Minutes Past Midnight (2016)

One of my all time favorites.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

I must admit that I initially stopped playing this movie after the first short story, but I continued watching it again after reading a few reviews on this site; and I'm really glad that I did. This film consists of nine short stories and while the first one wasn't necessarily my cup of tea and almost caused me to skip the rest of the stories, there are some pretty entertaining features that I would have missed had I not been more patient. The Mill at Caulders was a spooky animation, and the short film Feeders was down right creepy and entertaining. I also found Ghost Train and and Roid Rage creepy and kooky respectively.All in all this was definitely not a waste of time.

"Minutes Past Midnight" is a horror anthology that would have fallen flat on its face and stayed that way had it not been for three stories that redeemed it. "The Mill At Calder's End," "Feeder," and "Ghost Train" were the best of the bunch, offering very good acting, direction, cinematography, music, and screenplays.My most memorable, movie moment of "Minutes Past Midnight" is the scene that reveals what happened to the boy who disappeared in "Ghost Train."Fans of horror movies should at least watch the three stories I mentioned above; and if you have some time to kill and want to watch a few ridiculous, short movies, then watch the other stories that "Minutes Past Midnight" has to offer.Mannysmemorablemoviemoments

The intro sequence was rather nicely made, as it set up the mood for the anthology quite well, plus it had some interesting CGI and very moody music.Let's just say that the anthology starts out pretty intense. Which was good, because you don't have to sit around for a long time while the story is being established and set up during a long introduction.There are some surprisingly good special effects in the anthology, and that came as a pleasant surprise, which only added so incredibly much in terms of enjoyment value for fans of horror and the macabre.Segment 1, titled "Never Tear Us Apart" brings a family close together, if you can keep your head on, that is. This particular segment really kicked off the anthology in a fast pace."Awake" is the name of the second segment. This story was a little bit weak, because it is not fully clear what is going on. Is the child possessed? Was he sick? And what kind of parent would his their child with a frying pan if the child bit them on the arm?The third segment, titled "Crazy For You" starts out with a rather idyllic setting, which quickly take a turn for the brutal. I guess even serial killers have a blooming love-lives. This was definitely an interesting story, though I can't claim that I cared for the ending.Breaking the style of the anthology is "The Mill at Calder's End", the fourth segment. This is a animated segment. The props and the puppets really looked good and had nice textures, but the animation was incredibly wooden, rigid and stunted. Luckily, the story and the mood of this segment was enough to make you look past the wooden animation.The title of the fifth segment, "Roid Rage", definitely was an outstanding and instantly catchy title. This was definitely one of the more weird of tales, but also one that brought laughs with it because it was so odd. And it was unnecessarily made gross with the hairs at the lubrication. And the doctor was just wonderfully bizarre and hilarious."Roid Rage" gives way to "Feeder", which is the sixth segment in the anthology, which incidentally turned out to be one of my favorite segments. It was about some unknown entity or force at an apartment complex that demanded a bigger and bigger sacrifice of flesh. The story here was nicely constructed and it was the one that appealed to me the most in terms of being interesting and entertaining. Writer Guy McDouall and director Christian Rivers had really constructed something unique here.Next up was "Timothy" which was a truly wicked segment. I mean that because it was a twisted take on a children's imagination brought to life with a horrible outcome. This segment also stands out because it is in Spanish, though with English subtitles. This seventh segment was a short one, but one that had a big impact.The concept of the eight segment, titled "Ghost Train", was a rather interesting one. I found that to be rather entertaining, and it was nicely brought to life on the screen. This was definitely among the more memorable of segments that appeared in "Minutes Past Midnight".And the ninth and final segment, titled "Horrific", had a great amount of comedy in it, and was a wonderful mixture between horror and straight up comedy. I was laughing a lot when it turned into a "whack-a-mole" situation, that was just hilarious.The acting in the various segments was generally adequate, though there were of course some performances that far outshone others, and some that were just downright bad.As for the effects in the different segments, well it was adequate for most parts. Again, some segments had better effects than others. Which made for a very diverse experience.Each segment is definitely different in style, approach and delivery, which really makes for a very diverse experience. So there is something for everyone here.I was genuinely entertained throughout all nine segments, and must admit that it was actually a much nicer anthology than I had expected it to be. This can warmly be recommended to fans of the horror genre. And my rating of "Minutes Past Midnight" lands of a 6 out of 10 stars.

Face it, guys. Most anthologies are almost as bad as sequels. They usually contain not-so-special stories that are neither cohesive, well thought out, or are executed very poorly. Here is the exception! "Minutes Past Midnight" was--for the most part-- extremely entertaining. Nine individual tales are told and the majority hit their mark. There was only a couple that I didn't care all that much for, but there were three I thought could easily have been taken a step further and made into full-feature films."The Mill at Calder's Inn" was one of the best. It is an animated ghost story that is Grade A from beginning to end. The look, the feel, the characters--everything works, and works extremely well. My next favorite was "Roid Rage." Yes, it is WAY over the top-- especially the subject matter. But, c'mon, who couldn't love a story about a killer hemorrhoid?! I laughed until I cried! My next favorite was "Feeder." Extremely disturbing and frightening, this one delivers on the horror aspect. The only two shorts I felt didn't deliver were "Awake" and "Timothy." They weren't bad, mind you, but they were not close to the other stories.Rated R for graphic violence, brief nudity, and language, "Minutes Past Midnight" will deliver a very good time to anyone who watches. Highly Recommended.