• Straight to Video
• Director: John A. Russo
• Written by: John A. Russo
• Running Time: 72 minutes
• Language: English
• MPAA Rating: UNRATED
• Cast: Matthew Jason Walsh, Jo Norcia, Bill Morrison, Vince Rossetti, Lori Scarlett, David Lance, Carla Rossetti, Bryan R. Yoho, Ken Jarosz, Tina Bookwalter, James R. Lynn, Matthew Richard Jarosz, Chuck Pierce, Sandra Wurzer, Jeanie Brown, David Wagner

Composing this hapless follow-up to his cultish-hit “Midnight”, John A. Russo pulls his camera out of the backwoods and drags it kicking and screaming into the hustle and bustle of urban sprawl of Pittsburgh – tacky rough country hillbilly replaced by a hipper Bundy-inspired psychopath. You got it. Legendary actor Lawrence Tierney, star of such classics as 1951’s “The Hoodlum” and 1992’s “Reservoir Dogs”, among countless others, is replaced by the venerable but practically anonymous bedheaded, Matthew Jason Walsh, star of such shot-on-vid flicks as 1993’s “City of the Vampires” and 1995’s  “Zombie Bloodbath 2: Rage of the Undead”. In an acting sense, Walsh is no Tierney, that’s for sure, but Walsh is game for anything Russo throws at him, and, in the world of no budgeted video-taped movies, that’s all it takes.

Following a tedious opening ‘2^nd unit’ segment that looks put together from the remnants of some early John Stagliano video, Russo does a laughable job of connecting the second film to the first film with Walsh acting as a sort-of hammy guide, explaining through jerky narration; how the spliced snippets of footage we’re observing from the original “Midnight”, relate to his situation now. For those in the dark, the first “Midnight” involved two young girls on a cross-country trip stumbling across a family of backwoods-hillbilly Satanists known as the Barnes family. In keeping with this tired and pummelled sub-genre, the crazy old Satanists take them back to their bucolic pad (an old farmhouse complete with a dead mommy haunting the attic, you know, they way Hitch did it in “Psycho”) and proceed to do some sacrificial shit to them. Tierney (as a cop) arrives on the scene late in the game to kick some ass and take some names. In the haze of bullets and blood, all of the Barnes kids are taken out including young brother, Abraham Barnes (John Amplas), who was shot in the head and left for dead. Well, at least we thought he was left for dead. The shovel full of shit that Russo is throwing at us here involves us buying that Tierney’s bullet merely grazed Abraham’s head, knocking him out or something. A classic moment arrives when Walsh flips his hair to the side to show us the nasty bullet scar just above his ear. Yes, I’m serious. Stop laughing. While Matthew Jason Walsh bears a strong-enough resemblance to John Amplas to pull off the transition, it’s only made palatable through heaps of laughter and plenty of thought suspension… and maybe a few beers.

As it turns out, the revitalized big-city Abraham Barnes has become a bit of a filmmaking-enthusiast, running around Pittsburgh with a smile and a video camera in hand. Despite his initial insistence that he’s “capturing life”, it’s just a sly ruse constructed to hide his much more sinister intentions. Abraham Barnes’ bloodlust, only hinted at in the first film, seems to have been amped up to an nth degree, and utilizing his trusty video camera he has managed to rack up and an impressive “killography”, something given credence during a scan of his basement and the stacks of homemade videos each with different names on them emphasizing a prior victim. He isn’t gender specific either, suggesting, “I just have to get that feeling.” Later, while on the hunt for his next target, Abraham discusses how the camera has become a nice tool in his arsenal for drawing-in intended victims. Manipulation coming part and parcel with ‘desired immortality’ offered through Abraham’s lens. “Ted Bundy used a sling,” he muses aloud. Abraham uses a camera. It’s all part of the game.

An uncomfortable seduction scene in a park eventually morphs into an even more revolting sequence where Abraham videotapes himself strangling to death his latest sexual conquest Jane, played by ready and willing Lori Scarlett, scream queen wannbe star of “Townies”, “Killer Nerd” and “Bride of Killer Nerd”. While cuddling in bed with the still-warm corpse, Abraham delves briefly into the psychology of serial killers, specifically in his inability to “get it up” and how he is searching for that special someone to settle down with, knowing full well that the person he searches for doesn’t exist – and never in the way he imagines. Worried about her suddenly missing friend, Rebecca (Jo Norcia) relates her story to a local police officer, who, at first, attempts to brush it off, that is until she tells of the strange man with a video-camera who was lurking around Jane just before she disappeared. Intrigued the lead detective on the case, David Morgan (Chuck Pierce), agrees to escort Rebecca down to the park to investigate. In accordance with police procedure, I’m sure, he hides in some bushes as Rebecca baits herself. Before long, Abraham is back and it’s Rebecca’s face filling his frame. With Abraham turning on the charm to a full boil, Rebecca agrees to a follow-up date with the obliging psychopath – setting into motion the astoundingly twisty and even exciting closer, one that involves a surprisingly resourceful Abraham plumbing the depths of his own psyche in an effort to validate keeping Rebecca alive.

Despite an absorbing last half which features some okay work from amateur actress Jo Norcia and even from Matthew Jason Walsh himself, the film is weighted down by its relentless narration and first person camera addresses. As Walsh explores the inner workings of the character through tedious, lengthy discourses, we get the sense that he’s reading dialogue taken verbatim from a book about serial killers, even citing quotes taken from various infamous murderers, most notably Ted Bundy, while adding analytical observations made about them, flipping them, and then making them reflect his own interior psychological machinery. Everything he says seems to be mish-mash of everything we already know about what makes serial killers tick, and although it’s interesting on one hand, it’s not enough to hold your interest for such long stretches, especially when the guy relating the various pieces has trouble remembering his lines; even sometimes stumbling, stopping and re-starting. Ug!

Working with virtually no budget, John A. Russo (2009’s “Escape of the Living Dead”) does the best with what he has, which isn’t much. A good majority of the cast is made up of proletarian actors from the local Pittsburgh theatre troupe, and the locations are used sparingly and often without proper consent, adding to the sheer amateurishness of the whole thing -- the sense that everything is being churned out on the fly and without the requisite time needed to properly stage a scene or memorize lines. The acting is iffy, and Walsh, while being a confident and sneaky liar, is definitely not strong enough to carry a film. Forget that he’s not the least bit scary – something that is kind of important when you’re selling him as a killer. He’s a background player at best, the kind of stringy sod that would hang out at a gas station, directing the kids ‘not to go down that road’ while praying under his breath that they do. Jo Norcia (1991’s “Kingdom of the Vampire”), as Rebecca, may have some great Tina Fey legs (and the director knows it), but she also has a quirky acting style that is hard to take seriously. This is best demonstrated during the film’s final moments, as her goofy facial expressions seem to harmonize perfectly with her painfully acted out getaway; her dopey weak-kneed run from the scythe wielding psycho in what looks to be a school hallway, will leave you in stitches. However, to be kind, quite riveting is the sequence atop a building where she, through windy patches, confronts Walsh’s character about her missing friend, and how she believes that he’s the killer. When he suggests that he’s not, but he remembers a guy in the park talking to Jane, suggesting that he may have even gotten the man on tape, hints at a great ‘revelation-of-the-true-killer’ scene to come, something akin to the one in “The Last Broadcast”. Sadly, Russo doesn’t have what it takes to pull it off, and the moment fizzles out just when it should be lighting up.

Another big thing about the film that folks will have trouble with is the gore… or the lack of it. While Tom Savini’s work was quite prominent in the first film, this time out it is up to Bill Morrison (1991’s “Zombie Cop”) and a few crew hands to provide believable gore effects, and, while they get what they want, for the most part, it’s far too infrequent to keep gore hounds happy. What’s really interesting about this film, in comparison to the POV forerunner’s “Cannibal Holocaust” and “Last House on Dead End Street”, is how many times this premise has been repeated in recent years; incorporating the camera/killer’s POV (cinema verite-style) into the serial killer’s arsenal, making it part of the plot, or even what drives the plot. Films like “The Last Horror Movie”, "The Poughkeepsie Tapes" and “The Great American Snuff Film” are two recent examples of this formula (a voyueristic psychopath driven to capture his kills on tape) being utilized to push forward the plot. Most recently, “S&Man” took this formula to a completely different level wrapping it in a pseudo documentary and making it work as something that feels genuine, even when its driving something that is ultimately re-dressed banality.

"Midnight 2" might have a slight leg up on the competition just because it came first. That's gotta count for something, doesn't it?

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