Brains, Blood, Boomsticks, & Broods

Apropos to it’s title I started this one at the correct hour. To say I wasn’t expecting much out of Midnight Movie would be an understatement. It has the canned acting that you would expect from a first run B-grade and carries with it the expectation the characters will explain the plot to you like a kindergartner tying their shoelaces for the first time.  And though it never blew me away, it never went into the trenches of my expectations. In fact there were even some subtle contexts that if you weren’t paying attention might fly under the radar.

The premise for Midnight Movie is a group of characters watching a movie that a supernatural psychopath uses as a portal to enter the “real” world. So really you’re watching two movies. The acting and filmmaking of the movie the characters are watching is actually a lot of fun. Secondly, it’s pretty much an outright homage to Texas Chainsaw Massacre and manages to poke fun using a reincarnation of Norman Bates as Mrs. Bates (at least that’s how I saw it).

I’d be hard pressed to say there is anything scary about the movie, and the lack of character development meant there wasn’t much lag time. The infamous screeching metal sound that seems to infect modern horror movies is the only audio effect at setting the mood. (Though arguable more homage than effect). The kills are pretty generic once you witness the first one, as the killer always uses his “custom crafted” spiral of doom.

Overall it was a decent time, but I think there was a lot of potential here. In other words they could have made it smarter, and after watching Midnight Movie I felt the director was capable of it. Unfortunately they didn’t take it that far, but fortunately they didn’t stab me in the eye with what they were doing either.

It had: fun special effects, stereotyped characters, Liver soccer, plenty of plot holes, a decent ending, an opportunity for a sequel, and plenty of campy excitement

It doesn’t have: too much explaining (thankfully), a thriving independent theatre, a way out, or a detailed backstory

I did watch this one alone so I don’t know how much laugh factor was there, but it did keep me awake until 1:30.

2.5/5 shots to the body

This entry was posted on 11/19/2009 at 16:59 and is filed under 2 Brains with tags American Horror, Apocalyptic, B-Grade, Blood, Campbell, Campy, Chainsaws, Cheesy, Comedy, Demons, Directors, Flies, Fucked up, Fulci, Fun, Gore, Graphic, Grave Digger, Guns, Guts, Headless Corpse, Horror, Japanese Horror, Knives, Machetes, Massacre, Monsters, Movie Reviews, Movies, Nightmares, Raimi, Romero, Schlock, Sex, Silly, Special Effects, Strippers, Tequila, Transgender, Troma, Undead, Vampires, Virgins, Zombies. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.