Midnight Movie

"Midnight Movie" is the type of movie that I love to come across because it seems to rare these days to find a movie like it. First, it is a pure slasher flick through and through. There is no tongue-in-cheek horror or comedic undertones that seem so prevalent in a lot of today's horror. More importantly, it plays out like a 80's slasher film and captures the spirit and essence of 80's style horror perfectly.

The film centers around the first showing of a horror film called "The Dark Beneath," since several people were murdered while watching the film. Only a handful of people show up for the showing, including the boyfriend and a couple friends of the high-school aged theater manager, a redneck, motorcycle riding couple, and a couple of cops who think the film's director may show up to cause some trouble. The film shown on screen is a 70's style "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" type film about a group of friends who experience car trouble and seek help at creepy farmhouse, only to be butchered by a killer in a creepy mask whose weapon of choice is a sharp, spiral tool. Somehow, though, the killer is able to transfer himself out of the screen and begins stalking and killing the movie-goers.

The Good: The film looks great. It is competently directed and in lesser hands the whole movie-within-a-movie element could have been a real mess. The killer is pretty cool as well, and definitely reminded me of a Michael Myers, Jason, or Leatherface type killer. My only qualm with him is the weapon of choice, which does manage some good kill scenes, but becomes boring, repetitive, and not at all intimidating. As I mentioned,the film really has the classic slasher vibe going on and is quite effective. Once the action gets going, it is truly a fun ride and doesn't let up until the last frame. There are also some surprises in who lives/dies that took me by surprise, which is always a good thing in a slasher because generally they are so predictable with who lives/dies. Though it initially turned me off, I actually ended liking that there were so few characters in the film because it allowed us to get to know each of them a tad more. I was actually upset to see a couple of them get offed.

The Bad: The acting is a mixed bag. I know it is nit-picky, but the film REALLY could have done WITHOUT the younger brother character. First, the kid is a bad actor, second, his presence serves absolutely zero purpose and actually becomes a distraction to the plot. There is also no real backstory to the killer and why/how he is able to come out of the screen and kill in real life. Some parts were indeed cheesy, particularly the opening scene with the film's director in a mental institution.

Overall, this is a decent horror film and certainly one of the better DTV slashers I have seen in awhile. Everything about the film looks great and it is always refreshing to see a contemporary slasher film successfully pay homage to early genre films.

My Grade: B+

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.

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.

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.