You don't have to wait until The Midnight Hour to see this movie!...

Once again I find myself being the one and only reviewer of a product. This is a fairly obscure movie, though. Anyway, The Midnight Hour was an ABC TV movie shown on Halloween in 1985. I had actually had a copy of this airing on VHS for many years and I first found out about and saw this film for the first time a few years ago.

I really enjoyed it, and it was a lot better than most TV movies are. I was pleasantly surprised, since I didn't really have any expectations, good or bad. The make-up effects were particularly impressive. Plot-wise, the story concerns a group of teens that steal a costume trunk (for a Halloween party) and there is a scroll that is also in the trunk. The history of this town is that some witch once raised the spirits of the dead, and she was defeated by this witch hunter. Within this group of teens is a girl who is a descendant of this witch, and a guy who is a descendant of the witch hunter. So the girl reads the scroll, and thus wakes the dead and all other creatures are unleashed upon the town. This may not sound that special, but I don't feel the main plot is the heart of the movie, but rather the wittiness and charm of its execution is.

The film is abound with witches, werewolves, vampires, and zombies. All the horror mainstays are covered in this movie, which is not a common occurrence, so the movie gets bonus points for that unique element. Another twist here that works quite well is a little love story/romance between the male lead and a, (ready?) deceased cheerleader from the 1950s. There is a lot of comedy and humor in the film, and even a substantial musical number that's pretty funny, but its all very entertaining as silly as a musical number in a horror movie might sound. It's really not all that inappropriate, because keep in mind this was a network TV movie special, and the whole movie is very light-hearted and fun. There really shouldn't be any problems showing this to kids of all ages who can handle a little clean monster action.

And lastly, the soundtrack is great, it is a great mix of both 80s and oldies tunes. I recognized and liked every song. As for availability, it did get a VHS release and is available on numerous sites online, and it even got a DVD release. Either way, if you happen to come across this, for either a rental or to buy, I recommend you check it out, its also on the inexpensive side.