Killer Movie + Midnight
Movie (2008/Phase 4 Films Blu-rays)
Picture: B Sound:
B- Extras: D Films: D
More proof that the Horror genre has become a sea of
exploitation and gimmicks with no ambition or point, two new Blu-ray releases
by Phase 4 shows two inept attempts in action without a clue as to where to
go. With titles like Killer Movie and Midnight Movie, you might think you are getting more pseudo-comedy
junk like Stan Helsing and Scary Movie, but the makers here actually
think they are making something good.
Killer Movie thinks it is sending up reality
TV, as a TV producer goes on camera to “personally intimate” that it is the
greatest thing that ever happened to TV, then people die! So does this 91-minutes-long exercise in
set-up-and-kill-without-a-story silliness that makes generic references to a Hollywood that does not
exist the way it is written by a long shot and is as empty of ironic as it is
content. The animated series Total Drama Island understood how bad
“reality TV” was and seems like a Sidney Lumet production by comparison to this
sorry work. Certain fans who root for
the killer will actually be rooting for the TVs to blow up and kill everyone
(save Big Bang Theory’s Kaley Cuoco,
who will hopefully never be subjected to doing junk like this again; especially
since her show is an overdue hit), ending this bore as swiftly as possible.
Midnight Movie is about a movie from (here we
go) the early 1970s that is popular at that Witching Hour, but after several
decades, the killer in it decides to come out of the film into the real world
and go on a killing spree. Did he get
mad at all the money peop0le have made on it?
Does he want royalties? Is he mad
his film is showing up in a very bad film?
The idea is beyond tired and the film within the film
which is shot in black and whiter that does not look anything like the early
1970s and is also as boring as the main film is one of the worst
film-within-a-film films we have ever seen.
The makers have zero idea about the 1970s, Horror, suspense and this
drones on for a flat 82 minutes. A shame
too, because no one has done this idea well for a long time. Guess the dry spell will have to continue.
The 1080p 1.85 X 1 digital High Definition image in both
cases is not too bad, looking a bit better than expected for cheap releases,
but also having their expected flaws throughout in detail, motion blur and bad
composition. Though the cases list the
sound as Dolby Digital 5.1, selling both short, when they actually offer DTS-HD
Master Audio (MA) lossless 5.1 mixes.
However, both are poor and Killer is especially compressed for whatever
reason. Extras on both include a trailer
and making of featurette, while Midnight
adds an audio commentary track (try not to laugh), Outtakes (you will not
laugh), Deleted Scenes and Storyboards.
- Nicholas Sheffo
