slashers

At first glance, director Jack Messitt's snappy 2008 feature-length debut "Midnight Movie" may seem like yet another tired retread populated with a handful of pretty actors who are probably too young to genuinely appreciate the movies that inspired this surprisingly sharp, blood-drenched excursion into the well-worn slasher subgenre. And, for the most part, your knee-jerk reaction to the film is fairly accurate. However, because Messitt and everyone involved appear to be having such a blast with the material, chances are you'll forgive the picture its trespasses, of which there are a few.

We've got a few independent filmmakers that visit the site from time to time, so I'm sure they can relate to this scenario. You figure you can write, act, and direct. You're working on a shoestring budget. All you need is a few crappy actors, a guy or two to work the cameras and a monkey to work the fog machine. The problem is, everybody else on your crew, they're not quite as into the whole idea as you. They screw off, joke around at inappropriate times and in general slack off. So when the crew quits due to your unconventional temper, you're stuck with half a movie. What to do?