REVIEW: The Midnight Man

Released: Online – January 19^th 2018 | Running time: 93min | Rating: 15

WARNING: SPOILERS

Released in theatres in the US and available on platforms such as Amazon Instant, VIVA looks into why this urban legend horror didn’t get a showing in the UK.

Directed by Travis Zariwny, the Midnight Man focuses on teenagers Alex (Gabrielle Haugh) and Miles (Grayson Gabriel) who discover an ancient Pagan ritual called The Midnight Game, which summons a deadly spirit that takes form of the players’ greatest fears.

The film starts in the past, showing three terrified children sat inside a circle of salt. As one child steps outside of the circle she is dragged away into the darkness and her blood starts to spread across the floor. Her head then appears from the darkness in the claws of the midnight man; death scenes of children are always a dangerous and ballsy move, yet The Midnight Man doesn’t seem to draw back the gore – and that’s only five minutes into the film. Both the remaining children run out of the attic in an attempt to get away from the evil that is hunting them, however one of them breaks a rule of the game and leaves the house which results in his body exploding, leaving blood and guts to spray over the garden. As beginnings go, this one definitely isn’t disappointing.

Lin Shaye stars in The Midnight Man

We’re then taken to the present time where we meet Alex, a teenager that spends her time taking care of her grandmother, Anna (Lin Shaye) who suffers from dementia. It’s clear straight away that the house Alex is in is the same one from the beginning, and it is hinted that the grandmother is the sole survivor of the game that killed her brother and her friend.

Unlike her usual roles of the polite and heroic old lady in films such as Insidious, Shaye plays the character of Anna who comes across as ungrateful and nasty. Throughout the film we start to see more of Anna’s dark personality and Shaye’s amazing acting skills.

The game is fairly simple; players must write their name on a piece of paper and place a single drop of their blood next to it, light a candle and turn off all the house lights, attach the piece of paper to the front door of your house (which must be made of wood) and wait until midnight. Once the clock strikes midnight you must knock 22 times and then go outside to blow out your candle, then return back inside the house to relight your candle and that’s it – the midnight man is inside your house. The aim of the game is to hide from the midnight man until 3:33am; if he catches you he kills you and if you survive until 3:33am you win the game…but with such a high risk you’d wonder why on earth anyone would play a game like that without some kind of reward for winning at the end.

The rules of the midnight game are that you must keep moving, you must not fall asleep, you must not go outside the house and your candle must not go out. If your candle stays blown out for longer than 10 seconds the midnight man will come – this is a rule both Alex and Miles learnt the hard way.

While looking for her grandmother, Alex left her candle unattended and went into the bathroom. For reasons unknown, Anna blew out Alex’s candle and counted to ten; Anna knows how the game works, so why would she want to hurt her own granddaughter?

The midnight man comes for both Alex and Miles and tries to hurt them in the form of their worst fears; Alex is most scared of blood and Miles is most scared of pain – not the most inventive of fears and so that was a let-down, who isn’t scared of pain for instance?

As the game goes on another player joins; Kelly, a friend of Alex’s – who would let their friend join in on a game that could potentially kill them? The three keep moving around the house until Kelly’s candle gets blown out, leaving her vulnerable. While Alex and Miles search for another candle, the midnight man finds Kelly and uses some fairly dodgy tactics to kill her, cutting her throat and leaving her to bleed out.

The Nightmare On Elm Street star also makes an appearance

Alex and Miles come across Dr Harding (Robert Englund) who claims to have been in the house the night Anna played the midnight game and attempts to help the pair. As Dr Harding isn’t playing the game he is immune to the midnight man.

Now this is where it gets a bit confusing. Anna appears out of the darkness, accompanied by the midnight man. She admits to deceiving Alex’s mum into playing the midnight game, which ended with Alex’s mother committing suicide. It is also suggested that Anna tricked Alex into finding the game, but there aren’t any answers as to why? Anna goes wild and attacks Dr Harding, killing him. Alex then pulls a gun and shoots her grandmother in the head.

The pair stay inside their circle of salt (which apparently keeps the midnight man from touching you) until 3:33am, and the midnight man leaves. After waiting until 4am just to be safe, Miles goes to check on Dr Harding and notices his watch, which reads 3:30am. Dr Harding has previously said that the midnight man doesn’t like to lose and that sometimes he bends the rules – he had changed the time on all the clocks in the house.

One redeeming factor of The Midnight Man is Miles’ death scene. As Miles realises he isn’t safe, the midnight man appears behind him and punches a hole through his head in a gory scene. It’s not clear if Alex is still in the circle or not, but the scene ends with the midnight man holding Alex’s face, stating the game was over. The film then ends with what looks like a sale of all the items in the house, as we assume the occupants died. A child then finds the box with the midnight game inside and takes it with him.

The Midnight Man started off so well; with the potential to be a good supernatural horror and with actors such as Robert Englund and Lin Shaye, it’s hard to pinpoint what went wrong. Perhaps it was the lack of action or the dim lighting, or maybe it was the lack of camera time Englund and Shaye had. Sometimes vague endings can work for films; however, this wasn’t one of them. With such an action packed beginning it’s a shame that The Midnight Man didn’t keep up with the pace it set itself.