Midnight

1982

Action / Horror / Thriller

2
Rotten Tomatoes Critics - Rotten 25% · 4 reviews
Rotten Tomatoes Audience - Spilled 25% · 100 ratings
IMDb Rating 4.9/10 10 1388 1.4K

backwoods satanic cult

Plot summary

While hitchhiking to escape an abusive home life, a teenage girl is picked up by a couple on a camping trip. The trip turns deadly when a group of Satanists, hellbent on resurrecting their dead mother, attack the campers.

Director

John A. Russo Photo
John A. Russo

Top cast

John Amplas Photo
John Amplas as Abraham
Lawrence Tierney Photo
Lawrence Tierney as Bert Johnson
Bob Johnson Photo
Bob Johnson as Reverend Carrington
John Rice Photo
John Rice as Man at Saloon
720p.BluRay 1080p.BluRay
863.62 MB
1280*766
English 2.0
NR
Subtitles us  
23.976 fps
1 hr 33 min
Seeds 1
1.73 GB
1792*1072
English 5.1
NR
Subtitles us  
23.976 fps
1 hr 33 min
Seeds 2

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by juderussell-84094 6 / 10

Something A Bit Different

A teenage runaway and two men she's hitchhiking with stop in a strange town and find themselves stalked by the crazed locals.Midnight is an interesting mix of Texas Chainsaw Massacre style lunatics running rampant in the country with a dash of religious/cult stuff thrown in to make everything even stranger. Not everything gels, but the moments that do stand out pack a punch.
Reviewed by doorbomb62 4 / 10

Excellent premise executed poorly.

The book of John Russo's 'Midnight' is a very taught, brief little thriller. The premise is an exciting one though. A young runaway, whom takes up with two college frat boys travelling cross country, runs into trouble with a satanic batch of siblings. This one line premise has all the makings of an excellent drive-in spectacular in the vain of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, Race With the Devil, and The Last House on the Left. Not so surprising that it falls in line with such films as Russo was a co-writer of Night of the Living Dead, which set many genre standards in that period of time. Thus it further exemplifies the promise it does NOT add up to.Sometimes the author has no business taking his material to a new medium, in this case novel to screen. Stephen King fared none to well with 'Maximum Overdrive' as well. 'Midnight' was probably around the time when producers were managing to get their hands back on final cut after the paramount decree, and with this film in particular, it's not hard to see why. The budget here is so non existent that it looks to have been filmed in someone's garage, and I guarantee you some of it probably, quite literally was. With more money, and some bigger producers putting some elbow grease into it, this could have worked much better. The novel wins you over right away, but here, Russo has no creative aspect to his direction. Just setting up a camera and filming. No tension to build up on, and without that, the shock moments are just as dull as the rest of the film. Also, he sets up a very poor and ineffective atmosphere. There is a total lack of vision for what the novel provides as an after school special gone to hell. This needed someone to oversee it on a more end-result basis to assure it was delivered properly and to the completed satisfaction of all parties involved.The casting is WAY off save for Robin Walsh to rises emotionally AND physically to Cynthia as we are introduced to her in the book. Everyone else, including Romero alumni John Amplas, are simply thrown in and directed to move about as they're told, but with no clear motivation or actions driving what they're doing onscreen. The direction with them is totally uninspired and everyone looks like they'd rather be reading the original novel at the beach instead. Two or three of them (Ellie Wyler as Gwen) are downright horrendous to watch as they clearly have NO talent in this regard. I point out Ms. Wyler in specific because her character is supposed to be defiant and strong willed against the tormentors (Think Phyllis Stone in Wes Craven's 'The Last House on the Left). Here, the uncharacteristic Wyler is simply in a cage saying her lines to no distinction or direction. Very bland and embarrassingly cheap. More so obvious than anything else.The film DOES have ONE thing going for it, the soundtrack! It features eerie organ music and a soft dark vocal Mass for the satanic rituals that fit quite properly. There is also a fun chirpy pop tune used repeatedly throughout as the theme, known as "Midnight Again". It is VERY addictive to hear and suits the novel much better than the film. Almost too good a thing to be heard here. Alas, moments with the score in tow are actually arousing and engaging enough but they are far and few in between the bad bland acting the the overall lack of proper direction.It says, here , that a remake is in the works. It's definitely in need of one, but better yet...GO OUT AND READ THE DARN BOOK INSTEAD! The movie in your mind will far outweigh what has been provided here, and what might ever be provided again, if it is to be provided again.
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