Customer Reviews

Midnight Mass

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(11)

 

 

If someone invites you over to their house to watch this vampire movie and they will provide pizza and beer - all free and no cost to you - still hesitate about going. Some people are giving this movie good reviews; some say there is some good acting; another person loved the make-up - we must be watching different versions of this movie....

ACTING: There are no actors. Just local kids/friends/relatives who were asked "Do you want a part in my movie? We're going to film it all this weekend." NO ONE can act.

SPECIAL EFFECTS: A few bright flashes of light - likely a deer jacking night light from some guys truck.

MAKE-UP: You could do better with a "Hugo, Man of a THousand Faces" puppet.

PLOT: OK - I'll give them some credit here. An initially good idea that vampires now outnumber humans. Has potential. There are a few sparkles such as humans who help the vampires being called Vichy. Also an interesting scene were a little girl acts like a lure for humans in order to see her mother again. But nothing makes up for the dumb, dumb situations that develop. For example, vampires control the night, so a young girl is getting a tatto over at the local peddlers' place. It's now night. There's a bang on the door. "Oh that must be my Dad come to walk me home." So she opens the door and voila - mindless vampires. Wouldn't someone have thought to put a viewing port in the door? If the night is so dangerous then why are you getting a tattoe in the first place?

CHARACTERS: Who? For all the talk - do we really care if any of them survive?

So just a bad movie. Run away for it. Wait for it to come to the $4.99 bin at Walmart. Should be there by June 2003 or so.

Kevin

This movie is low budgeted but starts off very well in the first few minutes where we follow through the device of news-clips the spread of a virus around the planet - only at the end do we learn that it's vampirism.

Cut to a lonely beach-front in the post-apolocalypse. A girl sits having a smoke. A car pulls up and out come four goths. She shows them a cross but they're humans who work for a vampire priest. Here is where the plot begins to unwind. Why would someone, who's so aware as to arm herself with a cross would not be ready for their human slaves (except she has a can of mace!), and why, in such a dangerous world she was just sitting there by herself?

There's also an attempt at a sub-plot as a washed-up alcaholic priest is recruited to battle a chief vampire, another priest and one-time pedophile.

The plot faults only grow wider as the film progresses.

There are some moderately interesting special FX and a small amount of skin as one of the goth girls makes love to a man as she slices him with a razor - this scene has no context in the story and I feel was added so as to show some boobs.

Shame on F. Paul Wilson for being involved with this mindless, garbage-level trash. No redeeming qualities..steer away from it....don't let the "vampire" plot lure you...this looks like a movie made by a bunch of drunks on less than shoestring budget.
Yuck!

I can honestly say this is the absolute worst piece of junk ever made in the history of moving pictures.
I would not wish this movie on anyone. I would use this film as a means of torture for any terrorists we may capture. It would be a sure way of getting them to give us any vital information we need in order to better secure our country. They would beg us to turn this garbage off to stop the pain!!!
Put it this way........I would rather be dragged though the streets naked, tarred and feathered and on fire hitched to the back of a street sweeper on a 150 degree day in the desert than have anyone expose themselves to this film. Yes, I would take the bullet for anyone reaching for this title off the Blockbuster shelf. (that's where I rented this one.)
I live in the area in which this movie was filmed. Well, not in the towns shown in the film, but I know the towns. If I had known these guys were shooting this crap here, I would have given them a greyhound ticket to get the h**l out my area and stop spreading toxic waste into the area.
I can go on and on and on about how bad this film is, but it would be too easy. The writing in my review is 100 times better than the dialogue in this movie!!!
OK, I will stop.
PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE NO ONE GET THIS MOVIE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

after viewing this, i wished for the days of public stoning to be brought back. and everyone connected to this abomination to be truly held accountable for the waste of resources the performed.
worst yet, they are from my state, i have a feeling these were the same gothic wanna be's that congregated for years in
the Barnes & Noble coffee shop of Bricktown. All talking about making a vampire film... GOD HELP US, THEY HAVE!!!! (the apocalypse is nopt far behind)

I bought this DVD based on the fact that it was taken from a story by F. Paul Wilson (The Keep, Nightworld, The Tomb etc.) Mr. Wilson has produced some excellent work in the past, and still does, but this story isn't one of them. The story line is weak, the characters shallow and uninteresting and the holes in the plot are big enough to drive a truck through.

Despite the world being controlled by Vampires there are an awful lot of night walks going on, I call them walks as no one seems to be in a hurry to get to safety. Night trips also seem to be the time to get really important work done, and no it's not to kill the Vichy ( the name given to the human army that protect the vampires during the day) oh no, important trips seem to be visiting friends and getting tattoos. We are constantly reminded that the vampires took over the world because we dropped the ball and they got organised, however every vampire we see, other than the main baddy (and I'll come to him later) were all slavering, hissing creatures with no more intelligence than a zombie from a Romero film. How they got organised I'll never know.

I was looking forward to this story coming out as a novella, due later this year I believe, but based on this drivel, I certainly won't be buying it.

OK, that's the story, but what of the film? Well! Bad acting, terrible editing, shaky sets and special effects that I have seen carried off with more skill back in the 1980s all go to making this poor story a terrible movie. The vampire leader is terrible, not only is he the only vampire that doesn't look dead his acting ability is as dead as his character.

Do yourselves a favour, leave this one alone - it really is bad. If you want a good apocalyptic vampire story read AfterAge by Yvonne Navarro or Armageddon by Derek Gunn, which as well as being better than this is also available free on the Internet.

Bad vampire movie? You're swimming in it. "Midnight Mass" is one of the worst horror films I have ever seen. The premise about vampires parasitically taking over the world isn't especially novel, but could have been a lot worse. Where the film falls down entirely is in the execution: it's simply ghastly (and not in a good way.) The film opens with a story about a virus spreading over the earth and wiping out humanity. As clumsy is that is, it turns out the virus angle is a giant multi-national governmental cover-up for the real problem, which is rampant vampirism.

After the incredibly cheesy faux-newscast footage providing the backstory, the film cuts to four Goths on a road trip in an ancient Cadillac Seville searching for prey in Asbury Park, New Jersey. The film is nearly unbearable from the very beginning, mixing tedious dialogue, a ponderous plot, and dreadful overacting into a cauldron of sulfurous stink. The wholly unlikeable heroine, self-proclaimed atheist anarchist Gwen (Pamela Karp) sees an abduction by the Goths, and decides to do something about it. Her mission involves riding a bicycle hither and yon and bringing a disgraced Catholic priest, "Father Joe" (Douglas Gibson,) into the plot. The screenwriting is particularly tiresome, the plot is frequently needlessly convoluted, and the acting is constantly of the hysterically overwrought school of drama. Unfortunately one of the worst offenders is Gwen herself, and I was constantly hoping her demise would be premature and violent. (I only got one of my wishes.) Joe has a checkered past with some kind of scandal alluded to that is never especially clear or necessary to the plot. One thing's for sure: Gibson is one of the least convincing priests in screen history (though he does drink to excess.)

Where does this all lead? To a huge clot of time-wasting padding in an underground tattoo parlor, some vampire fisticuffs, and an annoyingly long analogy of Nazi Germany to the vampire menace. In one (perhaps I should say "the one") clever piece of writing displayed here, the vampires have assistants (like the Goths) who are essentially vampire wannabees, and they are referred to as "Vichy." I'll give the screenwriters credit for that one. This endless pontificating gives way to even more pontificating on the nature of vampires, and boy does it get old fast, especially when being preached by an actress like Karp. I thought her overacting could not be topped, but I was wrong.

The cast gets one more key addition in the form of the satanic priest of the vampires, "Father Alberto Palmeri" (Marvin W. Schwartz) who chews the scenery with the worst of them, sacrifices humans, provides meals for needy vampires, and generally is the arch-nemesis of Joe. This, sadly, spawns one of the worst "dueling priest" scenes in history. It is so painful that I won't say any more other than it comes to a ridiculous conclusion involving more saliva than should be strictly necessary, much questioning of faith from Gwen (like you couldn't see that coming from a mile away,) a lot of fighting, and a sappy ending. It was a genuine relief when "Midnight Mass" rolled the credits. Unfortunately, there are lots of extras, which will prolong the agony for those inclined to watch everything on the disc.

The extras include some truly boring bloopers and outtakes, a "Behind the Camera" feature featuring interviews with the principals in the film. This is not only extremely boring, but fairly ridiculous. Despite the grandiose claims about breaking new cinematic ground, and the absurd appraisals of the general quality of the film, discerning viewers may not be convinced. Especially if they've already seen the movie. There is a still gallery (in the off chance you didn't see enough,) and there is a commentary track that is possibly the single best feature of the film. Obviously the filmmakers believe the quality of the picture is far superior than I do, but it wasn't as self-aggrandizing as the interviews and did actually contain a few interesting nuggets of information. One morsel of truth I was not surprised to learn were how many of the thespians onscreen were not professional actors, starting right at the beginning with the Goths. (I know you'll be shocked to learn this information, too.)

This is really one of the worst. It's far too boring and poorly made to be good, but it's far too ponderous and preachy to be considered "so bad it's good." Just let sleeping vampires lie, and avoid "Midnight Mass" at all costs.

Like i said dont waste your time or money.First of all,this movie goes no where.the story line is bad and the acking is even worse.This is one of the most stupid movies i have ever seen.Please take it from me.Do not buy this,dont even rent it.And if you do,dont say i didnt warn u.

A promising premise (reminiscent of stories in "Under the Fang") and a somewhat creative opening few minutes -- tracking a vampire apocalypse from the point-of-view of TV news clips -- are red herrings in this presumably straight-to-video release.

Wherever the dividing line is between "low-budget" and "no-talent", this movie is well on the losing side. The acting is entirely amateur and ranges from the sub-par (for example, the goth youth collaborators) to the merely dull (alcoholic hero Father Joe) to the whopping ludicrous (Marvin Schwartz as a Catholic priest). The direction as such is incomprehensible.

A dreadful, rambling script is partially credited to horror author F. Paul Wilson, who also briefly appears -- or so it says on the box cover.

Don't be misled by the colorful video box! This trash is impossible to watch in its entirety, and not worth the wear on your DVD player.

First, let me say I read all the other reviews and agree with the bad ones. You see I have just read the book, which was quite good. I picked this book up after all the Twilight stuff was making look to a real vampire book. This book was up there with the classic Salem's Lot by Stephen King {when he could still write a book well}. Even with the terrible reviews I had to see the movie to see how it worked with the book. IT WAS TERRIBLE!!! I know you lose alot from book to film, but this was horrible. The acting was so BAD! I think they did go to a high school {and not a high school acting class either} and just ask poeple if they had a few hours. The neice to the priest I think was the worst. OK besides the bad acting, terrible camera work, and special effects there was the story. They took out not one but two main characters. The sister {nun} was the best character in the book and they deleted her. As far as the vampires the whole higharchy was deleted too. This was truly the worst film to book transfer in history. So please if you like horror...and I mean like Salem's Lot {Not Twilight type} read the book and run from this movie!!!!!!