The
Midnight Hour
1985
Director- Jack Bender
Cast-Shari Belafonte, LeVar Burton, Lee Montgomery,
Peter
DeLuise, Dedee Pfeiffer, Jonna Lee, Dick
Van Patten, Kurtwood Smith, Kevin McCarthy, Wolfman Jack
This was
a made for TV movie by ABC that premiered
in 1985. It has a good cast with genre favorites LeVar Burton, Kevin
McCarthy and Kurtwood Smith. It combines
horror and humor with an outstanding soundtrack of mostly mid 60’s music which
helps give it the feel of an old school movie.
The New
England town of Ptchford (known colloquially as Ptchfork) lives with an ancient
tale of a slave, Lucinda, that was hanged for witchcraft. Melissa, a high school student, is the modern
day descendant of Lucinda. One of her classmates, Phil, is the ancestor of the
witch hunter that had her executed. The clothes and effects of Lucinda and the
witch hunter are kept in the town’s witchcraft museum. Halloween is approaching
and Melissa and her friends get the idea to steal the clothes and use them for
Halloween costumes. After stealing the clothes they find a scroll with an
incantation. Melissa reads it aloud and before long supernatural forces are
unleashed. Lucinda the witch returns, zombies rise from the cemetery, a
werewolf is stalking the town and a very out of place looking girl, Sandy, is
walking around. Sandy is dressed like a cheerleader from the 50s and acts like
it too.
The
school kids are gathering at Melissa’s house for a Halloween party and zombies
begin to crash the party but no one realizes that their rotted flesh isn’t a
Halloween costume. Phil strikes out with
all of the girls at the party and leaves, running into Sandy, who seems to be
trying to make up for lost time in the fun department. Meanwhile, Lucinda has
crashed the party as well and it turns out that in addition to being an undead
witch, she’s also a vampire. She bites her descendant Melissa, turning her into
a vampire, who in turn bites her boyfriend and so forth.
Phil is
having the time of his life with Sandy until they are attacked by a werewolf.
Sandy, who we now know has returned from the dead herself, though very hot
instead of gross and rotting, lets Phil in on what is going on. She and Phil
have to stop it and they only have until the end of Halloween night to do it.
The
movie is in cheesey in places and seems very influenced by Michael Jackson’s
Thriller video. Never the less it is original and has heart that makes it
memorable and enjoyable. There are none of the typical rules that we usually
see with vampires and zombies and elements seen to be chosen because they are
cool or fun. The classic music makes it seem like a creepy music video at
times. A fun movie if you want a light hearted Halloween story.
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