Midnight (1982)

Based on a novel by writer/director John Russo, Midnight is a grainy forgotten nightmare about a runaway who gets herself in deep with a family of satanists. Sounds pretty cool, right? Well, it isn't that great, but it has enough charm to keep me satisfied.

The prologue establishes our villainous family with a young girl caught in a bear trap. They claim her to be a demon taking the appearance of an innocent girl, much in the vein of Bill Paxton's "Frailty", but they don't keep this theme going very long. They're really just a bunch of assholes, and we'll see that soon enough.

Cut to the "present" with our teenage heroine Nancy on her way to have some fun, only her drunken fool of a stepfather starts making advances on her. This asshole is played by Lawrence Tierney, so he's automatically fun to watch. His build and mannerisms remind me of my grandpa. It also helps that they were both drunken buffoons, but that's besides the point. Ol' stepdad demands hugs and kisses from Nancy, forcing her onto the bed where she gives him a very light tap on the head with a tiny little radio and he's out like disco. Thus begins Nancy's adventure into hell.

Before anything gets too hairy, she hitches a ride with a couple of dudes for some light-hearted fun. One of them likes her, but the other is mad that she's impeding on their bro time, so he's reluctant to keep her around. Part of this is because he's black, and the group faces some racism along the way, so he's only looking out for his best interests, considering she's a minor and all.

After stealing some groceries for the road, the police are after them. Yup, the police are in pursuit of a trio of kids for stealing some food. Kind of weird if you ask me, but whatev.

What's funny about this is they play such an upbeat song throughout the whole movie about midnight and runaways. "You're on your own! You're all alone! You can't go home anymore!"

Well, eventually, the trio runs into a family of psychos and that's where the movie really begins. I was initially drawn to this movie because it features John Amplas from Romero's "Martin". This movie is a product of that Pittsburgh crew, featuring effects by Tom Savini. Normally, that would sound like a great thing, but there aren't many effects in this movie. Savini was in autopilot mode, but it's still better than nothing.

The movie draws inspiration from Texas Chainsaw Massacre, though a lot of this is due to the grainy VHS look. This movie is oft considered a video nasty, even though it's pretty tame, but I really love that ugly aesthetic.

There's not a whole hell of a lot to say about this movie, but I've always thought it was a decent effort, and I wouldn't mind seeing more from John Russo.

Apparently, there's a sequel AND a recent remake, so I'll keep my eyes out for those.

Fun trivia from IMDb:

Was released in some theaters as "Backwoods Massacre".

Despite some similarities to Tobe Hooper's The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974), director/writer John A. Russo said he had never seen the film at the time he wrote and shot Midnight. According to him, Chainsaw was not an influence.

Tom Savini turned down an offer to do the special effects for Friday the 13th Part 2 (1982) and worked on this movie instead. (what a fool!)

The budget of the film was so low it was shot with only a crew of three, including director Russo himself.

Shot years before its eventual release in 1982.

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