THE MIDNIGHT HOUR

Phil discusses in front of the class his research on Halloween, from which it emerges that the origin of Pitchford Cove, the town where he lives, has direct connections with the pagan festival of All Saints' Day and that his classmate Melissa is the direct descendant of a witch who, before being burned at the stake, cast a curse on the town. Taken by this story, Phil, Melissa, and other classmates decide to go to the town museum and steal the clothes that really belonged to their ancestors to make the perfect Halloween costume. Among the trinkets, the kids also find a parchment and go to the cemetery to party. Wearing the old clothes, the kids have the bright idea of reciting the phrases written on the parchment and thus unleash the curse, awakening numerous creatures of evil. Produced by the television network ABC to bolster its late October programming, "Halloween Night" is one of those films that, over the years, has managed to gain a cult aura and a modest circle of fans. In Italy, in reality, the film directed by Jack Bender is little known beyond some sporadic television broadcasts at the end of the 1980s and the beginning of the 1990s, having found new life thanks to its publication on DVD by Jubal Classic Video. Jack Bender, known to the horror audience for directing "Child's Play 3" and recently attached to successful television series ("Lost" among others, for which he directed most of the episodes), directs with a typically TV-movie style a screenplay by William Bleich that attempts to mix teenage horror with comedy. Seen with the eyes of the modern viewer, "Halloween Night" is a decidedly mediocre product, to not be more severe, a film so naive and at times cloying that it leaves one somewhat dubious about the origin of its small public success. The first thing that emerges is precisely the lack of adequate blend between the components of the film: too little scary to be considered a horror in the strict sense and absolutely not funny to be considered a successful comedy. It relies on the clichés of the 1980s teenage comedy, with characters who do and say things that often do not match the behavior of people their age. For the most part, the teenage protagonists - high school students, in fiction, but shamelessly thirty-somethings in appearance, as is tradition - behave in a stupid manner, constantly over the top, which is normal for an American teen movie, but the insistence with which, in this film, the protagonists say and do stupid things eventually annoys. There is no really successful joke and the only "brilliant" memorable moment is represented by the parody that the "monsterified" characters make of Michael Jackson's "Thriller" video. Obviously, it is arduous to find typical aspects of horror in "Halloween Night," where the connection to horror cinema is reduced to the presence of numerous famous monsters, including zombies, vampires, witches, and werewolves. Bender, surely linked to the fact that he was making a product for television, never aims to build tension and obviously omits any violent and too macabre details completely. Among the merits of the film, one can note an optimal use of old tracks in the soundtrack (including "In the Midnight Hour" by Wilson Pickett, which also gives the title to the film in its original version) and an atmosphere that attempts - succeeding - to evoke the 1950s and 1960s in the manner of "Back to the Future" without really going back in time, but inserting into the 1980s context some elements of the past (including the cheerleader-zombie played by Jonna Lee). In the cast, LeVar Burton of "Star Trek" and Dedee Pfeiffer of "Vamp" and "House 7," sister of the much more famous Michelle. Suitable especially for the youngest. Watch a clip from HALLOWEEN NIGHT