The Midnight Hour - Get Dead!

The Midnight Hour
1985
D: Jack Bender
W: William Bleich

S: Lee Montgomery, Shari Belafonte & LeVar Burton
TV Movie - Approx 94 Min.
ABC

Taglines:
None

Alternate Titles: 
 -La noche del baile de medianoche (Prom Night Midnight) - Spain
 -Halloweenin hetki (Halloween Time) - Finland
 -La Notte di Halloween (The Halloween Night) - Italy
 -Creeps - Eine unheimliche Geisternacht (A Chilling Ghost Night)- West Germany

 -Halloween - Besuch aus dem Jenseits (Visit From Beyond the Grave) - West Germany




"I'm Dead.  You're Dying.  Everyone should try it.  Get Dead!"
                                                                                                                                             -Melissa

There are some films that just perfectly encapsulate certain holidays.  A Christmas Story will forever be branded (in my mind) as the quintessential Christmas film.  It simply is not Christmas if I don't watch Ralphie on his quest for an Official Red Ryder Carbine-Action Two-Hundred-Shot Range Model Air Rifle at least 10 times.  It's not Thanksgiving to me unless I've watched Home For The Holidays at least twice.  Halloween is a tricky time for me because I have many favorites that must be watched throughout October.  While Garfield's Halloween Adventure is still at the tip top of the list, The Midnight Hour is a very close second.

Skull Kid riding a bike, delivering newspapers.  I think that's about as Your Town USA as you can get!

The gang heads to the local cemetery to try on the clothing of dead people.  Super idea.

The Midnight Hour is a fairly obscure ABC produced TV-Movie about a group of teens living in the fictional New England town of Pitchford Cove (or PitchFORK Cove as their ancestors called it in the late 1600's called it).  Some of the students are the direct descendants of witches and witchhunters from the town's beginnings.  Some of their ancestor's clothing is on display at the local witchcraft museum.  The kids think it would be a swell idea to break in and "borrow" the costumes for their big Halloween party.

After a successful clothing heist (that includes stealing an old trunk), the head off to the local cemetery to try on the costumes.  Cause, why not, right?  Inside the trunk they find an ancient scroll which appears to be written in blood.  One of the girls decides to read it out loud as a joke....since her great-great-great-great-great grandmother was an evil witch and all.  What's the worst that could happen?  Well, as fate would have it, she unleashes a curse that awakens the dead.  It seems that some of the dead are evil, some are confused and then there's Sandy.  A 50's era cheerleader who just wants to fall in love before she has to go back to the grave.

I loved this guy in Thriller.....

I have no idea what the hell he's supposed to be, but I dig it!

As the zombies roam around town causing havoc, it would appear that there is also a werewolf on the loose.  It would also appear that the evil witch is back as well.....and she's a freaking vampire to boot!  Damn!  If you're into Thriller-style zombies then you're going to feel right at home with this.  Especially when everyone at the party breaks into a song and dance number titled "Get Dead"!  It is pure 80's cheddar that tastes oh-so-good!

The ladies are about to get it on in the wine cellar.....but not in a good way.

Zombies love to party.

For an ABC TV-Movie, this has some surprisingly effective scenes in it, including the evil vampire witch attacking her great-great-great-great-great granddaughter in the wine cellar of the house where the party is being held.  Everything kicks into slow motion during the attack as corks pop off of wine bottles and red wine jettisons forth like streams of blood, all while The Smiths' "How Soon is Now?" plays with some spooky overlays in the background.

There's a lot of great actors to keep an eye out for while you're watching this one:  Kurtwood Smith, Kevin McCarthy, Dick Van Patten are just some of the familiar faces that you'll see here.  Not to mention a very young,  LeVar Burton & Shari Belafonte (Harry Belafonte's daughter!)!

Sandy...the hot, cheerleader ghost.

Shit!  Clarence Boddicker is a goddamn zombie!

GORE
There's a little bit of the red stuff on tap, but not much.  This is less about gore and more about the nostalgic Halloween feel.

T&A
No skin, kiddies.  This is a made for TV-Movie.

Creatures Featured
You get zombies, ghouls, vampires, ghosts, werewolves and witches all under one roof!  What's not to love about that?!

Final Thoughts
It's a crime that this film doesn't have it's on Blu Ray release with an isolated soundtrack and a ton of Halloweentastic extras.  This should be on everyone's must-watch list for Halloween.  I cannot recommend this film highly enough!  Seek it out and enjoy!


Final Rating
Five out of Five Pizza Rolls

Garfield's Halloween Adventure

You know, they say never lead off with the best material, because you would have no where to go from there.  You know what though?  I don't care.  I've waited all year for this.  Garfield's Halloween Adventure is my all time favorite Halloween Special.  If I was only able to watch one special and one special only, it would be this one.  I will watch it absolutely every single day between now and Halloween night.  I love it THAT much.  This is my childhood wrapped into 24 minutes of animated bliss and I want to share it with EVERYONE.  You can keep your Great Pumpkin, because I know that the true spirit of Halloween lies with some dead pirates in a house on a lonely river island.  Don't get me wrong, I love me some Charlie Brown, but this is the penultimate in Retro Halloween Specials as far as I'm concerned.

I used to think that everyone had seen this special, but it's come to my attention in my adult (read man-child) years that not as many people remember this special as I would have thought.  This thoroughly shocks me as Holly and I are constantly quoting the special and singing it's songs all year long.  I wish I was making that up, but if I had a nickle for every time we started to sing an impromptu round of "What Should I Be?"  I probably wouldn't need a day job.  A few years ago, when I was still working in sales, I sent out an email to all my co-workers with a poll asking which they preferred -  Garfield or Charlie Brown.  We were a productive bunch, weren't we?  Any way, I found that nearly half of my co-workers had never even SEEN the Garfield special, while a good part of the rest of them preferred It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown.  That's pretty much when I lost my faith in humanity.

Okay, okay, so what is so great about this special, you ask?  Well, first of all, it has quite possibly one of the most endearing Halloween stories I've ever seen.  Garfield is woken up early one morning by the Binky The Clown Show.  Now first off, I'd like to point out that Binky has always creeped me out.  He's like an angry cross between Bozo and Pennywise!  Makes me shiver just thinking about it.  Anyway, he wakes up to Binky telling all the kids ("Heeeeeey Kiiiiiiiiiiids!") that it's Halloween and that night they could get lots of candy.  This of course catches Garfield's attention and brings us too one of my most quoted lines "Candy, candy, candy!"  Which brings me to another side story.  I'm not much of a candy person most of the year and I could go January to September without so much as a piece of chocolate.....and I would be fine with that.  But when Halloween rolls around, I can't help myself.  I can't go to the store without buying bags of candy.  Holly could send me to the store to buy toilet paper and swiss cheese, but you can be sure that I will come back with three bags of various Halloween candy and HOPEFULLY I remember to pick up what I was sent out to get.  Same thing happens to me with Egg Nog and Christmas Cookies and candies.  I am truly a diseased individual.

So Garfield has brilliant idea to bring Odie along with him, effectively netting himself two bags of candy.  They head up to the attic to search for costumes.  Here is where the incredibly infectious song "What Should I Be?" plays out.  I dare you to listen to it and NOT get it stuck in your head.  After searching through boxes and trunks they find the perfect costumes:  Pirates!  They are now Orangebeard and Odie the Stupid!  John laughs at their costumes and Garfield threatens him with his wooden sword but decides to let him live "being that yer the only one who be changing me kitty litter!"  Classic line.  The boys head out to Trick or Treat and as they walk down the street, Odie starts to whimper.  Garfield tells him not to be afraid, because they are all just kids, like them, in costume.  Garfield sings my second favorite song in the show, "Scaredy Cat" as he attempts to show Odie that they are all costumes, but each appears to be a real supernatural creature or ghost.

After their sacks are full, the boys are about to head home when Garfield notices all the houses across the river.  Being the greedy kitty that he is, they find a row boat and start to head to the other side to get more candy ("Candy, candy, candy!"),  Unfortunately when Garfield tells Odie to put out the oars, Odie does just that.  Literally.  As the oars float away, Garfield realizes that they might be in trouble.  However, the wash up on an island in the river.  The house appears to be inhabited, with light coming from the windows, but when they peer in, they see no one.  They decide to warm themselves by the fire.  It's then that they are surprised by an old man sitting in a chair, who tells them a tale of a pirate blood pact.  100 years ago, these pirates left their treasure here and all vowed to come back 100 years later for it, even if it meant returning from the grave!  Which, of course it would....because who the hell lives that long anyway?  But that's besides the point.  The old man steals their rowboat and leaves them to face the phantom pirates.

When I was a kid, these ghost pirates really freaked me out!  I can very distinctly remember holding my plastic pumpkin full of candy tightly as I watched Garfield and Odie hide from them.
Of course as a young child I was afraid of pretty much everything.  It's actually quite amazing that I turned into a horror hound, because I remember staying up under my covers freaked out over a Halloween episode of The Facts of Life.  So there you go.  Take of that what you will.

GHA was originally called Garfield in Disguise, which I'm guessing they changed because it wasn't Halloweeney enough.  That sounds more like some kinda espionage thing.  Halloween Adventure has a much better ring to it.  Garfield, as always, was voice by Lorenzo Music....who also performed the musical numbers.  This was unavailable for a number of years, having only been distrubted on VHS by Fox Home Entertainment in 1992.  It was then released on DVD as part of the Garfield Holiday Celebrations disc in 2004, released by 20th Century Fox.  This is how I got my hands on it.......as a wonderful gift from my loving wife, Holly.  Love that woman.  Anyway, it's still available if you look for it.  Amazon has got more than a few copies of it.....and you also get Garfield's Thanksgiving and A Garfield Christmas....also both essentials!  If you want a real treat this Halloween, do yourself a favor and watch this!

Midnight Cinephile's Halloween Extravaganza

Ah, October.  That most awesome of months.  By now, many food and drinks have a pumpkin spice flavor variant to them, the weather is cooling off, the air is becoming crisp, the leaves are starting to change and there is lots of candy, candy, candy on the store shelves!  October 1st marks the beginning for me of the glorious triplex of holidays that bring me pure unadulterated and unmitigated joy.   We'll talk more about Thanksgiving and Christmas later.  For now, it's all about Halloween.

Your friendly Midnight Cinephile!

What can be expected of Midnight Cinephile for the next 31 days?  Well I don't know for certain, there are definitely certain films and Halloween specials that I want to hit upon, but I find that sometimes it's best to let inspiration come to you.  You can absolutely expect to see reviews of all the Halloween films.  Yes, even including Rob Zombie's takes on the franchise.  I liked 'em.  Plus, I'm a completest and I wouldn't feel right if I didn't cover absolutely every single film.  You can absolutely bet that I will be doing pieces on Halloween specials old and new, as well as review Halloween episodes of sitcoms and perhaps other TV shows. This our first Halloween Extravaganza here at MC, so we'll just have to see where things take us!

So sit back and relax, grab a handful of caramel popcorn and candy corn and enjoy Midnight Cinephile's Halloween Extravaganza!  Next post is going to be a review of the 1985 TV Special - Garfield's Halloween Adventure!