The Midnight Man (2016)

Good grief, The Midnight Man is one frustrating film. It stars two stalwarts of the horror movie scene (Lin Shaye and Robert Englund), is well-made with some classy sets and good staging, features an eye-catching monster, and appears to be trying to put a new spin on a tired Creepypasta trope (the website even gets a namecheck at one point).

But then it doesn't do anything clever with it, and what it does do is wildly inconsistent (for example, the monster is supposed to kill people by using their worst fears and darkest secrets against them, so clearly one of the characters' greatest fear is being punched through the head by a demon!)

The Midnight Man opens in 1953 with three children coming to the end of a terrifying session of "the midnight game", where they've summoned the murderous Midnight Man (Kyle Strauts) into their home.

Only one child survives and we jump to the present day when Anna Luster (Lin Shaye) is now an obstreperous old woman suffering from dementia, still living in her family home, and being cared for by her granddaughter, Alex (Gabrielle Haugh).

One night, while looking for her gran's precious hand-mirror in the attic, Alex and friend, Miles (Grayson Gabriel), stumble across a box with all the fixings for the 'midnight game' (but only half the rules).

Granny Luster comes upon them and freaks out, so Alex has to call in Doctor Harding (Robert Englund), who we later discover has a childhood connection with Anna.

With her grandmother tucked up in bed, Alex and Miles (who obviously can't think of anything better to do!), decide to start playing the 'midnight game'... and soon find themselves trapped inside the house with the killer demon!

Clearly, writer/director Travis Zariwny was hoping to get a franchise out of The Midnight Man. The creature has a quite unique, and memorable, look and a gravelly voice that delivers lines we usually associate with Hellraiser's Cenobites.

But for all the film's strong points, the script lets it down constantly when it comes to how the demon deals with its prey. For instance, we learn that Alex's greatest fear - not a mild dislike, but greatest fear - is blood, but earlier she showed no reservations about pricking her own finger (with a dirty needle, mind you) and putting a bloody finger print on the game's "entry sheet".

Then you have this game that is supposedly bound by strict rules (even though the Midnight Man cheats) about how to start it and what to do during the game, but then suddenly it's okay for someone - Miles's schoolfriend Kelly (Emily Haine) - to just wander in and sign up.

I think there was supposed to be some dark message about survivors of the game becoming the demon's servants, and bringing him fresh meat, but this isn't really clear (or maybe I was reading too much into it).

Obviously, this is aping the storyline of such urban myths as Bloody Mary, Candyman, and even Slender Man, but whereas those, at least, pay some lip service as to why people get involved with them, The Midnight Man gives its characters a quite involved game, with multiple rules and restrictions, but absolutely no reason to play in the first place.

The supernatural antagonist also lacks the rich backstory of those other urban myths, he's simply a killing machine. So why would you invite him in in the first place?

The game begins at midnight and the players have to avoid the demon until 3.33am to escape.

But there's no reward for doing this, no magical wish granted.

It turns out the best way to avoid falling into the clutches of The Midnight Man is not to start playing his game.

If you don't play, you'll be just as well off as someone who plays and survives, and probably less traumatised.

And your levels of frustration will be lower if you don't bother with this film.

The annoying thing is, I love the creature design and would welcome encountering it again, under better circumstances. I'd simply prefer it was employed in a more coherent storyline.

Candyman (2021)

I reviewed the original 1992 Candyman yesterday just to remind me of the titular character's backstory, little realising that the 2021 Candyman would actually turn out to be a direct sequel to that.

Not only does Nia DaCosta's film frequently reference the earlier flick, but it also subtly expands the established mythology and, ultimately, acts as a fresh origin story for the supernatural slayer kept 'alive' through urban legends.

Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, of Watchmen and Aquaman fame, is up-and-coming artist Anthony McCoy seeking inspiration for his next project from the brutal history of the Chicago community in which he lives, the increasingly-gentrified neighbourhood of Cabrini-Green.

His imagination is taken by a story spun by Troy (Nathan Stewart-Jarrett, from Misfits), the brother of his girlfriend, art curator Brianna Cartwright (WandaVision and Mad Men's Teyonah Parris), about white graduate student Helen Lyle (Virginia Madsen), who went on a killing spree in the area in the early '90s.

Digging deeper into this tale, McCoy learns that Lyle was chasing after the myth of the Candyman, a murderous hook-handed ghost that supposedly haunts the neighbourhood and can be summoned by saying his name five times in a mirror.

The more McCoy delves into the myth of Candyman, the more people around him fall victim to violent crime and the artist himself finds his body decaying as what starts as an innocent bee sting slowly rots away his flesh.

With a script by director Nia DaCosta and producers Jordan Peele and Win Rosenfeld, this latest Candyman is a modern reworking of the classic monster movie formula that manages to be simultaneously layered and straight-forward.

It's also one of the most creatively shot horror movies of recent time, with DaCosta not shying aware from blood and gore but often capturing the "kills" from unique perspectives that heighten the horror without glorifying the violence.

There's no requirement to know the '90s Candyman movie at all, as this one tells you everything you need to know to become invested in the contemporary story, but there are a few Easter Eggs that will delight fans of the original.

The blending of modern art, racial tension, and urban myths with a top tier cast and sublime script makes Candyman a powerful and engaging work that builds on the foundation of the first film, creating something new and important that could launch its own franchise but stands alone perfectly well.

Candyman (1992)

Mature student Helen Lyle (Michael Madsen's sister Virginia doing a good Gillian Anderson impression) is investigating urban legends for a research paper and is drawn to a local murder in a Chicago ghetto that locals blame on the mythical bogeyman known as The Candyman.

Like Bloody Mary, the myth goes that if you say his name in front of a mirror multiple times he will appear and gut you!

With Tony Todd as the menacing presence of the Candyman having comparatively little screen time and the fact that no-one who sees him - except Helen - actually survives, this movie works whether you accept the monster as real or just a creation of Helen's mind to mask a psychosis of her own.

Based on a Clive Barker short story - but relocated to Chicago's rundown, gang-ridden, Cabrini-Green housing projects - this is a powerful horror movie that balances bloodshed with suspense and psychological terror.

The minimalist score by Philip Glass (and the use of aerial shots early on) helps give the film an ominous feel reminiscent of genuinely creepy films like The Exorcist and The Omen, and while it doesn't live up to those ambitions it's still a refreshingly well-paced change to the stream of modern horror that relies purely on shock and gore.

The idea of a creature that needs rumour and myth to power its existence touches on similar turf to the more famous A Nightmare on Elm Street, but here the Candyman isn't so much looking for multiple victims as a way of getting people to believe in him again after Helen starts explaining that he's not real and only a legend born of hearsay.

Watched today, while superficially Candyman still appears contemporary (despite an abundance of large, floppy hair styles), there are many aspects of it that you realise if updated would alter the story dramatically, such as Helen's reliance on film in her camera, the lack of mobile phones, even the fact that everyone smokes!

HALLOWEEN HORROR: Hatchet (2007)

Before he made Sexy Nightmare Slayers, Adam Green first became a big name in geeky households through his wonderfully OTT homage to old school slasher horror, Hatchet.

A simple set-up sees a gaggle of potential victims stranded at night in the Louisiana swamps when their "ghost tour" boat runs aground.

Lost, cold and wet they soon discover they are not alone and that the area's mythical bogeyman, Victor Crowley (Kane 'Jason Voorhees' Hodder), is after their blood.

Taking the best of the supernatural slasher genre and blending in some almost Scooby Doo-like humour - along with the requisite quotient of boobs and blood - Green drowns his audience in Grand Guignol levels of gore and mutilation that are so far fetched as to be shockingly humorous.

As much a comedy as a horror film, Hatchet is pure entertainment for horror groupies. It has no deep message or hidden subtext; it just aims to shock and amuse in equal measure by balancing each moment of graphic violence with a cheesy joke, witty one-liner or amusing pratfall.

Emphasising the movie's role as a loving, but light-hearted, homage to movies like Nightmare On Elm Street, Friday The 13th, Halloween, Candyman etc we are teased with all too brief cameos by the iconic Tony Todd and Robert Englund.

Buffy The Vampire Slayer fans (well, the males anyway) will also be delighted to know that Mercedes McNab (aka Harmony Kendall) not only has a large role in this as aspiring softcore porn actress Misty, but also spends at least a third of her time on camera topless.

Yes, it's that sort of film!

There's not enough originality in the personality of Victor Crowley - a Jason Voorhees-like mutant child bullied by his peers then accidentally set alight during a Halloween prank (viz. The Burning), who comes back "from the dead" (Freddy et al) with the powers of superhuman strength and indestructibility (Jason again) and a desire for revenge against mankind - but I don't think that's the point.

For me Green is simply trying to reclaim the genre, take it back to a halcyon age - but with a 21st Century budget and effects - to prevent its continued Twilightification. He's making "horror" truly "horrible" again, reclaiming the genre prerogative of  making the antagonist the audience draw, but without sinking to the sickening depths of the torture porn sub-genre.

Even the ending, while by no means original, is still perfectly in-keeping with the old school vibe of the piece... and obviously left the barn door open for Hatchet 2!

What Would You Sacrifice For Greatness?

What would you sacrifice to become the greatest of all time?

From Oscar winner Jordan Peele and Monkeypaw Productions, producers of the landmark horror films Get Out, Us, Candyman and Nope, comes a chilling journey into the inner sanctum of fame, idolatry and the pursuit of excellence at any cost, featuring an electrifying dramatic performance from Marlon Wayans (Air, Respect).

Former college wide-receiver Tyriq Withers (Atlanta, the upcoming I Know What You Did Last Summer) plays Cameron Cade, a rising-star quarterback who has devoted his life, and identity, to football. On the eve of professional football’s annual scouting Combine, Cam is attacked by an unhinged fan and suffers a potentially career-ending brain trauma.

Just when all seems lost, Cam receives a lifeline when his hero, Isaiah White (Marlon Wayans), a legendary eight-time Championship quarterback and cultural megastar, offers to train Cam at Isaiah’s isolated compound that he shares with his celebrity influencer wife, Elsie White (Julia Fox; Uncut Gems, No Sudden Move).

But as Cam’s training accelerates, Isaiah’s charisma begins to curdle into something darker, sending his protégé down a disorienting rabbit hole that may cost him more than he ever bargained for.

The film features a dynamic supporting cast including alternative comedy legend Tim Heidecker (First Time Female Director, Us) and Australian comic Jim Jefferies (The Jim Jefferies Show), plus MMA heavyweight fighter Maurice Greene and hip hop phenoms Guapdad 4000 and Grammy nominee Tierra Whack, all three in their feature film debuts.

HIM is directed by Justin Tipping (Kicks) from an acclaimed Black List screenplay by Zack Akers & Skip Bronkie (creators of the sci-fi crime series Limetown) and by Justin Tipping.