I like the storyline of this show,it attract me so much
View MoreLet's be realistic.
Better Late Then Never
The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.
View MoreThe director of Midnight Killer is Lamberto Bava, son of the legendary Mario. Lamberto's era was the 80's and he made several effective and fun horror films in that decade. So it is with some disappointment that I have to conclude that I thought Midnight Killer his weakest effort I have seen. It's very possible that Bava himself wasn't too crazy about this one either seeing as he went under a pseudonym.The story follows a fairly typical giallo plot-line about serial murder. It borrows a bit from other earlier films from the genre like The Bird with the Crystal Plumage, Four Flies on Grey Velvet, Torso and Tenebrae. But it never approaches the standard of any of these. While Bava does manage to generate some decent suspense at times, overall the film is a little half-hearted. Even the soundtrack by the usually inspired Claudio Simonetti of Goblin fame is a fairly pedestrian synth score. The mystery itself isn't so obvious to work out but given the insane final explanation that is not really so surprising to be honest. In fact, the final killer reveal is especially daft even by giallo standards. It actually enters into Hanna-Barbera territory! It isn't as gory as many gialli and there isn't really any nudity but there still is a mean spiritedness to the scenes with the killer nevertheless. This is alleviated somewhat though by moments that enter the truly absurd, such as a part when one of the victims tries to defend herself with a kitchen blender! This scene is agreeably moronic and at least good for a chuckle.I have to conclude that overall, while Midnight Killer has some good moments it isn't very good as a whole.
View MoreHaving found the last two Gialli that I have seen of Lamberto Bava (A Blade In The Dark and Body Parts) to be fun,easy going,films,I decided to take a look at this near forgotten Giallo of his,which despite Bava's clear dislike for the final movie, (Bava is credited as John Old Jr) looked like a Giallo worth taking a midnight ramble with.The plot:Secretly catching his wife trying some suggestive bra & panties on in front of another man,police officer Nicola Levi violently confronts his wife Sara in their flat over who the mystery man was that she was with.Getting no answer at all from Sara,Nicola starts fighting with her,until Sara gives the KO blow by stabbing him in the shoulders with an ice pic.Not feeling too cheerful about being stabbed,Nicola walks out of the flat and goes to visit a friend.Trying to relax after the blazing fight,Sara decides to take a shower.Shortly after starting the shower,a stranger suddenly appears and uses the ice pic to murder Sara.As the police start trying to gather details about the murder,some of the officers start to wonder,if this killing is in fact a "sign" of a long dead serial killer coming "back" from the dead?.View on the film:For the first 30 minutes of this smooth Giallo,screenwriters Lamberto Bava and Dardano Sacchetti keep the film moving at a very speedy pace,with Bava delivering some eye-catching stylised shots in Nicola and Sara's flat during the rough looking fight,whilst also giving sneak peaks at the motives and face of the killer.Whilst the rest of this Giallo is far from bad,Bava seems to lose most of the excitement that he has for the movie once it crosses the 30 minute mark,which with the exception of one or two unique moments, (such as a girl attacking the killer with a whisk!) ends up feeling like a middle of the road TV episode,with an almost too terrible to watch Scobby Doo pulling off the mask "twist".
View MoreEven with the inclusion of several red herrings and an implausible motive, I still managed to guess the identity of the murderer in Lamberto Bava's The Midnight Killer way before the end of the movie. Maybe I've just seen too many giallos and have come to expect the unexpected, but I figure that the reality is that this just isn't a great example of the genre.Nicola, a policeman who discovers his wife is having an affair, is suspected of murder after his adulterous spouse turns up dead in her shower, having been stabbed with an icepick. After another victim turns up, killed with the same weapon, things do not look good for the poor copper, and he goes to his colleague Anna, a criminologist, for help. Anna believes Nicola to be innocent and suspects that the man really responsible is in fact Franco Tribbo, a murderer who supposedly died in a fire several years before...Despite some great cinematography, a fabulous pulsing score courtesy of Claudio Simonetti, and an attractive selection of young women destined to die nasty deaths, The Midnight Killer still manages to be something of a disappointment. For a giallo, the death scenes are relatively free of gore, the story is not nearly as complex or as clever as it might be, and there is a distinct lack of nudity.Worst of all, the film attempts (very poorly) to cheat its audience: at the end of the movie, the killer is revealed to be wearing a rubber mask in order to hide their true identitydespite the fact that their face is visible earlier on in the film and is clearly flesh and blood, even scowling and grimacing during one frenzied attack.The Midnight Killer is a decidedly average effort that will be of little interest to anyone but the most ardent fan of Italian horror cinema.
View MoreIt is not very original and it is impossible to predict the outcome because it is so ridiculous. But otherwise there is plenty to enjoy with lots of gory killings and if there is less flesh on display than one might expect this is probably because of the film's TV origins. The movie has style and is helped by a decent score and to Bava's credit he does keep the film moving and makes the police investigations as interesting as possible, particularly in this case perhaps because of their seeming involvement. Enjoyable and will be fun to watch again to see if too much cheating went on! You'll know what I mean when you have seen it, oh and the title has no relevance but do they ever in giallo?
View More