Product Details

• Actors: Stan Ellsworth, Daniel Bonjour, Rebekah Brandes, Greg Cirulnick, Mandell Maughan
• Directors: Jack Messitt
• Format: AC-3, Color, Subtitled, Surround Sound, Widescreen
• Language: English, French
• Subtitles: Spanish
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: R (Restricted)
• Studio: Phase 4 Films
• DVD Release Date: October 13, 2009
• Run Time: 84 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (33 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B002JHD9AK
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #38,745 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "Midnight Movie [Blu-ray]" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

MIDNIGHT MOVIE - Blu-Ray Movie

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Borrows its premise from Bava, but does the master one better., April 27, 2009

By 

David J. Brown - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Midnight Movie (DVD)

This at its core a supernatural slasher film. Like all slasher films it is required to have a masked killer who uses a specialised cutting implement to dispatch teens in a particular setting. Like most supernatural films it comes with specific rules and otherworldly occurances and lapses in logic to circumvent said killer. The film works in both its horror subgenres.

Now at first glance the basic premise of the film sounds like Bava's gore/monster classic DEMONS. Sure, that's partially true. It's about a group of people going to see a midnight horror film in an old theater, and then having the horrifying images on the screen come to life and effect the audience in gruesome ways. But that's where the similarities end and the innovation begins. While I love DEMONS, I have to admit beyond the monster effects, soundtrack, cinematography and basic premise, the film brings nothing new to the table that Romero hadn't already in his zombie films. The satire about how movie violence effects its audience is there, but Bava was more interested in the grue, so it gets buried. This film leaves out the satire completely but builds a serious thriller out of it.

First let me praise God, Buddha, Allah, and Jesus that I have seen a slasher film with characters that are likeable and fleshed out--for the most part. There not as in-depth as Hamlet but for this genre they seem real enough. All the characters you're supposed to like, you do. Hell, one character, the Biker, starts off as a loathesome character and then turned out to be my favorite character. The best part about this film is that it works at getting you to like the people involved, but doesn't let that influence who lives and who dies. There are some casualties in this film that will really make you wish they weren't. I was very happy to actually watch a horror film not wishing for the characters' death, but rather rooting for them to escape. Sometimes I was disappointed and sometimes I wasn't....just watch it for yourself if you want to catch my drift.

Now the movie is very violent and even has some intense gross out death scenes in it. How it lays out each murder is rather clever. Every time the horror film on the screen switches to the notorious Killer POV, made notorious by all 80's slasher films, the characters are clued into the fact that they may have to start running for their lives. On the commentary track included on the dvd the director notes how each murder represented a different film style of killing people on screen. The first are off-screen with only the aftermath shown. As the bodycount rises so does the gore level. We even get a torture-porn(on my quest to reclaiming that term still)sequence at the end that involves some toes and a lot of unpleasantness. This is a fun concept for horror movie nerds and finatics.

The ending even goes somewhere you weren't expecting. I won't ruin it, but it's fun and creepy and slips all the way into supernatural fantasy. The film runs short, just about 80 minutes. It's the perfect length for this type of film, a fluff terror piece with an original twist on an old concept. I usually yearn for more when these things run short, but this one got it all right in less than 90 minutes: likeable characters, creative kills, an original idea for a new cineamtic maniac, and surprises and twists.

I really liked this film. It's very under the radar so you might pass it by. I only heard about it because it was elected dvd of the month in Fangoria a couple of months ago. Check it out...NOW.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars PREDICTABLE, BUT ENDS BETTER THAN IT BEGINS! 2 1/4 STARS!, March 29, 2010

By 

! MR. KNOW IT ALL ;-b "DR SHOCK" (TRI STATE AREA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Midnight Movie (DVD)

I'm a big fan of horror films, but there hasn't been much to get excited about lately. This film had some potential, but cardboard characters and a flimsy script kept it from being anything but a routine slasher. The idea is pretty good, kind of like 'A Nightmare on Elm Street' meets 'Last Action Hero', but it just doesn't deliver many chills. The last quarter of the film is better than the first three quarters, but it doesn't save this from being a "by the numbers" horror flick. The acting is decent for this type of film and the killer is pretty cool looking, but the killings are pretty mild for a slasher. It's worth a look for fans of slasher films, but it's pretty forgettable.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Corkscrews are no longer just for wine bottles, August 25, 2009

By 

Sid the Elf (North Pole) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Midnight Movie (DVD)

Around 12:30 am last night after the Late Night Show Sid cruised the channels in hopes of some fine b. Luckily one of the movie channels just started their showing of Midnight Movie. Previously we had read reviews in favor of the film and decided this would be the feature film of the evening. It offered up a nice concept for horror making it a somewhat original b. Sure it's nothing you must see, but for an avid low budget horror fan it's certainly worth the watch.

The film is centered around a group of people gathered at a dive movie theater to view a cult film called The Dark Beneath. Once the film starts rolling in becomes evident that the crowd of ten is in danger as the killer emerges from the screen taking people out one by one. To sum up the killer, he's a far less scary version of Leatherface who dons a corkscrew as his weapon of choice. The way he kills you is by smelling your fear, much like a bee, causing him to stalk you in a very slow foot dragging motion (hence the Leatherface comparison).

All in all the flick was pretty cool with a nice concept. We loved the idea of a killer popping out of the screen, killing his prey, then dragging them back into the movie for storage. However for it to be well received you should be pretty open to weak acting and lack of scares because it's far from frightening. It's more of that good low budget horror that provides more laughs then anything else, which is always a Sid favorite. This one probably would have been enjoyed years ago, but the lack of nudity may have scared a young elf off.