Midnight Movie the Killer Cut (2011)

Note: This review has been updated for the new version of the movie, the Killer Cut. 

Ted Radford is a filmmaker that takes scaring his audience seriously, too seriously.  See good old Ted made an old school stalk and kill movie and was quite obsessed with it.  So much so he was locked up in a mental hospital, and then when showed the movie went on a killing spree there.  Thing is they never found him and when an old copy of his movie shows up for a midnight screening at a rundown theater both the detective that investigated the massacre and the doctor that was treating him show up.  The idea is that if he is still at large then he won’t be able to resist coming to watch the movie.  They get more than they bargained for when the killer (played by Ted) steps out of the screen and into the theater to kill everyone in sight!  How do you stop a supernatural killing machine bent on destroying everyone in his path?  Watch the movie and find out.

This is one of the few new slasher movies that I actually like.  Other than the setup of the killer being unleashed from the old movie that is playing on screen there really isn’t much new here.  The characters are fairly typical, the kills are predictable, and the characters utter lines that you know are going to get them killed shortly afterwards.  Hell if you have ever seen a slasher flick before you will see the jump scares coming a mile away.  But none of this matters because the cast is very likeable, the writing is perfect for a horror movie, and the characters are a blast.  One of the things that drive me crazy is that modern horror films need to explain everything about the killer and sometimes his victims.  That does nothing but bog things down and makes for a slow movie.  Here they give the basic setup that Ted was crazy and liked to scare people.  How did he end up in the movie?  Who cares, all we need to know is that he is going to keep coming out of it to slaughter everyone in site!  That works for me.  The movie sets up a brief back-story for a couple of characters so that it sort of makes sense they can deal with their fear, but again doesn’t beat you over the head with a flashback or long exposition.  In fact except for a short time spent getting the characters in the movie theater the story is pretty relentless and speedy.  Between the characters killed on screen in the movie and those killed when the killer steps off screen I can’t imagine anyone being bored by this one.  This is just a solid movie that entertains from start to finish. 

Lets talk about the gore.  Now if you haven’t seen the Killer Cut then you really need to.  My only complaint about the movie was the lack of gore and when we did see it the bad CGI.  The director here has gone back and cleaned up the effects, making them much better.  I like my slasher movies bloody and this one was lacking a bit before the Killer Cut.  We get a nice bit of eye gouging, lots of messed up corpses, some good blood spray, and best of all the perfect reason no one should ever say, “To get to her you have to go thru me” in a horror movie!  I did also want to mention how impressed I was with the camera work and overall feel of the movie.  They do a great job setting up so many jump scares by using shadows and lighting to give the movie an overall creepy feeling.  This is hands down one of the better independent movies from a technical standpoint that I’ve seen in a long time.

You know Hollywood has decided to dust off some of our favorite slashers and set them loose on a modern audience with a blaring rock music screeching at us while the camera shakes like a 12 year old who forgot to take his Ritalin.  Maybe I’m just getting old but it was so nice to actually watch a movie that reminded me of why I love old school slasher flicks.  Sometimes the creepy guy stalking quietly down the hallway without a care in the world except for his overwhelming need to jam pointy objects into you is enough.  Bottom line is that Midnight Movie is a very cool movie that I highly recommend everyone search out.  Check out their website at http://www.midnightmovie.com/ for more information.

3 out of 4

reviewed by John Shatzer

© Copyright 2011 John Shatzer