The Midnight Hour (1985)

How sad is this?

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

Easily the biggest piece of Right wing non sense propaganda I ever saw.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

The Midnight Hour is a little slow, a little cheesy, and a little saccharine, but it evokes the Halloween mood well.The moments that really stand out in this movie are the moments where it does finally push the boundaries a little bit -- when it stops being "wacky Halloween fun for the whole family" and actually tries to be a little bit violent, or scary, or even racy. Who knew Levarr Burton could play such a stereotypical horny teen? The overall movie may not stand out in my mind, but these individual moments do (and it's always interesting when a made-for-TV movie tries to find a way around showing blood while still evoking the imagery of blood). The way the movie progressively gets just a little darker, and a little darker, etc. is pretty interesting to watch, too. In modern times, a lot of things make this movie feel very dated, though. Phil (the protagonist)'s weird Dracula costume, for one, with the bizarre face paint and tinsel wig. That just screams 1985. Two, the movie's obsession with "golden oldie" music; it's been at least a decade or more since all of the oldies stations I know about updated their selection to include songs from the same era this movie was produced in (you have to turn your radio's dial to AM to hear anything made before 1975, these days -- assuming you even still HAVE a radio).And it's not just that these elements make the movie dated, it's that they're spun in such a way as to be things "modern teens" relate to. Even the way Levarr Burton's character speaks, with that sort of hold-over "jive" slang, feels distinctly 1980's in a way that nobody talks anymore. It feels like an older director was trying to bridge two generations (his and the next), which leaves us in the modern era out of the equation.Don't get me wrong, it's still enjoyable. The first time I watched this movie was in 2016. But it's important to watch this movie and think about the context it was shown in, because it's a context that doesn't exist anymore.Come for the fun costumes and special effects, stay the moments where the movie threatens to bend its family-friendly content rules. Just also remember: it was the 80's.

After a group of teenagers unlock a centuries-old curse on Halloween a town becomes overrun by the demons of hell from zombies to witches.Made in 1985 when TV movies still looked filmatic, TV specials were still special and had good production values, The Midnight Hour especially to an outside America viewer is an obscure ABC Halloween treat. Directed by Jack Bender there's some great make up monster effects and it's far from a mediocre made-for-TV horror comedy. With homages to The Wolfman, Dracula and the more recent Night of the Living Dead and Thriller there's plenty of cobwebs, graves and gate crashed suburban Halloween parties to hold attention.As with the risen from the dead 50s cheerleader Sandy (Jonna Lee) highlighting the differences of 1985, that's The Midnight Hour biggest hook as now plays a great piece of 80s nostalgia. There's also a subplot love story town in amongst the TV horror shenanigans. With almost every horror track from Blue Moon to The Smith's How Soon is Now there's also (The Terminator) Brad Fiedel's ambitious fitting score.The cast are above average and include the stunning Shari Lynn Belafonte, LeVar Burton, Jonna Lee, Dedee Pfeiffer as Mary Masterson, Kurtwood Smith cameos and Macaulay Culkin makes a brief debut.Not too scary for junior children, werewolf, vampires, zombies, ghouls, and goblins add up to on screen creepy campy fun, you can't go wrong.

I watched this movie when I was 10 and have been in love with it for years. I love vampires and and they made them look less gore which made it more kid friendly. It has just the right amount of other monsters and special effects, for that time, in it to get its point across. It's an annually watched movie in my household. I have the VHS tape and just last year, I found it on DVD. It has been restored to an excellent quality. This is an excellent family movie for Halloween that can be watched over and over again. I would recommend a remake be done maybe using some of the previous characters if they are available!!! I will give it 4 stars (****).

This movie was a classic in my house as a child, you see my Dad taped it off of the TV, and we watched it every Halloween. We watched it so much in fact that we wore out the tape! Everyone in my family LOVED this movie. The funny part is, it took us years to find out the name of it, as when my Dad taped it he missed the opening credits, we called it the "Phil Movie" for years. So when we were finally able to get the title of the movie, the search was on to find the DVD, and we finally did!So all that hunting should tell you how good a movie this really was! If you are looking for gore and horror, keep in mind that this was a TV movie. This was the family version of all those "horror" movies of the 80's. A parody of sorts, if you haven't seen it, I suggest you do!