The Midnight Man

Image credit: Prime Video

I’m not really a horror movie fan. I will not go to the movies to see a horror film, and I do tend to get scared prettily easily. However, I find horror one of the most enjoyable genres in cinema to talk about because I find the trends, subgenres, and analysing what makes a horror movie work, fascinating. So while not being fan, I can still certainly find enjoyment in a good horror movie or a deliberately stupid one. And I can also get annoyed at the time lost in watching what turns out to be a bad horror movie too: like The Midnight Man.

In 1953 a group of kids play a game deadly game that calls the infamous Midnight Man to their house. Now, years later the sole survivor, Anna, is still suffering from the horror of that night… and the game isn’t over. Anna’s granddaughter Alex finds the game with half of the rules, and she and her boyfriend flippantly start a round. By the time they find the rest of the game, the Midnight Man is already in the house, and they must stick to the rules of they are to survive the night.

Beware: this is 93 minutes of your life that you will never get back. The time could be better spent. At its most basic, molecular level The Midnight Man could have been interesting. From the very little that we get to learn about the creepypasta villain during the film, he’s an ancient Pagan executioner who uses violent and psychological torment to kill his victims, either by his hand or their own. Sadly, the film is terrible in practically every layer that is used to give it shape, making it profoundly predictable, insultingly lazy, and downright uninteresting.

The performances are wooden and the characters lack any personality or charisma that inspires you to get on side. Indeed, the only “thrill” that you get is from yelling at the screen about their stupidity. When they do receive a little taste of the torment the Midnight Man dishes out on his turn, it falls on an emotionally barren audience and seems to be unnecessarily gross for the sake of being unnecessarily gross. 

The lack of narrative exposition is very frustrating. In pitiful attempts to ‘show, don’t tell’, the film uses tasteless depictions of dementia and suicide to try and establish character backstories and thus, some rational reason behind their actions and bevahiours. But it really doesn’t work, and even a solid chunk of narrative exposition from Robert Englund, who inexplicably appears at a pivotal moment in the third act, doesn’t help to provide any clarity into what the monster’s deal is, how the game works, or why everyone in the house is either a dumbass or lunatic.

Image credit: Heaven of Horror

By the time credits are rolling, you’re left trying to see if there was even a point to it all. The ending drifts away on a semi-eerie threat of the Midnight Man eventually being invited into yet another house, as the dreaded pieces of ‘the game’ remain intact, but this really does feel like a last-minute death rattle rather than a good, final scare. 

There is no saving factor for this movie. Honestly, even beginning with a solid, bloody butchering of young children kind of made it feel like it was dead on arrival. And then it just proceeds to raise more questions than it answers, and providing absolutely no payoff for the audience's time and attention.

Human life is too short, so I would recommend not spending a chunk of it watching this film.

Director: Travis Zariwny, 2016

Cast: Gabrielle Haugh, Grayson Gabriel, Em Haine, Michael Sirow, Summer H. Howell, Keenan Lehmann, Meredith Rosse, Kyle Strauts, Lin Shaye, & Robert Englund.