After Midnight (1989)

Wonderful character development!

Admirable film.

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

The joyful confection is coated in a sparkly gloss, bright enough to gleam from the darkest, most cynical corners.

After watching this anthology, I had to rate it rather high. What launches this upwards is not the stories per se, although they are each very interesting and entertaining, but it's the way they were executed. Top-notch acting, editing, and sound. Not to mention the fact that they really do well to play on suspense. Last, but not least, all of the stories were cleverly crafted into events that could actually take place in real life and happen to anyone.In the opening sequence of the film, the professor speaks of the psychology of fear and how fear arises when we feel a sense that something could actually happen to us. The three tales to follow play off of this concept well. Brief Synopses and Descriptions:1. Frame - "Psychology of Fear" (Ramy Zada) - After a rather ballsy, overbearing, unethical, and possibly borderline insane classroom lesson on fear, Professor Edward Derek invites several of his students to his house to delve deeper into the psychology of fear. Throughout the night, the group regales each other with scary tales. At the same time, a mischievous student who was humiliated in front of class plans to enact his revenge upon the professor. This makes for one of the craziest and most unexpected finales around at the end of the film. Even if you hate the rest of the film, the final moment alone is worth sitting through to the end. 2. "The Old Dark House" (Marc McClure) - In this tale, a young couple are having dinner to celebrate the boyfriend's birthday. The girlfriend decides they should take the scenic route home. Along the way, their car breaks down outside of a large, old, dark house. When they decide to venture inside, they get separated and quite an interesting twist of fate awaits them at the end. This one plays heavily on suspense until it finally delivers a rather surprising turn of events.3. "A Night on the Town" (Judie Aronson) - In this tale, 4 teenage girls are trying to get into adult clubs. Upon being rejected, they search for a new club to try and get into but end up landing in the wrong side of town. Lost and confused, they walk into a gas station where they are met with a rather scrappy looking man and his 3 Doberman which proceed to terrorize the girls. This one plays a lot on adrenaline and intensity. It's the most intense of the three tales and is a fun ride all the way to the end. 4. "All Night Operator" (Marg Helgenberger) - In this tale, a woman arrives to take the night shift at an all night telephone operating service. She begins to receive strange calls from a man who appears to be stalking a woman who also uses the same telephone operating service. As the night unfolds, he begins to stalk the phone operator as well. This tale is a bit of a suspenseful thriller as it puts you on edge. You get a good sense of the stalker creeping closer and closer until the final moment, and what a great final moment it is. There's a good energy in this one for sure. Finally, the movie ends in one of the most ridiculously unexpected ways that makes virtually no sense in the best way possible. It's so over the top that you can't help but love it. That is, until it finally concludes and does make some actual sense haha. Overall, the movie is incredibly entertaining and really increases its effectiveness by crafting the stories around realistic events and settings. Each story immerses you in a creepy, suspenseful, exciting reality, and because of this, it's easy for the tales to suck you into them. It's got that 80's feel too with the acting, lighting, sound effects, and music. A dark atmosphere pervades the entire anthology and really gives it that edge.

Anthology fright flicks experienced a brief, but welcome resurgence in the mid 80's up until the early 90's, as evidenced by the lovably chintzy "Creepshow 2," the genuinely disturbing "The Offspring," the wonderfully offbeat horror-Western favorite "Grim Prairie Tales," the enthusiastically gruesome indie effort "Campfire Tales," and this well-done sleeper.A creepy college professor (a very intense Ramy Zada) and several of his students (which include "Pumpkinhead" victim Kerry Remsen, who meets a similar ill fate here) tell each other a trio of urban legend-style terror tales throughout the course of your standard dark and stormy evening. First and most ironic vignette, "The Old Dark House" - Young married couple Marc McClure (Jimmy Olsen in the "Superman" movies) and Nadine ("Critters") Van Der Velde are forced to spend a night in a spooky, rundown old mansion after their car breaks down. Second and most unintentionally sidesplitting story, "A Night on the Town" - A quartet of screaming, vacuous, wholly deserving bimbettes ("American Ninja" 's Judi Aronson among 'em) are terrorized by a demented homeless lunatic (outrageously overplayed to the sneering fruitbag hilt by the late, great Luis Contreras, who portrayed nasty Hispanic villains in such action items as "Stand Alone," "Extreme Prejudice," "Walking the Edge," and "Dollman") and his pack of vicious wild dogs. Third and best yarn, "All Night Operator" - This taut, gripping little corker features a bang-up performance by the ever-lovely and personable Marg Helgenberger as Alex, a sexy, resourceful receptionist who receives menacing phone calls from and, naturally, eventually gets stalked by some homicidal madman (a finely flipped-out freako turn by Alan Rosenberg).Writers/directors Jim and Ken Wheat, who previously made the excellent, underrated Hitchcockian suspense thriller pip "Lies" and penned such goodies as the solid slasher picture "Silent Scream" and the fantastic sci-fi/horror knockout "Pitch Black," do a typically up to snuff job with this extremely fun, sometimes thrilling and always entertaining omnibus affair: the brisk, steady pace never falters for a minute, the acting is uniformly good, a suitably eerie atmosphere pervades throughout, each anecdote leads to a reasonably frightening conclusion (the climax to the first tale is especially effective), and the wacky, nightmarish final may be pretty silly, but it still works in a goofily over-the-top hokey carnival funhouse sort of way. Sure, it's no trend-setting, genre-bending innovative masterpiece, but "After Midnight" nonetheless doesn't deserve its current obscure status and certainly makes for a nice, perfectly pleasing late night with the lights out and the shades drawn horror movie viewing experience.

~Spoiler~ After Midnight is a collection of tales from the late 80's that seems to have been forgotten about. I'm a sucker for the anthology format, and I had never heard of this one prior to renting it. Needless to say I couldn't wait to see if this was a hidden gem. Let me just say there is a reason I have never heard of it. After Midnight is a pitiful effort and a waste of time. Not one of these stories, nor the wraparound, have anything going for them. The best story is a haunted house tale starring Marc McClure but you'll know the twist if you're paying attention. The other two boring yawns, I mean yarns, are about a group of girls attacked by dogs and an answering service girl (Marg Helgenberger) being stalked by a psycho. The only positive thing I can say it that it features lots of people who have worked in the genre before. So around every corner you will see someone that either Freddy killed, or Pumpkinhead tore apart, or Jason skewered through a raft.

After Midnight (1989) is a bad 80's horror flick. It's one of those total cop-out movie. I hate these type of movies. Ramy Zada reminds me of Bruce Campbell's evil doppleganger for Evil Dead 3. I can't stand this picture. Lame movie based on even lamer "urban legends". Nothing to recommend about this flick. The movie's not even a "good" bad movie. It's just Bad, with no redeeming qualities, the film makers tried too hard to make a movie that's "scary". But in the end, all you wind with is a terrible film that has no meaning or substance.You wanna be scared? I mean really scared? Then don't watch this movie! You can see scarier stuff on the P.A.X. network. For real.No recommendations.