Customer Reviews

Midnight Hour (1985) [VHS]

5 star:		(23)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This 1980's made for TV movie opens on Halloween morning with a paper boy preparing to go out on his route. Adding a baseball card to his bicycle spokes, he accidentally cuts his finger, and with that first tiny drawing of blood (the goriest moment in the film actually), the title "The Midnight Hour" flashes on the screen with "Wolfman" Jack's voice over, "Lookout, it's the midnight hour! Owwwooooooooooo!!!"
Our story begins here in Pitchford Cove, or "Pitchfork Cove" as the residents sometimes jokingly call it. As Phil Grenville reads his report on local Halloween history to the rest of his High School class, we are told that a witch named Lucinda placed a Halloween curse on the town hundreds of years ago, and that it was HIS ancestor who stopped it from coming true. Suddenly, Phil's friend Mitch gets the bright idea to sneak into the local witch museum to borrow costumes for tonight's Halloween party, and with his friends eager to do it, Phil reluctantly comes along. In the museum, the group of teens find an old scroll, break the seal, and find an old curse written on it. Off to the graveyard to read it allowed, just for kicks! Unfortunately, their friend Melissa is the descendant of witch Lucinda, and she reads the incantation. Thinking it did not work, the frieds head home to prepare for the party. Meanwhile, all manor of evil creatures, from werewolves, to vampires, to witches, to the bodies in the graveyard, come to life to wreak vengeance on Pitchford Cove. Many comic moments arise from seeing the regular townsfolk interact with zombies they believe to merely be people in costumes, especially at the Halloween party, but some terrifying moments occur too, because while some creatures seem to just be hanging out, the rest came to kill and spread their evil!
Amongst the horrific creatures however, a beautiful 50's era cheerleader named Sandy has also come to life, looking as cute as ever for some reason. Phil and Sandy meet on the way to the party, and while they fall in love, they also discover the evil that has the town in its clutches, and do their best to stop it before The Midnight Hour, when it will be too late!
The Midnight Hour is a wonderful TV movie from the mid 80's. I remember seeing it the first time it aired. It's corny, naturally, it's a cheezy 80's move. There are bad lines, the High School Students look like College Graduates, and Shari Belafonte, who plays Melissa, breaks out into a song and dance number at the party for no concievable reason. But in that cheezy, non-gory style of Halloween horror, it is great fun! The love story is sweet and sincere, the constant "Wolfman" Jack radio program playing spooky oldies in the background is wonderful, and the monsters are just great! Sure, the fangs look fake, you can see where the "fog" is being released from in the cemetary, and the first werewolf looks more like a guy in a bigfoot suit, but if you lose yourself in the story it's really fun and exciting and even can give you chills in some moments, when watched in the proper atmosphere of course. That's why I can't help but give this incredibly fun movie 5 stars, and rank it with my Halloween must watch films like Hocus Pocus, It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown, Sleepy Hollow, Harry Potter, Ichabod and Mr. Toad, and the original The Worst Witch, among others!

Like many, I saw this movie way back in the eighties (I remember the ads saying something like "Halloween isn't over yet!" cause it was shown on November 1st). I turned it on as a lark, since I'm a longtime fan of horror movies. As stated by other reviewers, this movie was definitely influenced by the "Thriller" video (I think the same people did effects for both, but don't quote me). The plot revolves around an ancient witch-vampire's curse on the town of Pitchford Cove. It builds as the town quickly succumbs to the vampirism, almost like a virus spreading out of control. Sort of like "Salem's Lot"- your best friend might now be one of the undead! To me the standout character was Jonna Lee, who played the also risen 1950s Cheerleader. Ms.Lee had a brief career in the 80s, often playing teenage girls in movies, and TV shows like "Airwolf" and "Mike Hammer". Believe it or not, I guessed the ending when I first saw it. Still, it's not your average run of the mill movie, and deserves a place on your DVD shelf.

This is just some soundtrack information for the fans of this excellent Halloween fun flick. For some reason, the end credits do not list the soundtrack info at all, so I've had to research about the great tunes used in the film. I've received emails from Amazon customers asking me about certain songs, so I've decided to post the soundtrack here. Anyway, on with it:

The Midnight Hour - Wilson Pickett
Lil' Red Riding Hood - Sam The Sham & The Pharaohs
Bad Moon Rising - Creedence Clearwater Revival
Clap For The Wolfman - The Guess Who
How Soon Is Now? - The Smiths
Mama Told Me (Not To Come) - Three Dog Night
Sea Of Love - Del Shannon (This is the actual version used in the film)
Sea Of Love - Phil Philips & The Twilights
(This is the original version, which Sandy references as being "much more hep")
Get Dead - Shari Belafonte-Harper
Devil Or Angel - Bobby Vee (or the original doo-wop version by The Clovers)
Baby, I'm Yours - Barbara Lewis

If anyone wants to add to this, please feel free. This is an excellent blend of spooky tunes from the 50's through 80's. If you are an insane fan like myself, you'll go ahead and collect these songs to make your own soundtrack. I just thought I'd help the crazy ones along a little bit.

Put your credit cards away.... Its being re-released.. Anchor bay had sold off the rights to MGM a few years back.....Re-release.... 7 years after its first release on DVD..... Just Like night of the Comet was released a month ago (and they said that would never happen as a result of the MGM Master burning down in that warehouse fire when they lost all the prints).....

Well... woohoo...... finally get to see it in its pristine condition........
Serves these sellers right! haha

Part of the appeal of "Midnight Hour" is that it's a good, fun Halloween film for the entire family but also enjoys an almost cult status among the adult set. Though not ultimately destined for a place in the Horror Hall of Fame I look at it like this: "Midnight Hour" is like that baseball player who's a hometown hero but never achieves recognition outside those who grew up watching him. Hope that makes sense.

The story is pretty cliche. A bunch of teenagers find a scroll in a museum that will raise the dead when read aloud in a cemetary on Halloween night. They do and hilarity ensues. I hung out with a pretty diverse bunch in high school but I never knew anyone who's idea of fun was getting together to read musty old incantations. Anyway, what follows next is B-movie actors getting zombified for the duration of the movie until the curse can be broken.

What I love most about this movie, though, is its encompassing of age old tradition and classic seasonal imagery. This is partly why it has become inextricably linked with my memories of Halloween.

If you're looking for an enjoyable movie with a fun, if a bit formula plot, for your Halloween party then it doesn't get much better than "Midnight Hour". Thank Anchor Bay for bringing this rare Halloween gem back to prominence.

I grew up in the 80's like most of you and absolutely LOVED this movie. I recorded it on VHS forever ago and just used to watch it daily. I've wanted to own it on DVD for as long as I can remember but I cannot fathom why they feel the need to charge $365.00 I can't imagine anyone paying that unless you're insanely rich and can $365.00 couch change to you.

It just seems ridiculous to me to charge that much. I guarantee if they lowered the price to a "normal" DVD price..they would go like hotcakes!

I can rememebr the first time I watched "The Midnight Hour" on television when I was about 7 or 8. I LOVED IT!! And that statement still holds today. My Mom taped it for me the first time it was on, and when my cousin misplaced my videotape, I was shattered!! I found this rare gem one night at a Blockbuster and was absolutely overjoyed!! Now that it is out on DVD I am in heaven!! My only lament is the lack (or absence of is more like it) of extras on the DVD. But I guess being a made-for-tv movie, there really couldn't be much to work with for extras.
This movie is such a rare find. It's a first rate 80's horror movie that encompasses camp, humor, a little scariness and a great soundtrack (another should've been) and of course those laughable 80's fashions: who could forget the pumps worn with white ankle socks?? But this was so cool back then and it's still kinda cool now, in a way that probably only 80's kids can truly appreciate and understand. This is a movie that you wanna show people who've never seen it and you KNOW they'll enjoy. Sure there are a lot of incongruities like why are some zombies not decayed at all?? Well they're main characters of course and for plot purposes one of our unwitting teen characters has to fall in love with them!
For me this move is not only a good horror flick, but it conjures up memories of past Halloweens when Halloween meant having fun and being a little scared--like trick or treating (which at 25 I still miss!!), and staying up late on Halloween night and watching creepy movies with your family; a time when Halloween meant something to you and your friends and you waited all throught the month of October to get to the 31st! And school Halloween parties with cupcakes and goodies.
I know when I watch this movie, I'm that little seven year old again, in her pajamas watching the movie in the dark and getting a little laugh or a little scare here and there.
Living in Salem, MA (the self-proclaimed Halloween capital of the world) is great, but nothing holds a candle to being a kid on Halloween except maybe having "The Midnight Hour" to watch over and over again! "Halloween.....my favorite day of the year." True fans of this movie will know which character said that line!

I have not seen this movie for years ( I wonder why no one shows it?) but it is still one of my alltime horror favorites. No, there is no excessive bloodshed or special effects but i feel that this actually enhances the movie. The charecters are all likeable and well played. The film has a sense of fun to it that is missing in so many 90s and 2000s horror flicks. As a made for TV movie this has to be one of the alltime greats. It is unfortunate that the current price is absurd. I would gladly buy it for 10-$20 but the prices listed are incomprehensible. In short I highly recommend the movie but wait for a more reasonable price or hopefully a TV airing.

This movie is good but it is not that great for it to be selling for $500.00 give me a break....I could see if it was a 10 time academy award winner but it is a cheesy 80's flick.I could bet money that mgm will be reissuing this movie because a lot of the Abc Movies Anchorbay Had, Mgm Has reissued them.I owned this movie and gave it to a freind but never in my right mind would pay $200.00 or more it is not that good,Please save your money for your bills and wait for a reissue I would only watch this once because it is so cheesy for my collection. I probrably would re buy it at a reasonable price. Get Serious People.......................

I really enjoyed this movie, it has sentimental value being the first Halloween movie my husband and I watched together. No movie is worth $674.99; I don't care how much I love it. Good luck!