Starring - Matthew Jason Walsh (Zombie cop, Stage Fright), Jo Norcia (Chickboxer, Kingdom of the Vampire), and Chuck Pierce Jr. (The Legend of Boggy Creek, The Winds of Autumn)
Release Date -1993
Genre - Horror
Tagline - "Abraham's back... and he's making America's grisliest home videos..."
Format - DVD (Personal Collection) (Screener)
Rating (out of 5):
Several years ago I was attending Cinema Wasteland, like I do twice a year, when I discovered that the event this go around was a Night of the Living Dead reunion. I was beside myself with the convention this time. I attend the event twice a year when it's held but I rarely look at the guests before hand but when I saw that it was NotLD I was so fucking excited. I met several members of the cast and crew including John A. Russo who not only appeared in the film but also pinned the story for it. I'm a huge fan of Russo's and his contributions to the genre so when I heard that SRS Cinema was releasing Russo's sequel to his iconic Midnight I was all about it. I quickly reached out to MVD, who was handling the DVD release as part of SRS Cinema's Retro Horror line, to request a review copy. I waited on reviewing Severin's blu release of the first Midnight release so I could watch both films together. Once again I want to thank MVD and SRS for sending this sequel my way.
The film picks up 11 years after the events of the first film with Abraham (Walsh) surviving the attack from Nancy's step-dad. He's the only one alive from the Barns family and has moved on. Now, he uses a camcorder to recorder women in the park with. Using his camcorder as a way to speak with women, he lures them back to his place where he tortures and kills them. That is until he tortures the wrong woman. Her friend reports her missing and recalls to the detective about the man at the park with the camera the day she went missing. The detective said he will look into it but she takes matters into her own hands. She visits the park to lure Abraham out with the detective monitoring her but Abraham is not as stupid as they think.
I was pretty excited to spin Midnight 2 especially after watching the first film along with learning that it was produced by Tempe Video. Sadly, the "movie" was a huge disappointment. It followed in the footsteps of other horror sequels that were rushed through production or cancelled where it has some new footage, around thirty minutes or so, and then the rest of the run time is made up of archival footage from the original film. The most notable film to do this is Sleepaway Camp IV: The Survivor. Honestly, I wouldn't call this a new movie. The acting in this one is not bad but not as near as good as the original film. The cast is given flat characters with no real personalities to portray and they do the best they can with it. The cast is regular's of Tempe and have been in several of their releases but here their performances are just as one dimensional as the characters they are portraying. The story for this one is a huge disappointment. We follow Abraham, a camcorder, and some young girls he picks up to torture and kill. When he's not doing that he's sitting in front of his camera reminiscing about the events in the first film. It's a cheap ploy to pull in fans of the first expecting a sequel only to be given 30 minutes of new footage. The new footage could have been a fun direction but the film never fully explores it. Finally, the film has some blood but don't expect memorable deaths. The deaths are cheap and not as fun as the first film. Overall, Midnight 2 is not worth your time. I respect the hell out of everyone involved in this from Russo, to SRS Cinema, and Tempe but the film is a huge disappointment. Skip it.
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