skullislandsurferdotcom A teenage girl runs away from home, and with good reason. Her overweight, alcoholic policeman step dad tried to rape her, and he's played by Noir legend Lawrence Tierney, ten years shy from his revamp in Quentin Tarantino's RESERVOIR DOGS.She hitches a ride with two dudes in a van that eventually veers off on a back road – and like any low-budget horror film, this is a very bad mistake for the characters, but heaven to the viewer.Eventually our heroine faces a psychotic hillbilly clan ala Texas CHAINSAW MASSACRE. Plenty of violent, gory murders served up by makeup guru Tom Savini creates an eerily hellish daytime nightmare – ultimately peaking with a satanic ritual at, you got it, midnight.Despite the anemic budget; and with the exception of Tierney and horror icon John Amplas (along with his psycho siblings), there are a few meager performances, but no matter: Here's an exploitation that entertains from the bloody beginning to the bloody end.For More Reviews: http://cultfilmfreakreviews.blogspot.com/

BA_Harrison When drunken cop Bert Johnson (Lawrence Tierney) makes sexual advances towards his teenage stepdaughter Nancy (the rather boyish Melanie Verlin), she packs her bags and sets off to see her sister in California, hitching a ride with Tom and Hank (John Hall and Charles Jackson), two college students on their way to Florida (!?!?). After a night camping out under the stars, the trio fall foul of a family of redneck Satanists who are ritually sacrificing young women to try and resurrect their dead mother.With a screenplay and direction from John A. Russo, writer of seminal horror classic Night of the Living Dead, and make-up effects from genre legend Tom Savini, one might reasonably expect Midnight to deliver the goods in terms of terror and gore, but sadly it fails to deliver on both counts: Russo's script, based on his own novel, suffers from a dreadfully dull first half and the guy is clearly no Romero when calling the shots behind the camera, consistently failing to deliver the requisite chills; Savini also disappoints, his gore FX on this project being far from his best work (I can only presume that he knocked them out on the cheap as a favour to Russo).It's not all a total loss though: the film's pace picks up considerably once Nancy and pals meet the devil-worshipping backwoods clan (a memorable group consisting of two nutters posing as cops, a demented babe, and a fat guy in dungarees who can't stop laughing), and bonus points are scored for a willingness to tackle the taboo, a few surprisingly brutal deaths, and a cool grind-house vibe achieved through cruddy picture quality and a menacing, lo-fi synthesiser score (the horribly dated theme song, on the other hand, is simply atrocious and only serves to irritate).5.5 out of 10, rounded up to 6 for IMDb.

shango7200 ...for his misfired and excessive piece of garbage:"Grindhouse". "Midnight" is a TRUE grind-house flick that really feels like a 1970's movie, even though released in 1981/82, and most likely filmed in 1980. What stuck us a very funny was the lead girl (who looks like Helen Reddy!) was often referred to as "jail-bait" and it was so obvious that she was like, 23 or something. This movie is shocking and laughable but it moves fairly well and should be granted "cult movie" status. There are some shocking murders, blood and the gritty (Pittsburgh?)scenery , all filmed on what looks like rainy/overcast weather, adds pure atmosphere to this "schlocker".

Coventry Thoroughly unoriginal, primitive and nasty, yet compelling and strangely unsettling, "Midnight" truly is the masterwork of novelist John A. Russo. The co-writer of the legendary horror classic "Night of the Living Dead" always somewhat stood in the shadow of George A. Romero, but "Midnight" is his very own and personalized venture into the depths of grisly backwoods-horror and uncanny rednecks. Russo clearly didn't have much of a budget to work with, yet he manages to create a gripping atmosphere through eerily isolated locations, appalling characters and moody music. And even though you've endured the routine story - centering on a family of demented social outcasts terrorizing travelers - at least a dozen times before, Russo's screenplay still manages to deliver a handful of efficient frights and shocking moments. The great (late) Lawrence Tierney stars as an aggressive drunken pervert, and yet his character is one of the good guys, since the others are inbred Satanists, hoodlum teenagers and unfriendly hillbillies. When Bert Johnson once again attempts to rape his under-aged stepdaughter, the girl flees and hitchhikes her way down South. She fetches a ride in the van of two young boys, who rob grocery stores for fun, and together they end up in a little town where none of the inhabitants have any of their original teeth left. Deeply hidden in the woods surrounding this town, there lives a crazed family of devil-worshipers who're collecting female virgins to sacrifice to our Lord Satan on Easter Sunday. Why? Because their late mother taught them to do this, of course! "Midnight" is derivative of "Psycho", "Texas Chainsaw Massacre", "Deliverance" and a truckload of other grindhouse 70's flicks. So much even that it feels like you're watching a genuine 70's drive-in feature! Despite released during the early 80's, "Midnight" features the soundtrack, photography and narrative style of a typically trashy 70's horror cinema. John Russo implements a raw and brutal filming style, with disturbing images of country folks and graphic violence. Tom Savini (old friends with Russo and Romero) was in charge of the make-up effects, so you just know there will be some deliciously succulent massacres on display. In one particularly nasty scene, the camera zooms in on one of the depraved hicks slicing a young girl's throat with a rusty saw. How can any fan of horror cinema resist that? By no means "Midnight" will ever be considered a classic, but it's tremendous fun none the less.