No one can appreciate low budget slasher films more than me. I've been a huge fan for years and seen just about every type of killer you can imagine. Midnight Movie looked like a perfect match. I've also certainly seen some real stinkers that are done on such an incredibly low budget that they look and feel like they've been shot with a home video camera but high school kids on a project. Midnight Movie sits somewhere in the middle of all that. They took what probably had the potential to be a decent story and slapped it together on what little money they likely had. Unfortunately I think they took a cut to a lot of what they would have wanted to do and just left it as is making Midnight Movie just average and really only entertaining to the hard core horror fans and even then its mostly a write off. Slasher flicks survive on a really solid killer with a great story, and also a variety of really cool death scenes from the gory, to the insane, to the completely outrageous and ultimately Midnight Movie's killer is a one trick pony who in the middle of the film mixes it up with a rather cool electricity kill. It also tries very hard to play the same sort of ironic satire that the Scream series was so successful at but it doesn't have the brains to pull that off.
All unknowns in this cast for me but some were pretty solid performers. Lovely and sweet looking Rebekah Brandes is the scream queen of the film and she is actually really good in the role. One of the things sacrificed in the film is any real in depth look at any of the characters but for what she is given she is perfect as the pure virgin-like heroine of the film. Daniel Bonjour is her love interest and protector in the film. He is there strictly for that purpose and does fine at it but literally has no other reason to be there and does not stand out on his own merits. Same could be said for Greg Cirulnick, and Mandell Maughan who play their couple friends who are created for nothing more than to be victims and do exactly that. However, another solid performance is given by Stan Ellsworth, who doesn't have a lot of credits to his name but still is solid as angry biker "Harley." I wish he had been given more to work with because I think he was a fun and strong and excellent anti-hero to the story. His love interest and newcomer Melissa Steach is pure fodder and nothing else. One of the more veteran actors of the film is Jon Briddell as the determined detective who could have been an incredible hero the story but is written as pure boring and is portrayed as such. Lee Main is okay as the killer of the film with no real name or purpose other than his film drives people crazy. This is his one and only film and he does decently given that.
So in some ways Midnight Movie has all the proper ingredients. Certainly the film makers have watched a slasher flick before and they said "Oh we can do that!" then they threw it all together instead of really taking their time but then money obviously played a part. Director and co-writer Jack Messitt has only this to his directorial credit. The entire film takes place in the confines of the theatre which makes things even harder and the film that is playing is so incredibly corny (a take off of Texas Chainsaw) that its hard to get involved in the film. Now with all that being said the concept is sort of clever. A film made by an eccentric director causes him to go insane and kill and kill again showing the whole thing on screen amidst the actual film. The supernatural element is downright brilliant managing to close any gaping plot holes like why they can't escape the theatre, break a window or simply stop the film. And one of the kills is incredibly cheeky and funny in a morbid way when the detective says "If you want her you'll have to go through me" and he does...literally. Midnight Movie is not a write off...its simply potential that will never be fully realized. Sloppy character creation, and less than stellar back story and deaths make this one more miss than hit. 5.5/10
All unknowns in this cast for me but some were pretty solid performers. Lovely and sweet looking Rebekah Brandes is the scream queen of the film and she is actually really good in the role. One of the things sacrificed in the film is any real in depth look at any of the characters but for what she is given she is perfect as the pure virgin-like heroine of the film. Daniel Bonjour is her love interest and protector in the film. He is there strictly for that purpose and does fine at it but literally has no other reason to be there and does not stand out on his own merits. Same could be said for Greg Cirulnick, and Mandell Maughan who play their couple friends who are created for nothing more than to be victims and do exactly that. However, another solid performance is given by Stan Ellsworth, who doesn't have a lot of credits to his name but still is solid as angry biker "Harley." I wish he had been given more to work with because I think he was a fun and strong and excellent anti-hero to the story. His love interest and newcomer Melissa Steach is pure fodder and nothing else. One of the more veteran actors of the film is Jon Briddell as the determined detective who could have been an incredible hero the story but is written as pure boring and is portrayed as such. Lee Main is okay as the killer of the film with no real name or purpose other than his film drives people crazy. This is his one and only film and he does decently given that.
So in some ways Midnight Movie has all the proper ingredients. Certainly the film makers have watched a slasher flick before and they said "Oh we can do that!" then they threw it all together instead of really taking their time but then money obviously played a part. Director and co-writer Jack Messitt has only this to his directorial credit. The entire film takes place in the confines of the theatre which makes things even harder and the film that is playing is so incredibly corny (a take off of Texas Chainsaw) that its hard to get involved in the film. Now with all that being said the concept is sort of clever. A film made by an eccentric director causes him to go insane and kill and kill again showing the whole thing on screen amidst the actual film. The supernatural element is downright brilliant managing to close any gaping plot holes like why they can't escape the theatre, break a window or simply stop the film. And one of the kills is incredibly cheeky and funny in a morbid way when the detective says "If you want her you'll have to go through me" and he does...literally. Midnight Movie is not a write off...its simply potential that will never be fully realized. Sloppy character creation, and less than stellar back story and deaths make this one more miss than hit. 5.5/10