After Midnight (1989)
- Cody Iden
- Oct 21, 2021
- 3 min read
Release Date - November 3, 1989
Synopsis:
A group of college students go to the home of their psychology professor to discuss the psychology of fear by telling a trio of scary stories.
Directed by - Ken Wheat and Jim Wheat
Written by - Ken Wheat and Jim Wheat
Produced by - Richard Arlook
Cinematography - Phedon Papamichael Jr.
Music by - Marc Donahue
Distribution Company - Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Cast:
Judie Aronson - Jennifer (2)
Marg Helgenberger - Alex (3)
Marc McClure - Kevin (1)
Ed Monaghan - Russ (0)
Alan Rosenberg - Richard (3)
Monique Salcido - Lisa (2)
Pamela Segall - Cheryl (0)
Penelope Sudrow - Kelly (2)
Nadine Van Der Velde - Joan (1)
Tracy Wells - Amy (2)
Ramy Zada - Prof. Edward Derek (0)
and Jillian McWhirter - Allison (0)
Patty Avery - Pat (0)
Kent Burden - Ron (0)
Jordana Capra - Vanessa Birch (3)
Luis Contreras - The Dogs' Master (2)
Richard Gabai - Dave (0)
Loyda Ramos - Molly (3)
Kerry Remsen - Maggie (0)
Billy Ray Sharkey - Ray (3)
The numbers after each role denotes which segment of the film they appeared in:
0 - Allison's Story (Wraparound Segment)
1 - The Old Dark House (First Segment)
2 - A Night on the Town (Second Segment)
3 - All Night Operator (Third Segment)
Run Time - 1 hr. 30 min. Rated - R
Budget - $3 million Gross - $76, 239
Review:
After Midnight is a competently made but forgettable horror anthology film that really lacks any strong sense of horror. The film sets out to deal with the more realistic horror ideas, like stalkers, killer dogs and pranks gone wrong and features little to no supernatural elements which is an unusual choice for the genre. The anthology format was an idea popularized by the British horror film Dead of Night (1945) and eventually hitting their stride in the 1960s and early 1970s when Amicus Productions was churning them out in response to the vast Hammer horror output at the same time. In the 1980s the format had a bit of a resurgence with films like Creepshow (1982) and Cat's Eye (1983) and several TV series would utilize this format to success like Tales from the Darkside (1983-1988) and Tales from the Crypt (1989-1996). As for After Midnight it isn't really a bad film, the direction is decent, the acting is pretty good and the stories have a good ambience, but nothing about the film really sticks with you and come the next day you will have forgotten most of the movie. The film consists of three segments with the typical wraparound story trying to tie things together. Of the three stories, the middle segment, A Night on the Town, is probably the best made of the segments and the wraparound story is also very well done, with Ramy Zada giving the best performance in the movie as a crazy college professor who takes things a little too far. The first segment, The Old Dark House, suffers from an odd twist that really hurts this story in my opinion, and the final segment, All Night Operator, starts off strong but lacks any real resolution. If you are a horror fan, give it a look, but don't expect anything truly amazing here.
My Score: 54
Plot - 5 Cinematography - 6
Attraction - 6 Editing & Special Effects - 6
Theme - 6 Sound & Music - 6
Acting - 6 Directing - 6
Dialogue - 6 Enjoyability – 7
Trivia:
The entire film was shot in just 38 days.
The Old Dark House segment was filmed at four different houses: one for the gate and driveway, one for the exterior, another for the interior and a fourth for the wide shots.
The second segment of the film, A Night of the Town, featured scenes with actresses being chased by vicious dogs. This proved difficult to film and ultimately the scenes with the actresses and dogs were filmed separately and edited together during post-production.
The final segment of the film, All Night Operator, featured Marg Helgenberger as the operator and Alan Rosenberg as the killer. The two were married at the time, though they later divorced in 2010.
Availability:
Watched in October, 2021
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