Ten Minutes to Midnight

Director - Erik Bloomquist (Weekenders, The Cobblestone Corridor)

Starring - Caroline Williams (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre Part 2, Days of Thunder), Nicole Kang (Batwoman, Swallow), and Nicholas Tucci (You're Next, The Ranger)

Release Date - 2020

Genre - Horror

Tagline - "Late night bites"

Format - Bluray (Personal Collection) (Screener)

Rating (out of 5):

     Caroline Williams has had one very interesting career that has spanned almost 50 years after she appeared in 1975's Smile.  However, she will always be Stretch to me.  I first saw Texas Chainsaw Massacre Part 2 when I was in high school.  In recent years she's found herself in several indie horror productions.  A few weeks ago I received a press release for Erik Bloomquist's Ten Minutes to Midnight starring Williams.  I reached out to MVD who was handling this release and they were kind enough to send a copy of the film on blu my way to review.  Thanks guys!

     The film follows aging radio host Stretch, I mean Amy (Williams), who discovers that this is her last night on her long lived radio program when the owner brings in a new much younger dj.  To make matters worse, she was attacked by a rabid bat on her way into work.  Her night then takes a terrifying turn when she starts to hallucinate as she slowly slips into madness...or turns into a vampire.

     I was really excited about checking this one out but this one did not go the distance.  It was a solid premise for a great vampire tale but it ran off the rails somewhere along the way.  The acting in this one is pretty solid but the characters are painfully dull and unlikable.  Williams' character is supposed to be the one the viewer roots for and connects to but that is not the case.  She's a superficial crybaby that you want to watch suffer.  She delivers a great performance but the character is poorly written.  The same can be said about the others as well.  The cast does the best with what they were given but the poor writing made for some uninteresting characters.  The story for this one had a great start but somewhere around the 20 minute mark.  The movie goes too far into the hallucination where it abandons the original premise.  This takes the film down the psychological standpoint instead of the vampire path we were expecting.  Then we get this Twilight Zone like ending where the cast is portraying different characters that was extremely awkward and not as fun as they were hoping for.  It was confusing and ruins what little bit of atmosphere the movie was able to pull together.  I really wish the film followed the story it started with instead of whatever it is we have here.  Finally, the film has plenty of bloody moments with some great practical and make-up effects.  The gags look great but the viewer doesn't really get to enjoy them as they mostly take place off screen.  Overall, Ten Minutes to Midnight has some cool moments but the overall film is a wash.  It doesn't hold itself together well and comes unglued in the final act.  If you want to watch Caroline Williams as a radio host then I suggest you spin TCM 2.