Aconteceu à Meia-Noite

I first saw this film on TV when i was about 10. I was watching it with some friends in a tent, and we had a huge extension cable running out the TV in the tent. oh we had such a cool night, eating biscuits, drinking coke, being scared of this film. Come to think of it, i dont think any of us were scared, but we were entertained. Doubtlessly if i watched this film now, 10 years later i would probably switch it off. But when i was 10, after that night, this film became only spoken of in whispers. This is how i want to remember it.

MIDNIGHT MOVIE MASSACRE (aka: ATTACK FROM MARS) is a cult movie wannabe that tries way too hard.

At some point in the 1950's an alien craft has landed behind a movie theater. The theater patrons include: 3 hoods, two geeks, an impossibly-endowed blonde and her boyfriend, A rotund woman and her pencil-necked date, a drunk, a hillbilly couple, and a girl who keeps pulling extremely long boogers out of her nose.

Sound exciting?

The "crowd" is there to see a fictional movie known as SPACE PATROL (with cameos from Bob Clarke and Ann Robinson). We are taken back and forth between the movie and those watching it, which is dull to the point of agony!

The alien monster is of little help, since the death rate is intolerably low. Not even "principal" players! Nope, booger woman isn't harmed!

This is a severe exercise in tedium, where time actually warps. You'll age 10 years in 90 minutes! Watch at your own peril...

My review was written in May 1988 after a Cannes Film Festival Market screening.

The potential of a knowing homage to '50 sci-fi is wasted in "Midnight Movie Massacre", a poorly scripted pastiche film. Even midnight bookings will be hard to come by for this one, which bears a 1986 copyright.

Pic actually is two films (often at odds) in one: the gory horror story of folks at the Granada Theater in 1956 being killed by a yucky, tentacled monster, and the movie serial "Space Patrol" (inspired by the actua tv series) that' playing there. An immediate problem in tone and style is that the horror footage combines idiotic slapstick with latter-day gross-out effects, while "Patrol" is a benign recreation of old sci-fi films. The two don't mix well.

Genre faves Robert Clarke and Ann ("War of the Worlds") Robinson topline with smallish roles in "Patrol", the episode "Back from the Future" dealing with a mad scientist and time travel. The cliched dialog is merely boring, meant to be corny, but not sharp or clever enough to be funny. Best touches are the careful simulation of '50s matte shot, cheapo models and junky robots (which dance) plus too-fleeting cameos by Robby the Robot and his predecessor Gort.

Surrounding film is mainly running gags (each one extended past the breaking point) involving stereotyped audience members. Promising jokes like the fat wife (played by a thesp named Charity Case) who eats a ton start well but peter out, and others (particularly a girl who can't stop sneezing) prove to be mere time-killers.

Acting ensemble fits the lampooning roles, while tech credits capture the spirit of the cheesy originals. Unfortunately, the naivete of the 1950s that made the sci-fi B's campy eludes this studied concoction.

I bought a VHS tape of this, still in the box, at a dirty little junk store downtown a couple of years ago. I thought it might be interesting from the cover art. I was wrong. Imagine Mars Attacks! with less intelligence, money, and acting talent. The one thing that sticks out in my mind is the horrifying image of the fat woman in the theater constantly pulling something long and white out of her nose. Max Crumb, eat your heart out.

This is an extremely pitiful example of a modern attempt to spoof the B-movies of the Fifties, but it only succeeds in demonstrating very poor taste of everyone involved. Both the plot and its resolution are unsatisfying. The main setting is a small town movie theater showing B-movie and serial sci-fi (how ironic -- not) with an audience consisting of unsympathetic characters that you don't care about. The plot, if you can call it that, concerns some Really Ugly Martian invaders who apparently like to butter their popcorn with human blood and body parts. Then there are the 3 Space Patrol types. Are they time travelers from Earth's future? Are they heroes? I'm not really sure -- I was too bored to pay close attention.

Three-quarters of the way through, I switched to watching a TV show. The next day, I forced myself to watch the remainder -- what a waste of time! This movie is gross and has virtually no redeeming qualities whatsoever except perhaps for the lovely, futuristic Margi Robbins (only movie). Poor Ann Robinson (War of the Worlds) reached a low point of her career when she appeared in this 1988 yawner. If you like B-movies spoofs, a far better example is "The Lost Skeleton Of Cadavra".