I can see why some of you would turn this off pretty quickly. Midnight Movie obviously was not blessed with a big budget or the best actors. A couple of time in the beginning the thought, "Oh man, I think I may have wasted my money on this one" ran through my head. With nothing to lose, I continued to watch the film and slowly but surely was won over by the spirit of this film.

The premise of the film itself is somewhat original. After a director of an old low budget cult film becomes dangerously obsessed with his film, he is locked up in an insane asylum and is forced to watch his film on the idea that him watching this may somehow relax his growing obsession. He disappears in a bloodbath and all the remaining people left in the asylum are slaughtered.

Several years later, the film is shown again at an Indy move theater in a small town. Convinced that the missing director will show, the two police officers wait patiently while the movie begins to play. As the small crowd in the theater and the few workers start showing up in the scenes and being brutally murdered, the crowd quickly finds out that this is no ordinary movie.

There are, as with most current low budget slashers, several problems within this film. However, most of them seem to stem from the budget and I really felt that this film was directed and ultimately done the best possible way considering the low budget and the range of the talent. Our creepy cinema slasher is truly a horrifying creature complete with amazing mask and gimp leg. The director shows he has definitely done his horror homework and provides his audience with "Scream" like clichés to keep the flow consistent and of course, all of us viewers consistently entertained.

If you a true fan of the horror genre and are not particularly bothered by the downfalls of a current low budget slasher film then I say give this a try. I am certain that many of you will be as pleasantly surprised with 'Midnight Movie' as I was.

When a violent '70s horror film is screened at a midnight showing in a small-town movie theatre, a group of friends decide to give the classic cult film a shot. Unfortunately for them, something sinister is afoot when it seems the movie's killer escapes from the celluloid and into their world, looking to make them the stars of the very film they were just watching!

While the plot may have been pulled directly out of the Are You Afraid of the Dark? episode "The Tale of the Midnight Madness" with a overalled murderer swapped for Nosferatu, it still seemed like an inventive and interesting idea that could easily make for an entertaining modern slasher. I suppose all three of those traits (inventive/interesting/entertaining) are true. But, it still wasn't a great film. For some strange reason, and this rarely happens, but I just kept bursting into laughter throughout the movie, especially within the first twenty minutes or so. I think it was a strange reaction to the bad acting, cheesy dialogue, and that ticket-taker kid that would not stop smiling every time he was on screen. Sadly, however, those are the kinds of a laughs a filmmaker does NOT want for his film. They're the ones that are laughing at, not with. Anyway, as far as the rest of the film goes, it's all pretty subpar. Visually, it's nothing to compliment. The direction & cinematography are all pretty basic, taking no risks whatsoever. The editing is terrible, using tricks like that annoying "MTV-style" editing just to add some style. The acting, as I hinted at, was pretty bad for the most part, but it was watchable. The writing was probably the worst part. Not only was the dialogue extremely silly at times, but the story often made no sense and had plot holes you could drive a bus through (for example, how could two people (the cop & the doctor) who are obsessed with a movie and its director not notice that there are new 'scenes' spliced in with locations & actors that they've never seen before?). There are little-to-no scares or suspense. . . but, the gore is good for the most part, even though the kills are overly repetitive. The killer is, well, somewhat cool, somewhat lame. The Keyser Söze limp is never explained or mentioned to have any significance to the film, but he does have a cool weapon and mask. My only problem with him. . . the dude's like 5'5", 130 lbs. While it does help with the mystery to keep him small, it doesn't help with the scares. In the end, Midnight Movie comes in just under average in quality, but makes up for it in entertainment. It's just far too stupid to really consider anything very good. If all you want is a bit of gore with no real redeeming technical qualities, you can do worse.

Obligatory Horror Elements:

• Subgenre: Slasher

• Violence/Gore: It starts out rather tame with most of the gore & violence off-screen; but, as the film progresses, it does get a bit bloody with some rather cool kills.

• Sex/Nudity: No sex and only a brief topless shower scene. Unfortunate, as there are some very cute girls in it.

• Scares/Suspense: Like most slashers of this type, the goal was entertainment and jump scares. It did have a few of the latter, so I suppose it was a success there.

• Mystery: It tried and threw in a couple red herrings, but I didn't really care enough to wonder.

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Crazed film director escapes from the asylum as he's watching his long lost horror film leaving a trail of 70 bodies behind him.About the same time a screening of the film is scheduled for a midnight showing and strange things begin to happen, the killer seems to be walking loose in the theater and the killings are being shown as part of the film. Retro horror film is a good little horror film that is the sort of thing that might have been made back in the 1970's.(Though it does seem to echo Lamberto Bava's Demons) Creepy at times the film is operating with its own sense of dream logic which makes its ability to scare limited. since we can't always see how it gets from A to B (though sometimes were way ahead of the film.) Flaws aside the film is worth a look on cable or as a rental. Its not great but it is enjoyable.