PLOT:

Nancy is a teenager who is being abused by her stepfather. After he gets drunk and almost rapes her, Nancy runs away. While hitchhiking she accepts a ride from two other teenagers who are heading out to the country for some camping. Once there, they meet up with a family of devil worshipers who like to kidnap girls and sacrifice them at Midnight.

I hate to say it but I was really looking forwards to seeing Midnight, I really like movies about city kids who go into the countryside and meet up with a family of demented psychos.  This mess was directed by John A Russo, one of the worst horror movie hack directors there is. You see John A Russo co wrote the original Night Of The Living Dead and has been riding off it’s success ever since.

I had seen the awful The Majorettes and Santa Claws before sitting down to watch this and I still wanted to give it a chance. I had been warned, oh why didn’t I listen, this is what you get for giving someone another chance.   Midnight is just as dull and badly made as Russo’s other failures. This is probably one of the biggest disappointments I’ve sat through in quite awhile.

Russo seems to treat making movies as a way of making money, he sees that slasher flicks are hot so he makes one. Now I have no problem with someone doing this as movies are a business after all, Russo’s problem comes when he does it without passion, talent or imagination what so ever. Midnight has nothing interesting going for it. The characters themselves seem flat, no one other then Nancy seems to do much. The villains are boring and nothing makes them memorable.

The attempts at suspense are very poorly handled, while we do get a few chase scenes I never once got into them, I didn’t feel on the edge of my seat at all, the dull and simple soundtrack doesn‘t help much either. Russo doesn’t seem to inject any energy into this mess.  Even when the heroine turns the tables on her captures is very badly handled, she seems to take them out far to easily and it’s not very interesting.

The acting here isn’t very good, Melanie Verlin does quite well as Nancy and   Lawrence Tierney does very well as her stepfather but everyone else here is very flat and most seem to be forcing their lines. Not to mention all the teenagers in the movie look at least 30. The gore on show here is quite good, we get some decent slit throats and a pretty cool shot to the head scene.  Pity the effects are wasted in this.

Over all I advise if you see Midnight anywhere for rent or sale, please avoid it, rent The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, The Hills Have Eyes or Just Before Dawn instead. Anything is better then this crap. I think it’s safe to say I’ll never give that hack John Russo another chance, hell he should never be allowed near another camera again! AVOID.

RATING:

At least Lions Gate decided to give Midnight a decent cover art. While I thought the old artwork with the clock was a lot better, this one is decent enough. Quite a creepy eye catching artwork. Although it does slightly resemble The People Under The Stairs artwork it's still decent.

More Midnight Images