The Midnight Man

Poorly written, poorly directed, poorly edited. This movie is a muddled mess, with characters doing even more stupid things than usual. Your friend is in immanent danger and can't leave the room, but you can. You leave to get something that will help. Instead of rushing back to your friend you decide to have a romantic conversation with your romantic interest in the hallway. Then you decide it would be a good idea to have a 10 or 15 minute conversation with another character, all the while aware that your friend in the next room could be dying.

Midnight Man is a poorly produced entry in the urban legend sub-genre, grab-bagging various horror tropes, and blandly applying them to a script which has little internal logic and a stupid ending to cap it all off. One of the worst horror movies I've seen in quite some time.

I had no expectations going into this movie and was still disappointed. Biggest caveat is there were zero reasoning or purpose for the characters to even start the process. You would think that after a movie like 'Cabin In The Woods' that horror directors would step up their game to ensure that they are not just an unintended parody of themselves. But alas, must not have gotten memo.

Main actress unable to act...check Dumb boyfriend/husband that goes along without questioning...check Left alone in dark room....check Having non-nonsensical conversation while someone is trying to kill you...check Do not run away when trouble arrives...check

By the time this movie ends you no longer cares who will make it or not.

4 -

I already knew, even before watching it, that this was a pretty bad movie, but I didn't expect it to take itself so seriously since the beginning. And with all that, the acting was kinda crap and the story was one of the most recycled plots of all time. But the main issue with this movie is definitely the horror factor, because believe me, there's basically none : the entity is just lame and keeps talking throughout the film, shutting down any feeling of distress or fear the public could have towards it. Even the jumpscares were the most idiotics I've seen in a long time, definitely lazy and predictable to me, and i'm not even a jumpscare fan.

Easily avoidable, save your time

The film isn't terrible, more so the basic premise.

I found myself just constantly asking questions as nothing made sense.

The main question being, why would ANYONE play this "game"? There seems to be no benefit to anyone playing, even if they win?

Today people tend to claim a movie is a masterpiece and cinematic triumph or it is a total disaster, the worst movie I ever watched etc. The Midnight Man imho does not belong in either category, it is a small horror movie with a story-line based on a game that evokes a dark, evil entity and the price of the game is one's life and if one loses the game you get a fine cruel death. (Well, some dark souls could rightfully argue that a cruel death is still a kind of good reward, because, you know, who wants to die a common, total boring death!?)

So, in short, for sure there is nothing new in the western front, but what we get are decent actors (Lin Shaye, Robert Englund, also the young actors do not disappoint) and a good production value with some nice value of gore and splatter and a good, dark atmosphere and a very bad guy.

Yes, this movie is no Oscar material or made to be someday called cvlt, but The Midnight Man is a pro made movie and imo for the aficionado of horror a good snack in-between. My rate 5, maybe a 6.