Editor's Note: This was originally published for FANGORIA on November 6, 2008, and we're proud to share it as part of The Gingold Files.
Sometimes, all you need is a solid little low-budget horror film that isn’t desperately trying to break ground; it just delivers the goods with solid craft and a sense of what it’s doing. Among the countless slasher films coming out of the independent film scene these days, Midnight Movie stands out partially by not straining to outdo its contemporaries in the gore/torture department, or to emulate its forebears from the ’70s.
Indeed, the vintage film-within-the-film that causes all the trouble in Midnight Movie seems a bit erratically conceived. The square, black-and-white shooting style feels straight out of the ’60s, while the subject matter is directly inspired by the grisly drive-in fare of the following decade: A Scooby Doo-esque van full of youths breaks down in a rural area, with the kids seeking help at a nearby house where they’re slain one by one. This little opus, titled The Dark Beneath, starred its creator Ted Radford as its masked villain, and shortly after its completion, he went on a real-life rampage. The crazed auteur wound up in a loony bin, where, as seen in a prologue, one of his doctors ultimately comes to the conclusion that showing Radford his own production might aid in his therapy. Needless to say, this proves to be an extremely misguided idea; the result is a fresh massacre, with Radford disappearing from the premises.
You’d think, with such a backstory, that more people would show up when The Dark Beneath is scheduled as a late-night attraction at a small suburban movie theater. Instead, the attendees amount to the youthful staff and a few of their friends, the little brother of one of the girls, an irascible biker and his squeeze—and a detective and Radford’s former shrink, who think the screening might lure the vanished madman out of hiding. Radford does indeed appear, but not quite in the way they expect: As The Dark Beneath unspools, he emerges from the screen in disguised/murderous character to stalk the patrons (who become supernaturally trapped in the theater) and drag them back into the movie as his latest victims.
The script by Jack Messitt (who also directed) and Mark Garbett cleverly juxtaposes the reel and real terrors, and occasionally subverts expectations. When teen Sully (Michael Schwartz) is introduced as a know-it-all fright-film buff, genre conventions lead you to expect him to use his expertise to help his pals survive the rest of the movie, but it doesn’t quite work out that way. Throughout, the slaughter scenario is less predictable than usual in stalker fare, and even if some of the setups are predictable, there are just as many fatalities you won’t necessarily see coming. This bunch is a little smarter than the average would-be victims as well, dealing with the situation and how to get out of it in a more logical fashion than usual. And they’re a largely likable group, performed with personality by the unknown actors.
Even with a sympathetic cast of targets, though, a film like this is only as good as its malefactor, and Midnight Movie features one of the most fearsome-looking fiends to stalk the screen in a while. His visage—half skull, half what appears to be leather—is pretty freaky and original, and so is his weapon, a razor-edged spiral tool with a pointed tip that Radford uses to take core samples from his victims. (Kudos to the fine work by special-makeup artist Brian Hicks of Lunar Effects.) Messitt stages the murders for maximum punch, and while he doesn’t flinch from the gory results, he doesn’t overstate the bloodshed either. There are genuine jolts to be had here, rather than simple gross-outs.
Once the ensemble has been pared down to the last couple of survivors, Midnight Movie throws in a couple of interesting twists that elevate the action above the typical stalk-and-run, on the way to a satisfying chilly ending. (Stick around through the end credits for a fun closing gag, too.) Throughout, Messitt and co. are clearly working hard to make a solid product instead of just exploiting the genre for a quick cash-in, and the occasional dubious moments can’t dispel the feeling that the team cares about what they’re doing. Certainly, the movie’s technical polish bespeaks this commitment, with a spiffy look belying what was no doubt a very low budget. Midnight Movie is getting a solid push for its limited release (including, appropriately, a number of midnight screenings), but were the independent distribution scene a true meritocracy, it would be unspooling for audiences at all hours, for weeks and not days.
