{"id":6974,"date":"2024-10-25T11:30:02","date_gmt":"2024-10-25T15:30:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=6974"},"modified":"2024-10-25T11:30:19","modified_gmt":"2024-10-25T15:30:19","slug":"midnight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2024\/10\/25\/midnight\/","title":{"rendered":"Midnight"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Midnight <\/strong>(1982)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Independent International\/Horror\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 94 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (violence, language, sexual content)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: John Russo\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: John Russo\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Paul McCollough\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Paul McCollough\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: December 10, 1982 (Philadelphia, PA)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Melanie Verliin, Lawrence Tierney, John Hall, Charles Jackson, David Marchick, Greg Besnak, John Amplas, Robin Walsh, Ellie Wyler, Bob Johnson, Lachele Carl, Doris Hackney, Jackie Nicoll, Maura Minteer, Doug Mertz, Bud Mellot, Debra Smith, Daniel Costello, Chris Riblett, Billy Green, Amy Brinton.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: N\/A<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: **<\/p>\n

\u00a0Director John Russo is best known for writing the screenplay for George A. Romero\u2019s Night of the Living Dead. In fact, my first encounter with the horror classic was Russo\u2019s novelization of the movie. I bought it at a used paperback shop when I was 13. It wasn\u2019t a bad read, but it hardly measures up to the raw, visceral experience of Romero\u2019s movie shot on location in rural Pennsylvania on a small budget ($114,000). It went on to become a hit and a classic of the genre. Russo tried to duplicate Romero\u2019s success with his own low-budget horror movie Midnight<\/strong> about a satanic cult in hick country. It too was shot in rural PA on a small budget ($200,000). It went on to fade into obscurity. Released in \u201982, it didn\u2019t even come out on video until eight years later.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Naturally, I remember when Midnight<\/strong> hit theaters in my neck of the woods. I was going to see it with a friend, but we opted for 48 Hrs. instead. Looking back, we made the right choice. To put it bluntly, it\u2019s lame. Although it has atmosphere, it isn\u2019t scary, not even a tiny bit. A lot of it has to do with the poorly handled black mass sequences which should be the film\u2019s main selling point. Instead, they\u2019re its greatest weakness.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Midnight<\/strong> mainly centers on teenage Nancy (Verliin), a lapsed Catholic seeking redemption after two years of sinning with her now ex-boyfriend. That\u2019s right, it\u2019s our old friend Mr. Catholic Guilt. Her home life isn\u2019t exactly conducive to making atonement for her sins.\u00a0 Her alcoholic stepdad Bert (Tierney, pre-Reservoir Dogs) keeps coming on to her when Mom (Hackney) isn\u2019t around. When he tries to rape her, she knocks him out and runs away from home.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Hoping to get to her sister in California, Nancy hitches a ride with Tom (Hall) and Hank (Jackson), a couple of college guys headed to Florida for spring break. They assure her that it would be easier for her to find a ride to the West Coast down there with all the kids from different schools than hitchhiking across the country. That makes sense, it does. What doesn\u2019t make sense is why these dumb kids don\u2019t get on the highway. It\u2019s faster, more direct and you\u2019re less likely to run into the kind of trouble found only in backwoods areas of the country.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I would posit that neither Tom nor Hank know anything about traveling through backwoods towns. If they did, they\u2019d know better than to stop at a bar for a six pack of beer. These places are always filled with redneck racists not inclined to offer a handshake and warm welcome to outsiders, especially if one of them is black (which Hank is). The local cops aren\u2019t much better. They\u2019re not in a safe place. So what\u2019s the first thing they do after a shotgun-toting deputy and a small lynch mob chase them off? Why, they head to the local grocery store to indulge in a bit (nay, A LOT) of shoplifting. What else? They\u2019re chased by cops, but manage to lose them on some back road where they see a creepy fat guy in overalls coming out of the woods carrying what appears to be a dead body wrapped in a sheet. So what do these geniuses do next? They set up camp nearby, of course. What, these dudes can\u2019t read an AAA guide? GET ON THE DAMN HIGHWAY, YOU MORONS!!!<\/p>\n

\u00a0It isn\u2019t long before our trio encounters the Satan-worshipping family we met in the opening scene. Disguised as deputies, Luke (Besnak) and Abraham (Amplas) terrorize the guys before executing them. Who they\u2019re really after is Nancy. They need her to complete a ritual. Actually, they need three girls. After a chase, the brothers manage to corner Nancy and put her in a dog cage to await death by human sacrifice. Meanwhile, Bert tries to track down Nancy and bring her home at the behest of her worried mother.<\/p>\n

\u00a0In all fairness, I can\u2019t say Midnight<\/strong> is exactly terrible. It\u2019s bad alright, but not terrible. Russo imbues it with a nice sense of rural doom and gloom. At times, it\u2019s even a little unsettling. He\u2019s obviously going for something similar to The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Unfortunately, Midnight<\/strong> doesn\u2019t even come close to the Tobe Hooper classic. The Sawyer place was a true house of horrors; I still get the creeps when I think of the interior d\u00e9cor. It\u2019s where nightmares are made. Creepy stuff goes on in the Satanists\u2019 house, including one thing that has me convinced they\u2019re distantly related to Norman Bates, but it fails to evoke a strong sense of horror or unease.\u00a0 I\u2019m also disappointed in the lack of gore. There\u2019s some, but not enough. This one should have been a bloodbath. It\u2019s the type of movie that should carry a \u201cNo One Under 17 Admitted\u201d policy instead of a rating.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The acting in Midnight<\/strong> is amateurish and atrocious. It\u2019s a real low point for Tierney best known for playing criminals and tough guys in 40s and 50s movies- e.g. he played the title role in 1945\u2019s Dillinger. It\u2019s a big step down for him, BUT he\u2019s not the only actor to accept roles in schlock films in his twilight years. Look at John Carradine. If I\u2019m being honest, Tierney delivers the best performance in Midnight<\/strong> which isn\u2019t saying anything at all given how awful everybody else is. I\u2019m sure the actors tried their hardest though.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Okay, so Midnight<\/strong> isn\u2019t a good movie. It\u2019s not scary or suspenseful. Most of the time, it\u2019s idiotic. It\u2019s poorly written. It has a cheap look to it and this one super cheesy song \u201cMidnight Again\u201d that\u2019s played more than once. At best, it\u2019s a forgettable slice of dreck. Yet I find myself hard-pressed to dismiss it as crap and dump it on the cinematic junk heap. It has a certain purity in form found only in cheap 70s and 80s horror movies from no-name studios. On that level alone, I admire Midnight<\/strong>. I just think Russo could\u2019ve done better; after all, look at who mentored him.<\/p>\n

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Midnight (1982)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Independent International\/Horror\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 94 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (violence, language, sexual content)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: John Russo\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: John Russo\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Paul McCollough\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Paul McCollough\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: December 10, 1982 (Philadelphia, PA)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Melanie Verliin, Lawrence Tierney, John Hall, Charles Jackson, David Marchick, Greg Besnak, John Amplas, Robin Walsh, Ellie Wyler, Bob Johnson, Lachele Carl, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7264,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6974","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-b-movies","category-horror"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/Midnight-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6974","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6974"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6974\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7266,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6974\/revisions\/7266"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7264"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6974"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6974"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6974"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}