Midnight Mass

I have so many positive comments for the current wave of horror movies that are coming out, straight-to-video and theatrically. The Experiment, May, House of 1000 Corpses, and even Wrong Turn were all solid horror excursions. Too bad this one isn't. I picked up Midnight Mass because it was a Lion's Gate release and Fangoria had a write-up about it in a recent issue that made it seem interesting. If that's why you're thinking about picking it up, put it down NOW! It sucks, no vampire humor intended. The film opens with a brilliant documentary style account of the world being overrun by vampires. It pulls you right in and builds up your expectations. It soon falls flat because the actors are terribly amateurish and the dialogue is annoying. Every time the lead actress opened her mouth I wanted someone to slap her down. And the lead priest looks like some guy they found at a Pantera concert while the evil priest could be Joe Pesci's bad acting twin. The flick is painfully dull as well. The whole experience was disappointing to say the least. If you want a better F. Paul Wilson adaptation, rent The Keep.

After an apparently outbreak of a mysterious virus, the world is dominated by vampires helped by the traitors Vichys. The atheist Gwen Waters (Pamela Karp) leaves the small town of St. Anthony in her bicycle trying to find the alcoholic Priest Joe Cahill (Douglas Gibson) and bring him back to her town to give hope to the human dwellers. Father Joe rebuilds the church with the support of some locals but is attacked by vampires and Vichys leaded by the evil Father Alberto Palmeri (Marvin W. Schwartz), in a battle between good and evil.

"Midnight Mass" has a promising beginning that explains what has happened to the world through footages of broadcasting news. Unfortunately, after the first three or four minutes, the story becomes a complete mess. However, the acting is the worst, with amateurish performances of Pamela Karp and Douglas Gibson in the lead roles, and with the ham actor Marvin W. Schwartz performing Father Alberto Palmeri. It is ridiculous the way he speaks the sentences, and I do not recall any other actor or actress with such bad speech. I ruined my Saturday night watching this crap on DVD, deceived by its great initial five minutes. My vote is three.

Title (Brazil): "A Missa da Meia Noite" ("The Midnight Mass")

Rock-bottom rotten. A promising premise (reminiscent of stories in "Under the Fang") and a somewhat creative opening few minutes -- tracking a vampire apocalypse from the point-of-view of TV news clips -- are red herrings in this presumably straight-to-video release.

Wherever the dividing line is between "low-budget" and "indie", this movie is well on the losing side. The acting is entirely amateur and ranges from the sub-par (for example, the goth youth collaborators) to the merely dull (alcoholic hero Father Joe) to the whopping ludicrous (Marvin Schwartz as a Catholic priest-turned-vampire). The direction as such is incomprehensible. A dreadful, rambling script is partially credited to horror author F. Paul Wilson, who also briefly appears.

Don't be misled by the colorful video box! This trash is impossible to watch in its entirety, and not worth the wear on your DVD player.

Like watching a train wreck

Horrible, but you couldn't stop watching it. The first few minutes are an eerie prelude to a pathetic B- movie. An excellent story and idea As I watched this movie I kept hoping to see something get better, I kept wanting and hoping for the movie to be what I wished it would be. Maybe because there were some honestly well done shots in the film, like when the priest is giving a last prayer to a group of dead bodies. 10 minutes into the movie we placed bets that the leading lady got her job by being someone's daughter. Her acting, only matched by the vampire priests, shadowed even the pathetic make up effects. The fight scenes were laughable and made no sense.

An exercise in frustration. With all that's done right, and all that's done wrong, this film should be watched as a lesson in what not to do in filmmaking.

I rent this movie in DVD fullscreen format, I don't remember a vampire movie so bad it looks like a super-8 movie it has it all bad acting,bad lines bad filming Please save your money and dont rent it.