The Midnight Man

What is the mark of a good horror movie (hell, a good movie PERIOD)? Does it pull you out of your shitty reality for a while and entertain the crap out of you. That's the formula. In that regard, I have no complaints about "The Midnight Man".

You have Robert Englund and Lin Shaye together again. He is mesmerizing as always and she is creepier than the titular Midnight Man himself. You can't go wrong there.

Are there plot holes and times when the suspension of disbelief wavers a bit? Sure. However, they did such a good job with the atmosphere and effects, generally speaking, that you really don't get too put out by this. At least, I didn't.

I have no reservations about recommending this one. It's worth an hour and a half of your life.

Poorly written, poorly directed, poorly edited. This movie is a muddled mess, with characters doing even more stupid things than usual. Your friend is in immanent danger and can't leave the room, but you can. You leave to get something that will help. Instead of rushing back to your friend you decide to have a romantic conversation with your romantic interest in the hallway. Then you decide it would be a good idea to have a 10 or 15 minute conversation with another character, all the while aware that your friend in the next room could be dying.

Midnight Man is a poorly produced entry in the urban legend sub-genre, grab-bagging various horror tropes, and blandly applying them to a script which has little internal logic and a stupid ending to cap it all off. One of the worst horror movies I've seen in quite some time.

The film isn't terrible, more so the basic premise.

I found myself just constantly asking questions as nothing made sense.

The main question being, why would ANYONE play this "game"? There seems to be no benefit to anyone playing, even if they win?

Another missed opportunity to have a decent horror film, had a good horror storyline to follow but did it in a poor manner with less than average acting only lin shaye was great, England was his average self( excluding as freddy) the rest if the cast especially the 3 teenagers are absolutely terrible. Not to be mean but choose a different career acting isnt it. Direction was adequate cinematography was adequate thus an adequate score of 5.once was enough, also great opening that set the stage higher than they could maintain.

Today people tend to claim a movie is a masterpiece and cinematic triumph or it is a total disaster, the worst movie I ever watched etc. The Midnight Man imho does not belong in either category, it is a small horror movie with a story-line based on a game that evokes a dark, evil entity and the price of the game is one's life and if one loses the game you get a fine cruel death. (Well, some dark souls could rightfully argue that a cruel death is still a kind of good reward, because, you know, who wants to die a common, total boring death!?)

So, in short, for sure there is nothing new in the western front, but what we get are decent actors (Lin Shaye, Robert Englund, also the young actors do not disappoint) and a good production value with some nice value of gore and splatter and a good, dark atmosphere and a very bad guy.

Yes, this movie is no Oscar material or made to be someday called cvlt, but The Midnight Man is a pro made movie and imo for the aficionado of horror a good snack in-between. My rate 5, maybe a 6.