MOVIE REVIEW: The Midnight Hour (ABC-TV, 1985)
In 1985 I was six, and I began to pay attention. I was unaware of what was expected of me, but I tried my best to understand. Sometimes I would get frustrated and there were a lot of ways I could work through it: toys, cartoons, books, TV, and movies — especially science fiction. Back in the 80’s, there was a lot of science fiction that got blended up into horror because so many special effects guys working on horror also did sci-fi and action/adventure stuff, so I watched a lot of the cross-pollination happen. So many of the sci-fi shows of the past shaped my understanding of sci-fi to come: Automan, Misfits of Science, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Twilight Zone (the 80’s remake and the movie), Alien Nation, Amazing Stories, Tales of the Golden Monkey, Bionic Six, My Secret Identity, Conan the Destroyer, Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers, and so on.
One of the shows that stood out was the CBS series “Otherworld”, about a family (father, mother, elder son, younger son, and daughter) on vacation in Egypt when they are transported to another dimension via the pyramids and a cosmic convergence. They spend the rest of the eight-episode run trying to get home. The daughter in this show is played by actress Jonna Lee, who is one of the top billed in the movie I’m reviewing, the ABC made-for-TV movie “The Midnight Hour”.
I got a recommendation in my YouTube for this movie, and they hit it spot-on. It’s a Halloween horror-comedy from the 80’s, with so many past and future stars in its lineup I felt like my head was spinning from all the star power. Only on ABC could you get this many stars and have so little gore in a horror movie.
Teens in small towns are constantly looking for ways to have a good time, so our cast of characters decide to rob the local museum for Halloween costumes: Melissa Cavender (perennial Shari Belafonte, “Battle of the Network Stars [TV]”) and her New Yorker boyfriend Vinnie (Levar Burton, “Reading Rainbow”, “Star Trek: The Next Generation”, “Roots [TV]”), jock Mitch Crandall (Peter De Luise, “seaQuest DSV”), Mary Masterson (DeDee Pfeiffer, VAMP), and sorta-nerd Phil Grenville (Lee Montgomery, Ben, “Columbo: Mind over Mayhem [TV]”). Both Phil and Melissa have ties to the town: both had ancestors that were part of the Witch Trials that expanded beyond Salem and into their hometown of Pitchford Cove, Mass.
The teens run off with a mysterious trunk and find two important items inside: a wax-sealed scroll, and a signet ring used to seal the scroll. Vinnie opens it and dares Melissa to read it an she does — the scroll holds a ritual incantation to bring devils, demons and the undead to walk the earth. Nothing happens when she reads it, so the teens tear off to enjoy the wildest Halloween night of their lives. Like clockwork, the dead rise: serial killers come back to take vengeance on the law, werewolves (??) bring havoc to the streets, soldiers of past wars treat the streets like it’s their battleground, and to top it all off a vampire named Lucinda (Broadway actress Jonelle Allen, Cotton Comes to Harlem, “Dr. Quinn: Medicine Woman”) rises from the grave to stalk the land. Unfortunately for the legions of death, one person is the key to their destruction: cheerleader Sandy Matthews (Jonna Lee). She teams up with Phil to combat the undead and seal them away before midnight or the incantation is permanent. This sounds like a Buffy the Vampire Slayer-style plot; it is not, and your mileage may vary as a result.
CHOICE CUTS:
- The sole Black guy in the town is Levar Burton…and he does NOT die first.
- The main cop in this movie is played by Kurtwood Smith (Robocop, Star Trek: Voyager, That 70’s Show).
- Not every undead that came back wanted to murder and kill: special shout-out goes to the Ghoul (played by Mark Blankfield, Angel III: the Domination, Robin Hood: Men in Tights), a zombie hat loves to read the newspaper, party, and eat popcorn. Better than eating brains, I suppose.
- This is a horror-comedy, and they do not skimp on the humor. It seems like that would be jarring to move between the two, but it was the only way ABC was putting a horror movie on its family-friendly channel. The whole thing had a serious vibe of “Michael Jackson’s ‘Thriller’”. That is meant to be a good thing.
- Addendum to above: there is a scene where a vampire kills someone, but it’s shot in a wine cellar. When the vampire strikes, the red wine bottles crack open and spray the whole room in arcing jets. The crimson pools grew and spread, suggesting blood but not actually BEING blood. Kudos to the effects department for pulling that off.
- HOLY MOLEY A MOVIE IS PLAYING THE SMITHS’ “HOW SOON IS NOW” WHEN IT WAS NEW? NICE.
- Werewolves were once considered the undead, as opposed to shape-shifters.
- It makes me sad we slept on Shari Belafonte; she is GOOD at what she does. Thankfully she’s still doing it, but everything seems to be gossamer when it comes to her career.
- <spoiler> “Vanishing Hitchhiker” urban legend is in full effect here. </spoiler>
