Midnight Movie

source: Midnight Movie

I have two movies in my queue that sound similar. One is a 1985 film called Demons, where two girls attend a special screening of a horror movie in an isolated theater. The film is so involved that it takes possession of the viewers and transforms them into zombie demons who attack other theater goers. And, there is this one where some grind house aficionados become the unwilling stars of an old slasher flick when the film's crazed killer leaps off the screen to hunt them down, drag them back into the movie and kill them. Now, I would never compare something modern to a foreign classic, but I haven't seen the earlier film yet, so I can't compare. I'll just judge this on it's own merits. I was surprised at the first time the killer jumped out. No one else had a clue. I can't believe no one recognized the victim. They recognized the second and third victims and thought it was a joke. The cop (Jon Briddell) and the doctor (Michael Swan) knew it was real as they were after Ted Radford, the director of the movie on the screen. The double kill was brilliant. Josh (Daniel Bonjour) figured it out, but the killer (Lee Main) outsmarted him. Blood, gore, neat special effects and a lot of suspense. It was worth the ride.

WARNING: This comment contains some minor spoilers. Admittedly, the acting and character structure of the protagonists was one of only two reasons why this film did not get the straight 10 out of 10 from me. I mean, I know no one should expect great acting from a straight-to-DVD movie. I will give it its due credit, though. It was convincing when it needed to be. The story concept in and of itself was some of the most brilliant work in horror film history. I absolutely LOVED the idea of a supernatural killer that brings the audience and the movie theater into the movie, and everyone and everything involved become bound by the rules of a horror/slasher film...no one escapes, nothing works, and nobody can help you. I thought that idea was, again, one of the most awesome concepts in horror film history. The other reason why this movie did not net the 10 out of 10, was because it left too many questions unanswered. I won't spoil what questions those are, for the benefit of those who haven't seen it yet. Suffice it to say what is left unanswered definitely lends itself to a much-needed sequel. Overall, I do recommend this film to anybody with a taste for horror films.

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.

"Midnight Movie" offers more thrills than your average roller coaster. Directed by Jack Messitt, the film keeps the audience on its toes throughout its entire duration. Set in a cinema complex, the story follows a grizzly movie villain come to life who stalks and kills the audience members systematically. The chase soon turns into a cat and mouse game between the hunter and the hunted. The many Point of View Shots put us into the characters minds and shoes and the thrills are a lot more powerful than they would be in the average horror flick. Ted, the mass murdering villain would Freddy and Jason a run for their money as he proves to be just as charismatic and deadly.

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.

Director: Jack Messitt Stars: Rebekah Brandes, Daniel Bonjour, Brea Grant, Greg Cirulnick, Mandell Maughan, Stan Ellsworth, Melissa Steach, Jon Briddell, Michael Swan, Michael Schwartz, Justin Baric Synopsis: An obscure 70's slasher flick is being screened as the midnight movie of a theater. Little do the patrons know but the celluloid baddie is stalking the hallowed halls of the popcorn palace picking them off one by one. Thoughts: "Midnight Movie" is a decent enough slasher. It has an interesting approach to the killer and a rather cool weapon of choice (a custom made corkscrew device) not to mention plenty of the beautiful people to stack next to the projector. The visual presentation is fine as is the audio design. The production is a typical presentation for this kind of offering not too boring but not too challenging either. The script revels in the usual clichés of the slasher genre and is quite vague as to reason for the action but grab a bit of popcorn and have a kill and a smile. 3.5 / 5

Don't let the bad reviews scare you away from this one. It's actually a pretty good movie. The beginning starts as if it's really going to be bad but once you get into the middle of the movie, it turns out to be really good. Yes it's an indie film, now it may not have had a huge budget, but it's better than a lot of the crap I've seen out there. My son watched it with me and made fun of it up to about the 30 minute mark but then really got into and even started talking to the people in the movie. That's a sign he's actually paying attention. Like I said this is not a big budget Saw or Scream and doesn't really claim to be. And no, I'm in no way affiliated with the movie but I liked the movie for what it was. It was entertaining and at sometimes scary. Definitely not a waste of your time to see. Just make sure you sit through more than 30 to 45 minutes and give it a chance. It will probably surprise you...

It starts off with a killer escaping from a mental hospital when his horror movie is being shown. It cuts to five years later where a small theatre is showing it as a midnight movie. The killer's former doctor and a detective on the case show up thinking the killer will appear too. Then we get the stereotypes trotted out--the cute normal couple (Rebekah Brandes, Daniel Bonjour), the sexed up Italain guy and his date (Greg Circulnick, Mendell Maughan), the biker dude and HIS date (Stan Ellsworth, Melissa Steach), an annoying kid (Justin Baric) and the geek (Michael Schwartz). The movie begins and the killer has the ability to jump from the film to the theatre and starts killing people...and they're all trapped inside and can't get out. The plot doesn't make a whole lot of sense but the movie does deliver (somewhat). The idea itself is pretty cool and it actually started to spook me at the end when you realized the killer was going to pop up. Also the black and white movie within a movie here had some cute references to "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre". The people here don't act like total idiots and some of them do pretty good despite their by-the-book characters. There's also some good acting by Bonjour, Cirulnick, Briddell and Swan. However the bad acting in this is just abominable--even worse than you expect from a low-budget horror flick! Brandes, Baric and Schwartz are just horrendous---and Brandes and Baric are two main characters! You could care less if they get killed or not. Also the killings are very bloody but the gore is ridiculously fake. It was so obvious you were looking at rubber it was almost laughable. So a good idea with some interesting characters are almost destroyed by terrible acting and dime store gore effects. I give it a 3.

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.