Midnight Movie (2008)

The New Face of Horror

We open with 2 nurses and a doctor taking a man, Ted, to a room to watch his movie, The Dark Beneath, the doctor leaves to get someone to start the movie and runs into a fellow doctor, Dave.  Dave tells the doctor that he shouldn't be showing him the movie, because the movie works as a type of infection, he asks if they could postpone it so he could observe.  While the 2 doctor are talking we see a nurse go into the room to start the movie then leaves, Ted proceeds to take a bite out of his arm and starts drawing symbols on the floor with his blood.  Back with the doctors, Dave leaves the hospital and the other doctor heads to the room with Ted, in the room Ted is missing, the doctor turns and screams, and we roll to opening credits.  We see Dave return to the hospital, not sure how long later, and there is blood everywhere and no one is alive.

"It taints his entire existence"

5 years later at a movie theater, the theater is hosting a midnight screening of The Dark Beneath, we then meet the 3 employees, Bridget, the manager, Rachel, the snack girl, and Kenny, the ticket taker.  A couple arrives for the screening, Harley and Babe, who are bikers, and Harley is a bit rude to the females.  Timmy, Bridget's little brother, comes by and is not allowed in to see the movie because he isn't old enough, Bridget tells him to go home and he does.  Josh, Bridget's boyfriend, comes in and makes Bridget let Kenny be in charge so they can have a date during the screening.  In the theater, Josh and Bridget take their seats and Bridget mentions that she saw his acceptance letter to a college in New York.  Mario and Samantha, who are friends of Bridget and Josh arrive, as does a detective, Doug, who is there to see if Ted shows up. 

Doug shows Rachel and Kenny a picture of Ted and tells them that if they see him they should let him in and come and get him in the back row of the theater.  Sully, who thinks he's friends with the gang, but they make fun of him, arrives, everyone's now seated and the movies starts.  The movie is in black and white and we open with 4 people, 3 girls and one guy in a Volkswagen Type 2, aka the Hippie Van.  Dave arrives at the theater and meets up with Doug and they talk about being a bit crazed to find Ted.  Everyone in the Van is stoned, and they are heading to Woodstock, but they get a flat tire with no spare, the guy, Bobby, then walks to a house that they passed awhile back.

"You like the stick figure?"

Bobby finally makes it to the house, the lady of the house lets him in and makes him lemonade and tells him the garage will be by with a new tire soon.  In the basement we see a man sharpening a giant corkscrew, upstairs the women leaves, and Bobby wanders down to the basement and is killed with the corkscrew.  The women come back on the screen and we see that she has burn on her arm, this unsettles Bridget and she walks out with Josh trailing behind her.  Turns out Bridget was abused by her father and the women hit a little too close to home.  In the lobby, Rachel tells Kenny that one of the soda lines is down and he heads to the basement to refill it, and hears a noise.  We head back into the theater and we see Kenny on the screen and he gets killed and dragged back to the killers basement. 

"You left her!"

If you hadn't guessed by now, the killer can come out of the screen and kill the people and drag them back into the movie.  Josh manages to get Bridget to come back into the theater, Sully then leaves to use the restroom.  Back in the movie, one of the girls, Monica, heads to the house to check on Bobby, leaving Lucinda to look after Jackie, who is severely stoned.  In the bathroom, the lights go out and Sully has to feel around for lights, on the screen we see the killer come into the bathroom and kill Sully.  The gang thinks it's a joke and are laughing, we then see Rachel enter the bathroom, she sees the blood and runs out.  The killer chases her and kills her, everyone in the theater then runs out into the lobby and find blood where Rachel was, Dave and Doug tells them it's real and they need to leave.  All entrances are blocked, all of their cell phones have no service, and the land lines don't work.

"You should've shot him in the head"

Babe thinks she sees someone but it's Timmy who has snuck back into the theater, Dave and Doug gather them together and tells them what's going on.  While everyone is being told about the situation, Timmy sneaks into the theater and sees Monica getting killed, which scares him. Timmy runs out, the killer then comes out of the screen and appears behind Timmy, the killer kills Dave and drags him back to the basement.  Timmy tells them he left the window he snuck in through open, Josh says he'll stay behind to watch the screen, and Babe and Harley stay in the hallway to pass on the message to the others.  They get to the window and Samantha has it open, but it slams down on her fingers pinning her there, the killer appears and everyone runs except Doug who tries to protect Samantha, but they both end up getting killed.

"It's fear"

They all meet back up in the lobby, and see a police officer outside the movie theater, they all run to the door and start banging, but the officer doesn't see them, because the killer doesn't want him to see. The killer then appears and they split off in three's, Timmy with Babe and Harley and Mario, Bridget, and Josh together, the later 3 find out that the killer know how to find them by their fear.  The killer gets to Harley and kills him, in the theater, the 3 there see Babe get killed, and Josh and Bridget head off to find Timmy, while Mario is a chicken and runs away.  Mario ends up running into the killer and gets killed, Josh then gets killed trying to protect Bridget, Bridget runs and finds her brother.  Bridget and Timmy reunite and head into the theater, Bridget tells Timmy about the fear thing and that he needs to do what he did when their dad was in one of his moods. 

"And though I walk through the.."

Both Bridget and Timmy start chanting the mantra, the killer appears, and unfortunately Bridget opens her eyes and gets taken into the movie.  Bridget awakens in the movie and finds the people from the hospital and from the theater, and some how they are all still alive, but only because they are in the movie.  We then find out that Bridget has been stabbed with the corkscrew and is dead as well, the killer appears and takes her to be tortured, she starts doing her mantra and the pain doesn't effect her anymore.  The killer lunges at her and she stabs him and runs, she finds Timmy and they head for the front door, the lady, who is also the killers mother, attacks Bridget, and Timmy kills her.  Bridget and Timmy run out the door, we see 'The End,' start to roll on the screen and Bridget pushes Timmy out of the screen and the movie ends.

"Bridget!"

Or well the movie in the movie ends not the actual movie, we see that cops have arrived and that Timmy is the sole survivor.  The two main cops don't believe Timmy and remark that one day he will tell them the truth.  Here's where the real movie ends, but there's a cute post-credit scene, where a police officer writes a ticket for Harley's bike.

The End. 

 

 

I love this movie, I have watched it every year, at least once, since 2010, and I still love it!   Can I just say that this movie has my favorite line in any movie ever?  The major stoner, Jackie, says it, and I quote, "Look, a leprechaun!  Stop the van I want to dance with it!"  I don't know why but that's my favorite quote in a movie ever!  Tell me what you think of the movie in the comments, on Twitter (@SilentToHughes) or on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/SilentToHughes).

Hope you all have a great night!