Customer Reviews

Midnight [VHS]

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

 

 

I'm glad Lion's Gate decided to re-release this low-budget horror from 1982.Back in the 80s I read and enjoyed the book and liked the film(I saw it on video).John(NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD co-writer)Russo did a nice job on the book and film version.A teen-age girl runs away from home and is picked up by 2 guys in a van and they all 3 meet up with a family of Satanic killers.Pretty suspenseful in parts.Lawrence Tierney(before his RESERVOIR DOGS comeback)and John(MARTIN)Amplas are the only recognizable people on here.The dvd has a fine full-screen transfer and no special features.

This is one of those movies that gets reviews from various ends of the spectrum from love to hate. Most movie/video guides rate it pretty low. Fangoria magazine would probably give it a rave review if were gorier. For myself, I fall in between. I found the movie to be enjoyable but not great. The plot involves a high school girl, Nancy, who runs away from home after an encounter with her drunken stepfather (played by Lawrence Tierney) who wants to be more than friends. Nancy plans (rather abruptly) to hitchhike to California to stay with her sister in college (this story takes place in Pennsylvania). She is given a lift by a pair of college buddies heading to Florida. Disagreement does arise among the buddies as one of them likes her while the other does not care to be transporting jailbait; neither is aware that she is a runaway. None of them will expect the chain of events one of their actions sets off. This is just a setup for the movie. Rather than spoil it for you, I will just tell you that it involves a backwoods family, satanists, kidnappings, some bad acting, and a few shocking scenes. I saw it when it came out at the theatre and own a copy on VHS. When it came out a movie critic picked this as his stinker of the week. One criticism of his was without merit involving a bar scene in the movie. In the scene several of the occupants of the bar are openly racist toward one of the college buddies who is black; as a matter of fact most of the residents of this small community are backward racists. He felt that the racism was overblown for the time because we as a people had grown past that type of behavior (this movie was released in the early 80's when a lot of people liked to believe racism was a thing of the past). I did agree with his other criticism; there is quite a bit of duplication in this movie. If you have seen a lot of horror movies (let's be blunt; 'Psycho', 'The Texas Chainsaw Massacre') then you have seen some of this before. If you fall into this category, then you will not find too much originality here. And even though I fall into this category, I still find it entertaining; just not great. [A note on the price of this tape. This tape is out of print and was never released as other than a video store copy (meaning the price was kept high). This is a difficult tape to find. If you look at the auction sites and are patient, you may be able to find one for $10.00 or less (if you pay any more than that, you are paying too much). To keep you from getting a thousand hits by searching for 'midnight' in VHS, use the search words 'midnight' and 'russo' in an item description search. Keep in mind Amazon.com does have an auction area.]-Bob

I own this movie and loved it. It was definitely something unique and different. It was even a little more gorier than I expected it. I was glad when this classic was released on DVD. The only thing I don't like about the DVD release is that it is in Full Screen format. A Widescreen format of this movie would have been alot nicer. I can't imagine that the movie was filled in Full Screen.

In typical Lionsgate fashion, the movie is full screen unfortunately, but the transfer is decent, though somewhat grainy due to it being dated, but it actually adds to the experience. Special features? None. Movie any good? Kinda. Fans of John Amplas (from George Romero's 'Martin') would probably like it, though don't expect anything exceptional. It really does seem like a midnight movie to watch when you're bored enough.

From the mind of John Russo-bestselling fright novelist and co-author of the original "Night Of The Living Dead"-comes an all-new journey into the realm of murder, madness and graphic mayhem. It all begins at the witching hour...when the clock strikes MIDNIGHT! Determined to escape the ...clutches of her twisted stepfather, young Nancy Johnson impulsively-and unwisely-decides to hitchhike her way to California. Oblivious to the dangers of accepting rides from strangers, Nancy makes the fatal error of joining up with a pair of seemingly harmless young men. Thus begins a whirlwind descent into never-ending, nightmarish insanity that brings Nancy face to face with hulking mass murderers, killers disguised as trustworthy policemen, a backwoods coven of blood-hungry, corpse-worshipping Satanists-and a fate more terrifying than anything Nancy could ever imagine...With special makeup effects by Tom Savini ("Dawn of the Dead," "Friday The 13th" and "Creepshow"), MIDNIGHT is an uncompromisingly gruesome delight that will have you shivering well into the wee hours of the night! Campy but that's the way I like them! They don't make 'em like this anymore!

Poor Nancy. All she wanted to do was hitch a ride to stay with her sister in California after being sexually harrassed by her drunkard cop stepdad. What are the odds she'd end up with two petty thieves who have poor decision making skills and rob a grocery store in a small town occupied by backwoods Satanists? Actually, the odds are pretty darn good in this John Russo low budgeter filmed in and around Pittsburgh (where Night of the Living Dead was filmed... hey, Russo wrote some of that screenplay, too! What are the odds of... ya. Overkill.). You're also subject to witnessing some early Tom Savini FX work (this was filmed in 1980; perhaps a practice run towards the original Friday the 13th?). Nothing particularly special outside of the aforementioned modern horror pioneers being involved. It also contains possibly the worst theme song involving the word "midnight" ever. Note: This Lions Gate release lists the running time at 88 minutes, whereas the actual runtime is 94 minutes. 5.25/10

John A. Russo's adaptation of his novel of the same name was definitely an exceptional horror film. It starts a little slow but builds. The film isn't terrible. It's quite enjoyable and besides Night of the Living Dead, Russo does show some of his talents, In his novels, his movies, and the other stuff he's done. I'd like to see more of what Russo can do. Book or Movie.

Midnight is an adaptation of a novel written by the director John Russo. I have not read his book but the movie is an enjoyable cheesy slasher film. Members of the Romero NOTLD tree also contributed to this picture. If you enjoy 80's horror then you'll like this one.

This obscure early 80's low-budget horror film is a 50/50 type of effort. You get 50% crap(crap acting,crap music,crap atmosphere,dry kills,crap storyline) & 50% good entertainment(some what decent acting,some spooky music/sound efx,some decent atmosphere,some decent kills,) but for me what tips the scale towards the thumbs down direction is the very end of the movie it was way too cheesey. It left you without any type of a climax! Now i love both films 'JUST BEFORE DAWN'&'SLAUGHTERHOUSE' but its almost like some shmucks collected all the scraps off the cutting room floor of those gems & came up with 'MIDNIGHT'. One helping of this film is all i need.Next!?!

This is one of those movies that gets reviews from various ends of the spectrum from love to hate. Most movie/video guides rate it pretty low. Fangoria magazine would probably give it a rave review if were gorier. For myself, I fall in between. 'Midnight' was made for a paltry budget of $35,000 by 'Night of the Living Dead' co-writer/producer John Russo and is probably his best solo effort. I found the movie to be enjoyable but not great. The plot involves a high school girl, Nancy, who runs away from home after an encounter with her drunken stepfather (played by Lawrence Tierney) who wants to be more than friends. Nancy plans (rather abruptly) to hitchhike to California to stay with her sister in college (this story takes place in Pennsylvania). She is given a lift by a pair of college buddies heading to Florida. Disagreement does arise among the buddies as one of them likes her while the other does not care to be transporting jailbait; neither is aware that she is a runaway. None of them will expect the chain of events one of their actions sets off. This is just a setup for the movie. Rather than spoil it for you, I will just tell you that it involves a backwoods family, satanists, kidnappings, some bad acting, and a few shocking scenes. I saw it when it came out at the theatre and own a copy on VHS. When it came out a movie critic picked this as his stinker of the week. One criticism of his was without merit involving a bar scene in the movie. In the scene several of the occupants of the bar are openly racist toward one of the college buddies who is black; as a matter of fact most of the residents of this small community are backward racists. He felt that the racism was overblown for the time because we as a people had grown past that type of behavior (this movie was released in the early 80's when a lot of people liked to believe racism was a thing of the past). I did agree with his other criticism; there is quite a bit of duplication in this movie. If you have seen a lot of horror movies (let's be blunt; 'Psycho', 'The Texas Chainsaw Massacre') then you have seen some of this before. If you fall into this category, then you will not find too much originality here. And even though I fall into this category, I still find it entertaining; just not great. 'Midnight' has been unavailable for some time as it was previously only released on VHS, and to video stores only. The old VHS copy would command quite a price, and was frankly not worth it. Now that it is available on DVD, it is much more affordable.--Bob