The Midnight Horror Show

A cult carnival consisting of a patriarch, three brothers and a sister tours Britain, but when customers go missing it attracts a no-nonsense private investigator. Havoc ensues.

Released in 2014-2015, "The Midnight Horror Show," also known as "Theatre of Fear," is a micro-budget Welsh flick obviously influenced by Rob Zombie's "House of 1000 Corpses" and "The Devil's Rejects" from the early 2000s.

The reason I watched this Indie is because I found the trailer intriguing, which turns out to be the movie's intro. The theme song by Bobby Cole is outstanding and worth the price of admission. A fuller version plays during the end credits.

Beyond the well-done opening, this is clearly a low-rent production by one-man-filmmaker Andrew Jones (producer/writer/director), which can be observed in the abysmal lack of wide angle shots. Practically every camera angle is a relative close-up, which of course saves money on locations & sets. The movie "Pathfinders: In the Company of Strangers" (2011) had the same glaring issue.

If you can look past this flaw, there's enough here to appreciate for those who can handle spare-change budget flicks. Besides the superb title song, the no-name cast rises to the challenge with Jared Morgan as the ringleader and Nathan Head as the scarred clown standing out, not to mention the alluring Shireen Ashton as Venus. (Sarah Louise Madison and Tiffany Ceri are also worth a mention on the feminine front).

There is a colorful sense of artistry and a dash of spirituality amidst the familial mayhem. The clown's subplot stands out, as does the ventriloquist's struggle with his brazen dummy, which is figurative of the battle within of which most people can relate. Meanwhile the gore is effective if that's your thang (not that it's overdone). I can't say the movie's very scary because it focuses on dramatics, but it works up some atmosphere and there are thrills to be had, plus the unexpected climax to the clown arc is shocking.

This is a hard picture to rate because the parts that work are good to outstanding, like the music, whereas the problematic parts are pretty stark.

The film runs around 1 hour, 21 minutes, and was shot in South Wales.

GRADE: C.

It certainly was. Avoid this film at all costs. It started off as if it might be OK it soon turns out to be far from OK.

Working together at a traveling carnival, a murderous family tries to get by in life by doing whatever devious activity will allow them to remain together, and when this alerts a dangerous hunter to their whereabouts seeks revenge on the family and must rely on those tactics to stay together.

This was enjoyable enough for what it was. One of the better aspects of this one is the somewhat cliched setup that manages to still provide enough to know about the group going on. The first half spends quite a lot of time going through the various members of the group and their different relationships, with the controlling father trying to keep his family together, the ventriloquist son stuck in his head about the supposedly-alive puppet insulting him, the clown son dealing with the trauma of his condition, the youngest son being a constant screw-up that needs reprimanding all the time, and the daughter living the golden life as the perfect child. Knowing who they are and what they're about lets this part come together so that their murderous antics come off with the sense of disgust due to the humanizing efforts done to get them there beforehand. Those scenes involving their murderous antics come off incredibly well here which has some solid aspects at play. Knowing the daily are insane psychopaths who will resort to murder the first chance they get whenever someone wrongs them which they get away with due to the roving nature of the carnival, this sets up their freewheeling ability to strike out against the ruthless talent agent, the disgraceful boyfriend, and the woman he was dating that feature some better-than-expected moments as it ties into established storylines quite well. The second half, turning into a solid enough version of a retribution feature that allows for the hunter to come upon the family leading to some brutal moments offering some additional gore and brutality in what's going on as everything leads to some likable features here. There isn't much to hold it down but there are some slight factors present. The main drawback featured here is the sluggish and slow-going pace that takes things way too slow for this kind of feature. The whole family-based setup that takes an in-depth look at how the group operates is filled with cliches about the nature of what's going on between everyone which makes it all feel quite repetitive from every psychotic carnival family in the genre so even if this section has a lot to like with setting up their behavior there's not a lot here that provides much in the way of interest. The sluggish quality of what's going on here takes a while to sort out and get something happening to bump up the excitement, which might not be a factor for all out there who want a faster-moving genre effort. As well, the low budget being on display does serve as a factor to get over which is quite prominent and could be a factor here which are all enough to bring it down.

Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Violence and Graphic Language.

Really just a poor man's 'The Devil Rejects' as the plot mimics aforementioned film,deranged murderous family are tracked down by deranged murderous avenger. This is a competent film that is let down by it's low budget origins.And as with every horror film made nowadays,everything is in place for a hoped for sequel. Though I can't see it happening in this case as the DVD has ended up in the chain of Britain's 'Poundland' discount stores.

The majority of the unknown cast do well,no Oscar winners but a level above the usual amateur hour players these films attract. The gore effects are well done and the sets are adequate. Basic story is family of misfits run a travelling circus that happens to actually kill people during the magician's act,thus setting up the vengeful pursuer of one of the victims.

The father apparently kills because he likes it and the rest of his family just help him. But they have their problems too,brother and sister sibling rivalry,the son who plays the clown longs for true love though he is disfigured,the ventriloquist brother who is in two minds with his dummy. The same as all vents in films from 'Dead of Night' to 'Magic' amongst others.

So,therefore not a bad film but I was left rather unmoved because as in the 'The Devil's Rejects' I found all the characters unpleasant and unlikeable. Bad things happen to bad people,so they say, but in this case I just didn't care one way or the other.

A deceptively complex film, played as a simple story of a murderous family using their circus show as cover for killings but featuring several sub-plots with their own story arcs. The siblings squabble, the eldest acting like a truculent teenager as his sister is the favoured child, but come together when the chips are down.

The story makes excellent use of a very limited budget, although this can lead to some slightly jarring jumps in the action. A character from early on possibly uses a fake name, meaning a plot twist was not as clear as it could have been, but the end is satisfying and there is a healthy body count.

The ventriloquist did not work for me. I was uncertain whether to read it as mental illness or genuine supernatural activity, and this was the most obvious nod to earlier films. The wronged girlfriend plot tried to incorporate the ambiguity of abusive relationships but was a little too glib for me. A slight hint of incest between the two most quarrelsome siblings was kept as just that - a hint - without interfering with the plot. A pleasantly 'I wonder if that is true' routine about Hitler gave me one of my few real chuckles, although the film is not without humour.

Most of the budget seems to have gone on blood and imaginative ways to disguise the limited sets. Comparisons to Rob Zombie are inevitable, and it is to the credit of all involved that they achieved this for pocket money prices. Well worth a watch.