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This is one of those pleasant surprises that come by every now and then. Ostensibly, it looks like a really bad horror movie made with no money, having little acting talent, and story lines that would make even the most imaginative cringe with disbelief. Fear not: Midnight Movie has a great deal going for it. Let's examine what its detractors are: (1)very limited budget yet used effectively throughout much of the film (2)limited acting skill particularly with the female cast members (3)excessive blood(just not MY cup of tea) and (4)some strange and bizarre plot strands that are never fully explained. Most of these are not real threats to the overall quality of the film. The movie opens with a crazed man in a psych ward watching some old 16mm film that we later discover he directed, wrote, and produced. He watches and then everyone within 20 yards is brutally murdered. The opening credits then come on with some really inappropriate music and then we see an old, somewhat dilapidated movie theater(old style with balcony and all) five years later about to show a midnight showing of his old film The Dark Beneath. We are introduced to the movie theater staff - the teen-aged girl implausibly left in charge is the female lead of the film. We meet several patrons(though very, very few) and a police detective and psych doctor coming there on a hunch that the crazed killer will return whilst his film is being shown. Oh, of course, we also get the manager's little brother in for extra measure. Now all of this is pretty pedestrian stuff. Where Midnight Movie really shines is its use of a movie within a movie. The Dark Beneath showing on the big screen is effectively shot in old seventies style with a grainy feel, actors and actresses looking like those films had back then, and perverse plot lines that really swelled during that era. The film within a film is reminiscent of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre as we see a van with three girls and one nerdy guy(even one of the patrons watches in disbelief that this guy could be with three chicks)and they have a van problem and go to a lone nearby house they saw on the way. Needless to say the deaths are done just like in that film with the huge door being moved and bodies dragged in from the floor. The killer is incredibly creepy. The murderous tool very inventive, and that whole film within a film idea explodes into bringing the present to the past via the film. I don't remember ever seeing anything quite like that before on film. You then get what you would expect with a film like this. Much of it done fairly well I guess. The ending, for me, was quite absurd, but I really, really enjoyed that film within a film.
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