The Midnight Hour

Director - Jack Bender (Child's Play 3)
Starring - Lee Montgomery (Dead of Night), Shari Belafonte (Hey Arnold!), and LeVar Burton (Rise of the Zombies)
Release Date - 1985
Genre - Horror/Comedy
Format - DVD (Personal Collection)

Rating (out of 5):

    

Some movies are made that instantly become classics.  The same can be said about made for television Halloween flicks.  Some are made only to be watched and immediately forgot about while others become Halloween classics that thousands of people watch every October.  I have several dozen movies I watch every October but there is two I watch multiple times a year and several more times in October just because they fit the holiday perfectly.  The first film is The Midnight Hour.  I watched the film when I was extremely young and it scared the complete shit out of me then.  However, as I got older I realized the film is about as scary as your mother-in-law's mustache.  I watch this film every couple of months but lately I have been a little shocked that not a lot of the members in the horror community have not heard about this amazing television movie.
     The film takes place in New England on Halloween.  Phil Grenville (Montgomery) and his four friends decide to break into the local museum and they all steal old clothes and an old trunk. One of Phil's friends, Melissa (Belafonte), finds an old book in the trunk and reads from it in the cemetery.  Unfortunately, Melissa is a descendant of a witch that was killed by the townspeople over 30 years prior.  By reading this passage she accidentally unleashes hell on the small New England town.  The dead rise up from their graves along with the witch who is now a vampire, a ghost of a 50's cheerleader, and a werewolf.  The five teens are unaware of what they have just done and go about partying it up on Halloween.  The zombies and werewolf causes chaos and anarchy around town as the vampire has her sites set on Melissa and her friends.  It is now up to Phil and the ghost to swoop in and save the day.
     Some movies are made and because they have a certain celebrity or director attached to the film it goes global and everyone has to see it regardless if it is a good movie or not. These movies milk the director and celebrity for what they are worth and cash in on their name while giving the viewer a piece of shit to look at.  However, you sometimes get great movies that go unnoticed or do to legal means can not find DVD and bluray publication.  That is this film here.  The movie had a limited DVD run making the DVD and VHS both slightly rare to collect.  I saw this film on television but for the few that have seen it on VHS beg for this film to have an official DVD release (unless they are tapheads!).  I was lucky enough to find this movie at Fright Night Film Fest in Kentucky offered by VHSPS and I had to grab it.  This movie has everything that I love about Halloween mixed with so many of my favorite horror elements combining to make one family friendly made for television special.  The acting in this one can easily be compared to what you would see in a typical children's film.  Most of the cast made their characters feel over-the-top and zany while others were very serious in their roles which created great atmosphere among the entire cast.  The story is nothing new but it does have a lot of great elements that makes this one stand out from the crowd.  The film is able to throw is an undead horde, a werewolf, and a slew of vampires without making the film feel chaotic and hard to follow.  In fact, the film was able to throw in all of this while making the film family friendly and fun at the same time.  Finally, the film is filled with great special effects.  The zombie, including the midget zombie, looks fucking fantastic.  The vampires look like your typical vampires and the werewolf looks like something out of a 60s b-movie.  The special effects look great but those looking for a lot of blood and gore will not find it here.  Overall, this is a fun 80s romp through a thriller inspired Halloween flick.  I highly recommend this one.