Midnight Movie (2008)

There’s something to be said for modern slashers. That would be, most are uber generic and usually base their entire premise around finding the best way to off characters as the masked killer slices and dices through a troop of sexually-fiending teens and creepy old men. Now, I know that’s not extremely different from the slashers of the 80s, but there’s a completely different feel these days. It’s almost as if the filmmakers just want to make a film and the easiest way to do that is to put together a poorly structured story, using unlikable characters and then have them killed in gruesome ways. Now, that that’s out of the way, let’s get to the point of this rant, and that would be, Midnight Movie. This is one of the few slashers I’ve ever seen that actually kept my attention the whole time, and was actually pretty damned entertaining.

Rating:

The premise is a fun one. There’s a film that caused people to end up disappearing. The creator is locked up in an insane asylum, but, as we’ve all come to expect with slasher films, the doctors are just a bit slow, and show the movie to him. The one doctor, that truly believes the film and its creator are dangerous returns after the screening to find blood splatter all over the walls, but no bodies. Flash forward to five years later. A local revival theater has gotten its hands on the film, The Dark Beneath, and is screening it at midnight. From here we meet the cast including our lead, Bridget (Rebekah Brandes, and I’ll admit it didn’t hurt that she was easy on the eyes) and the rest of the group including: the boyfriend, Josh, the “other couple”, Samantha and Mario, the dorky kid, the biker couple, the little brother, two other kids working at the theater and the return of the doctor and a police officer obsessed with the case. Of course, once the film starts things begin to go wrong, and it’s not long before the theater-goers realize that what’s in the film, isn’t really just on the screen.

I need to get this out of the way right now. I loved the overall premise of the film. Yes, it’s been done in others, (Demons, and more loosely in MOH: Cigarette Burns), but not quite like this. The killer’s POV is shown on the screen and instead of just butchering the victims he drags them back onto the movie and into a door. The entire film on the screen felt a lot like the Texas Chainsaw Massacre (Which I’m sure that was on purpose, complete with crazy mother), but that didn’t take away from the overall fun. The play between what’s real and what’s not was excellent, and I’m a little shocked this film hasn’t been picked up to be played out in theaters while remake turds like Prom Night see large releases.

Rant coming up (warning). A lot of people I’ve spoken to (horror fans) love the newer films from France, and even some American films (Hatchet, Saw V). Personally, I despise Hatchet. Besides some awesome murders, there are no redeeming qualities and it really drags in between deaths. This is where I go on praising Midnight Movie. The film does not drag and finds a different way to keep the audience hooked, whether it’s the nerdy kid spouting useless facts about horror films, the poor attempt at convincing a girl with a boyfriend to let you drive her home, or the badass biker showing a softer side everything was attention grabbing.

That said, Midnight Movie is not perfect. A lot of scenes come off as a bit too cheesy. The entire back-story of Bridget and how she and her brother were abused came off as a bit forced and a bit amateur. A lot of the acting would change on a dime. At one minute Bridget’s boyfriend was completely believable and the next scene his lines would fall flat as he struggled to express some form of emotion. And, what slasher film would be complete without the characters making some of the dumbest decisions ever? At one point they realize that the killer won’t let them leave as a supernatural element took over barring all the exits. Well, Mario decides to try and run upstairs again and go out the window, which had previously locked right in front of him. Usually I wouldn’t have a problem with that, and I’d laugh at his stupidity and hope for an axe to the face, but this film seemed like it wanted to be a little more than a “by-the-numbers” slasher and scenes like that really stood out.

Overall, Midnight Movie is a breath of fresh air in the genre, and one of only a handful of good slashers made this decade. From a kick ass premise, to a solid execution and finally a pretty twisted (but very predictable) ending, Midnight Movie entertains and horrifies unlike many of its generic brethren.