Midnight was in some respects a much easier film to watch than Darkness. While Darkness utilized professional actors and better cameramen and directors, Midnight had a more coherent plot. Few could watch Darkness and then describe to somebody what happened in that movie and why it happened. Whereas, because John Russo adopted the screen play for Midnight from his own already published novel and then directed the movie himself, John Russo's story was successfully conveyed to the audience.
Russo's novel, "Midnight" told a bigger story about a national syndicate of Satanists that controlled all the political offices of the small Pennsylvania town which was the setting for the novel. Russo's novel also had a much more grim ending as nobody came to save poor Nancy. In the book, Nancy's policeman-step-father drove home after hearing that the satanists would kill Nancy on Easter night. The step father character in the novel left Nancy to die in an effort to conceal his attempted rape of her.
While Midnight the movie tells a slightly smaller story than "Midnight" the novel, Russo manages to force feed some pretty heavy themes to his audience: (1)Racial tension- Russo really places a lot of emphasis on the issue of racial disharmony. (2)The archaic and useless nature of religion- Russo devotes more time to this theme in his novel, but its hard not to notice Russo's opinion that Catholic dogma is just as archaic and useless as the satanic rituals being performed by his villains. The Catholic Priest taking Nancy's confession is portrayed as vindictive and unnecessarily ritualistic. Late in the film, the camera pans back and forth between Nancy praying for salvation while locked in a dog cage and at the same time the satanists chant their prayers hoping to resurrect their mummified mother. Russo seems to suggest that both prayers are equally outdated, ineffective and useless. (3) Men as predators- Russo does not think very highly of the fellow members of his gender. Literally every man that Russo's main character, underage Nancy, meets wants to have sex with her. Her stepfather drunkenly tries to rape her, The first driver that attempts to pick her up hitchhiking specifically states that she has to have sex with him for every 300 miles that he drives her. The two college aged boys discuss that she is jail bait and then still pick her up hitchhiking because the one boy thinks she is likely to sleep with him. The satanist brothers try and strip her naked and rape her until their satanist sister reminds them that they need a virgin sacrifice. (4) The danger of rural areas- Many of the victims of the satanist killers were either killed or kidnapped right from their own homes and backyards. This was only possible because of the rural area that these people lived in. The "dangerous" woods reached right up into the victims back door. The satanists needed only step out of the dangerous woods attack their victims and then disappear back into the woods.
Russo's story was interesting but his themes were misguided and heavy handed
Russo's novel, "Midnight" told a bigger story about a national syndicate of Satanists that controlled all the political offices of the small Pennsylvania town which was the setting for the novel. Russo's novel also had a much more grim ending as nobody came to save poor Nancy. In the book, Nancy's policeman-step-father drove home after hearing that the satanists would kill Nancy on Easter night. The step father character in the novel left Nancy to die in an effort to conceal his attempted rape of her.
While Midnight the movie tells a slightly smaller story than "Midnight" the novel, Russo manages to force feed some pretty heavy themes to his audience: (1)Racial tension- Russo really places a lot of emphasis on the issue of racial disharmony. (2)The archaic and useless nature of religion- Russo devotes more time to this theme in his novel, but its hard not to notice Russo's opinion that Catholic dogma is just as archaic and useless as the satanic rituals being performed by his villains. The Catholic Priest taking Nancy's confession is portrayed as vindictive and unnecessarily ritualistic. Late in the film, the camera pans back and forth between Nancy praying for salvation while locked in a dog cage and at the same time the satanists chant their prayers hoping to resurrect their mummified mother. Russo seems to suggest that both prayers are equally outdated, ineffective and useless. (3) Men as predators- Russo does not think very highly of the fellow members of his gender. Literally every man that Russo's main character, underage Nancy, meets wants to have sex with her. Her stepfather drunkenly tries to rape her, The first driver that attempts to pick her up hitchhiking specifically states that she has to have sex with him for every 300 miles that he drives her. The two college aged boys discuss that she is jail bait and then still pick her up hitchhiking because the one boy thinks she is likely to sleep with him. The satanist brothers try and strip her naked and rape her until their satanist sister reminds them that they need a virgin sacrifice. (4) The danger of rural areas- Many of the victims of the satanist killers were either killed or kidnapped right from their own homes and backyards. This was only possible because of the rural area that these people lived in. The "dangerous" woods reached right up into the victims back door. The satanists needed only step out of the dangerous woods attack their victims and then disappear back into the woods.
Russo's story was interesting but his themes were misguided and heavy handed