John Russo is nowadays largely derided for his efforts to 'repackage' NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD – a film on which he served as editor – for a 30th anniversary audience. This involved shooting ridiculous new footage and generally attempting to change the film for the better, but what happened? He created a travesty instead. Anyway, the wannabe-director was also involved in some rural Pennysylvanian horror flicks back in the 1980s, producing the ultra-cheesy slasher THE MAJORETTES and directing this, a bleak black magic thriller that surprisingly manages to recreate some of the sleazy atmosphere of those '70s grindhouse flicks where bad things happen to young people.Of course, MIDNIGHT is put together on a shoe-string budget, so technically it's not very accomplished. The storyline is meandering and slow in places, and there are some stupid or unbelievable moments. Still, it managed to hold my interest for the entire run time. Where the film is effective, however, is in the landscape: there's an isolated backwoods setting for this film, a setting of desolate fields, abandoned farmhouses, and small towns where the locals are either racists or out-and-out psycho killers. Imagine the same kind of creepiness you saw in the likes of DELIVERANCE and SOUTHERN COMFORT and you'll have a general idea of the 'feel' of this film.Russo's budget meant that he could only afford one 'Hollywood' actor, legendary tough guy Lawrence Tierney. This actor plays the role of a perverted policeman with designs on his own step daughter! I admit, I've only seen Tierney in the likes of RESERVOIR DOGS, where he didn't get the chance to do much, but he shines here – a real class act. The rest of the cast are amateurish, but the central trio of Verlin, Hall, and Jackson aren't bad at all, and I actually found myself warming to these youths as they ride around in their van. Watch out for a minor appearance from John Amplas, who essayed the titular role of George Romero's MARTIN.When the horror eventually kicks in, we're left with a film detailing yet another family of hillbilly psychos, with an added black magic element. Yes, it's been done to death countless times before, and there's even a rip-off plot strand straight out of PSYCHO – and about a dozen other similarly-themed movies made in the 1970s. The good news is that Tom Savini's on hand to supply the gore effects, although they're limited and strained here and someone expecting the inventive nastiness of MANIAC or DAWN OF THE DEAD will be disappointed. Again, lack of money is a problem. Still, MIDNIGHT held my attention, and I was left feeling quite warm towards it once it was over. It's no masterpiece, and it's far from original, but even Russo's technical shortcomings can't disguise the heavy, oppressive atmosphere running throughout this minor effort.

Midnight (1982) BOMB (out of 4) John Russo will always be remembered for co-writing NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD with George Romero but Romero's career has been full of highs while Russo has never came close to recapturing the magic of that movie. MIDNIGHT is his attempt to enter the gory, slasher type cinema but the end result is just a horrid film with elements borrowed from THE LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT and MOTHER'S DAY. A drunken cop (Lawrence Tierney) tries to molest his stepdaughter Nancy (Melanie Verlin) so she knocks him out with a radio. She then takes off hitchhiking when she's picked up by a couple guys (John Hall, Charles Jackson). The trio eventually stop in a small town where a group of rednecks are killing off people for Satan. MIDNIGHT is a low-budget movie that starts off laughably bad and just continues to get worse as it goes along. Being a low-budget movie should never be an excuse for bad filmmaking so I'm not going to cut this film any slack. Just check out the sequence where Tierney tries to come onto his daughter. The performances by the two are so bad that you can't help but laugh. Just check out when she hits her stepdad over the head with the radio. The slow motion effect is so laughable that you just know you're in trouble. The screenplay, from Russo adapted by his novel (WTF?) is really bad. Just check out the middle portion of the film with our trio. For one, they are told that this small town has had dozens of people murdered. For two, one of the guys is black and he's ran off by gunpoint by the locals. Third is the fact that the three rob a grocery store and have the police looking for them. With these three things happening the trio still decide to camp out? The story is a bore, the direction horrid and the performances are all pretty bad. Even Tom Savini's special effects are poor and without question the worst of his career. You can't blame Savini too much I guess since the budget is low. There are a few others credited with some of the effects so I wonder how much Savini actually is. Either way, this is a good candidate for one of the worst horror films of the decade.

When drunken cop Bert Johnson (Lawrence Tierney) makes sexual advances towards his teenage stepdaughter Nancy (the rather boyish Melanie Verlin), she packs her bags and sets off to see her sister in California, hitching a ride with Tom and Hank (John Hall and Charles Jackson), two college students on their way to Florida (!?!?). After a night camping out under the stars, the trio fall foul of a family of redneck Satanists who are ritually sacrificing young women to try and resurrect their dead mother.With a screenplay and direction from John A. Russo, writer of seminal horror classic Night of the Living Dead, and make-up effects from genre legend Tom Savini, one might reasonably expect Midnight to deliver the goods in terms of terror and gore, but sadly it fails to deliver on both counts: Russo's script, based on his own novel, suffers from a dreadfully dull first half and the guy is clearly no Romero when calling the shots behind the camera, consistently failing to deliver the requisite chills; Savini also disappoints, his gore FX on this project being far from his best work (I can only presume that he knocked them out on the cheap as a favour to Russo).It's not all a total loss though: the film's pace picks up considerably once Nancy and pals meet the devil-worshipping backwoods clan (a memorable group consisting of two nutters posing as cops, a demented babe, and a fat guy in dungarees who can't stop laughing), and bonus points are scored for a willingness to tackle the taboo, a few surprisingly brutal deaths, and a cool grind-house vibe achieved through cruddy picture quality and a menacing, lo-fi synthesiser score (the horribly dated theme song, on the other hand, is simply atrocious and only serves to irritate).5.5 out of 10, rounded up to 6 for IMDb.

A teenage girl runs away from home after her drunken cop step dad tries to take advantage of her. She hooks up with two average Joes who are on their way to Florida in a van. They pass through a backwards hick community, rob a grocery store, hide out along a two-track, and find themselves up against a family of Satan worshippers, who have been killing off some of the townspeople. A pretty good horror film, brimming with creepy atmosphere and some unexpected shocks. The acting is sometimes a little over-done, but it doesn't ruin anything. The tight pace keeps things moving along fine and a few unexpected twists keeps things interesting. The setting gives the film a dreary, doomed feeling, which goes fine with the storyline. The last 20 minutes are pretty grisly. This is another film House Of 1000 Corpses obviously pays homage to, with that Easter-loving, devil-worshipping, trap them and kill them theme. Over-looked and forgotten, but definitely worth a look if you love the drive-in horrors of yesteryear. Three Stars.