I know, I am a little late as far as getting this review up in time for Halloween. That is fine, things happen. This movie is just a fun romp any time of year, the costumes (as they were) are not all that important.
It was the 1980’s
Often you will hear people wax romantic about the 80’s as something that was simply amazing, as something you had to be there to experience or you won’t get it. For the most part, they are right. Movies like The Midnight Hour though, these are neat little time capsules of small portions of what was allowed on television in this decade.Yep, that is right, The Midnight Hour was a made for television ABC movie release. Imagine if network television attempted something like this today. I don’t think it would fly, honestly.
The Midnight Hour holds the distinct honor of being Macaulay Culkin’s first appearance in a movie – he was a trick-or-treater.
The things that go on in this movie, they can easily be explained – it was the 80’s. If you were there, you know what that means, if you weren’t, this is probably a weird horror/comedy romp you will quickly forget.
The story is 80’s cheese
Set at Halloween in Pitchford Cove, a town somewhere in New England, we follow the exploits of five high school students. The mix of students is your usual 80’s collection of diversity that often never happens in real life. We have the nerd, school “hot girl”, a minority couple, and a jock. I don’t know about you but that was the exact makeup of the groups I ran with in high school (end sarcasm).To make things worse, the nerd, Phil played by Lee Montgomery, is doing an oral report, complete with slides, on the history of the town and Halloween. This is particularly “sensitive” because Melissa Cavender, played by Shari Belafonte, is directly connected to the “witch” in Phil’s report.
It seems that Lucinda Cavender, Melissa’s great-great-great-great-grandmother, was put to death 300 years earlier for witchcraft. Luckily for us viewers, Melissa is an unknown to her latent witch.
The group decides to visit the local museum where old artifacts and clothing from that time period are kept. Looking into an area that was locked and secluded, the group find a chest full of things that were better left alone. Among those items was a scroll that contained an ancient curse.
While the group intended to simply get some costumes for Halloween, they end up raising the dead. Literally.
Melissa recites the words on the scroll at the local cemetery, a big no-no. They leave before the dead rise, so they don’t realize the extent of their actions. At least not till much later.
Phil encounters one of the newly risen dead when he backs into the shambling individual. Thinking it is just a cool costume, Phil thinks nothing of it when the dead man walks away. He later meets a young lady named Sandra Matthews, who is dressed in 1950’s clothing and is befuddled when Phil inquiries about her “costume”.
The group end up at the Halloween party to end all Halloween parties and so do some unknown guests. Since everyone is dressed up, no one notices anything out of the ordinary when the undead mix among them. Lucinda Cavender among them.
Lucinda turns Melissa into a vampire first and things go downhill from there.
I won’t ruin the ending of The Midnight Hour for you. Suffice to say, the movie is a fun romp that is decidedly 80’s in nature.
Not quite The Breakfast Club
If you are familiar with 80’s movies, then you will probably know about another “mixed” group romp that came out in 1985 as well. The Breakfast Club. While The Midnight Hour is nowhere near as iconic as that classic, it does have a place on the shelves of fans of the 80’s, horror comedies, or just wacky fun movies.Just like The Breakfast Club, the soundtrack makes The Midnight Hour. Check out the catchy “Get Dead” song from the movie. There are other songs that carry the period theme that the producers were going for here and they really add to the fun of the movie.
While The Midnight Hour will never be revered like The Breakfast Club, it was never intended for that, it is still a fun romp for about an hour and a half or so. Just sit back, enjoy it and revel in some 80’s cheese.
Check out The Midnight Hour on Amazon or eBay if you are looking to grab a copy. If you just want to watch the movie, it is available on YouTube.
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