corkscrew—can only hurt those who are afraid of him (gack!). At this point, the script becomes completely nonsensical, with final survivor Bridget (Rebekah Brandes) drawing on past painful experiences to help her overcome her fear, and trying to save her brother from within the movie.

Go see this if your idea of a good horror film is a Saw sequel or a remake of something 'old'. You'll probably enjoy it.

Sure, it's B-Grade, the killer's costume is awful and the acting isn't particularly good. But why do we need any of that in a slasher? Since the days of Scream the slasher has been my favorite sub-genre, and finding fresh new entries can be hard. That's why I was delighted to discover Midnight Movie.

The film takes it's time establishing characters and showing off it's creepy story. Speaking of which is quite interesting.

When things do pick up, they never stop coming. The gore is delightfully over-the top and the slightly stupid characters make for speedy, fun deaths. Unlike many others, I had no irks with the killer's weapon and thought the setting was brilliant.

However, MM is not for the feint of heart. Beforementioned gore and a helping of scary atmosphere and set pieces make things rather horrifying for the typical slasher fan. So proceed with caution, oh weak stomached viewers.

All in all, MM is fresh, inventive and delightfully insane. Everything you could ask for in a slasher.

I was privileged to see the screener of this one, and came away quite satisfied at what I had seen.

I grew up on horror movies and usually find the gory ones to be nothing more than gratuitous blood-letting, but this one really had me involved. Don't let the first few minutes fool you, this is top quality. What starts out like a B-movie from the 60's soon becomes an engrossing mystery as you try to figure out what is happening, and then keeps you riveted as you start to wonder if the characters will figure it out in time. Unlike most horror movies, Midnight Movie had me caring about the characters. They became real people, not just targets of the horror.

I can see why some of you would turn this off pretty quickly. Midnight Movie obviously was not blessed with a big budget or the best actors. A couple of time in the beginning the thought, "Oh man, I think I may have wasted my money on this one" ran through my head. With nothing to lose, I continued to watch the film and slowly but surely was won over by the spirit of this film.

The premise of the film itself is somewhat original. After a director of an old low budget cult film becomes dangerously obsessed with his film, he is locked up in an insane asylum and is forced to watch his film on the idea that him watching this may somehow relax his growing obsession. He disappears in a bloodbath and all the remaining people left in the asylum are slaughtered.

Several years later, the film is shown again at an Indy move theater in a small town. Convinced that the missing director will show, the two police officers wait patiently while the movie begins to play. As the small crowd in the theater and the few workers start showing up in the scenes and being brutally murdered, the crowd quickly finds out that this is no ordinary movie.

There are, as with most current low budget slashers, several problems within this film. However, most of them seem to stem from the budget and I really felt that this film was directed and ultimately done the best possible way considering the low budget and the range of the talent. Our creepy cinema slasher is truly a horrifying creature complete with amazing mask and gimp leg. The director shows he has definitely done his horror homework and provides his audience with "Scream" like clichés to keep the flow consistent and of course, all of us viewers consistently entertained.

If you a true fan of the horror genre and are not particularly bothered by the downfalls of a current low budget slasher film then I say give this a try. I am certain that many of you will be as pleasantly surprised with 'Midnight Movie' as I was.