Midnight Movie Review
Written by: Vamp_Slayer
The movie anticipated by many horror fans has finally arrived on DVD. I remember watching a trailer for this months ago and thinking it looked pretty silly. And you know what, the movie doesn’t really have a serious tone. This is not a problem at all. This is very much a B slasher movie. This movie is perfect if you just want to sit back and watch brainless violence and gore with a pretty nifty killer, although not a new icon like some have made him out to be (ahem back of the DVD case).
The movie is about a group of friends who go to a midnight showing of a 1970’s slasher movie, in black and white for one reason or another. The movie within the movie definitely took inspiration from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, which doesn’t affect the story, but was sort of a neat homage if you can call it that. Anyway, the creator of the movie has a surprise for all who have gone to see it. The killer is unleashed and begins killing the audience and staff members of the theatre, resulting in their own movie within a movie death, which was nifty. The group of friends along with other Audience members including a detective, a biker and his girlfriend plus a few more must find away to stop him before they become a part of his twisted film.
Now onto the good stuff. The blood and gore in this film is definitely there and the filmmakers don’t shy away from showing it. Although not everything is explicitly shown it is quite graphic at points, and remember it is low budget, but it uses it budget impeccably well, save for a few moments. Midnight Movie also has some genuine suspenseful moments, although not to the calibre of movies like Halloween and The Shining, it still manages to create a few intense moments, which I wasn’t really expecting. It also has a few moments of creepy imagery through out the film, although it is in no way scary, there is still a small creepiness factor.
As the film was nearing its end I actually liked it more, the last few segments have some good (more serious toned) moments as well, and I didn’t quite expect it from this film. The ending itself will surely be mixed opinions for all viewers. I liked the idea, but I didn’t like how it felt rushed and a tad incomplete. The acting was mediocre, not bad, but not good, perhaps just below average in some scenes while in others it was improved, but it never gets so bad that it’s unwatchable, just some cringe-worthy lines. Daniel Bonjour (who plays Josh, the lead’s boyfriend) definitely does the best acting of the group.
I also had a gripe with the fact that the killer doesn’t really use a variety of kill techniques, I mean slashers rely a lot on the creativity of the kills, there are some neat kills, but it felt repetitive. The movie also never explains how the killer is able to use the supernatural powers he apparently has to enter and exit the film. There is a reason why he does, but no explanation how.
Despite some of the bad acting and no explanation for the killer’s supernatural powers, Midnight Movie is a bloody, no brainier, fun flick. The movie is better than it’s trailer. And although it’s not scary in the least it’s a fun, though it’s often cliché and a somewhat nonsense movie, but horror fans will dig it and especially slasher fans, even more so if you love 80s slashers. The movie was fairly well done and quite a lot better than many other STV films, although I couldn’t see this being a theatrical release; it is a tad above average for a straight to video horror, although generic it worked well with old material.
6.5/10 from me.