I’ve tried, in my own way, to formulate a well-written and concise synopsis of the plotline of this week’s Sketch Cinema gorefest, only to find that I fail at every turn, as this week’s voyage into the land of B-movie terror seems to come from a script which was seemingly written as if the cast and crew merely improvised a story line.  For this week, dear friends, I am stepping outside the norm and offering up a pre-canned, neat little synopsis for you, courtesy of www.movieweb.com.  I give you a very special Midweek Movie Madness version of SMSC, Jack Messitt’s 2008 bloodbath, Midnight Movie.

“A midnight screening of a 1970s cult horror film becomes a wholesale bloodbath after the members of the audience see one of their friends butchered on the big screen, and quickly surmise that there’s a madman in the theater who seeks to slaughter them all. It was just another run down movie house in a small suburban town: what better place for a screening of a true cult classic? But this isn’t your typical horror film, because years ago, the director had been locked away in a psychiatric hospital after having a complete mental breakdown. The teens at the screening have no idea that he escaped from the hospital nearly five years ago, and that chances are good he’s still out there somewhere. When the film starts to roll and the heckling begins, the atmosphere in the theater is loose and fun. Giddiness gives way to deep-rooted dread, however, when the horrified audience is forced to watch as one of their good friends is viciously murdered right before their very eyes. This is no movie, and when the audience tries to flee they realize that the same psycho they just saw on the silver screen has now trapped them all in the theater. With no hope of escape and their numbers thinning fast, the survivors must now figure out a way to turn the tables on the very same killer that they once rooted for in their favorite slasher flick.”

To the untrained eye, this actually seems like a pretty good plot for a horror movie.  So many elements come together to create what could be an explosively tense and frightening movie, only to fall apart at the last minute like a pair of  $0.99 Walmart flip-flops.

The Members of the Audience – a rather clever way to describe the eight-or-so people in attendance for this screening, our audience consists of a small group of teens, a rough-looking biker couple, and good old Detective Barons, who merely years prior helped to lock up the very film’s director in a mental institution.  We’re joined shortly into the movie by little Timmy, the younger brother of Bridget, a teeny-bopper whose mother had been horribly murdered.

The Director – I’m still not quite sure what exactly this has to do with the movie screening going horribly awry, but apparently there is supposed to be some connection made that was inadvertently left on the cutting room floor.  Our beloved detective has been made aware of the director’s hospital break out, and is on the lookout for his arrival.  The whole point seems rather silly to me, given the intended supernatural aspect of the plot.

Good Times Gone Bad – the teens start to notice that their own friends, each having removed themselves from the theater for various reasons, are suddenly appearing on-screen in the film, being brutally murdered one-by-one and dragged off to some undisclosed location.  Instead of citing this as completely irregular, the teens actually praise their friends’ clever ability to pull of some kind of major hoax.  Right. I’d be out of there faster than a bad blind date.

There are so many delicious little tidbits scattered throughout this movie – little gems of unintended humor here, bits of unsuccessful attempts at shock and gore there – that I can’t even begin to do them all justice.  One almost starts to wonder if Midnight Movie is actually a serious attempt at a horror movie at all…judging by the trailer, I am sadly led to believe it actually was.

And now, my sketch-loving cohorts, I bid you adieu, and leave you this week’s SM Sketch Cinema quote of the week:

“If you get turned on by this, we’re breaking up.”

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