Line #13 Film/MidnightMovie


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/midnight_movie.jpg]]
2	->''"I smell fear."''
3	-->-- '''Ted Radford'''
4
5	''Midnight Movie'' is a 2008 {{slasher movie}} which focuses on a lumbering, [[TheFaceless masked]] serial killer who breaks free from the movie ''[[ShowWithinAShow The Dark Beneath]]'' to begin stalking the patrons and employees of the movie theatre. Called out of the movie by fear, the killer's transition from film to real life is marked by a {{Melting Film Effect}}. The kill is then projected onto the screen for those still in the theatre to watch. The killer then transitions back into the film with the body of his now limp victim to drag the victim to his secret lair.
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7	The audience watching the film is slow on the uptake at first, deeming it all a prank. After figuring it out, the plot plays out like a more traditional slasher film.
8
9	!!''Midnight Movie'' provides examples of:
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11	* AbusiveParent: Bridget and Timmy's father apparently was this to both.
12	* AirVentPassageway: Bridget sends Timmy through the very large air vents into the projection room in an attempt to turn off the projector. Timmy later uses the vents to escape from the killer when he is trapped in a storeroom.
13	* AllPartOfTheShow: It takes the in-film theater patrons a disturbingly long time to realize that the changes in the scenery and the murders are not part of the film.
14	* AssholeVictim: [[spoiler: Mario is a slimy coward who abandons his girlfriend to die and even pushes Timmy aside when he's in his way. So when Radford electrifies him to death it's kinda hard to feel bad for him.]] [[spoiler: Subverted with Harley as he proves himself to not be a complete asshole and actually having good qualities.]]
15	* AxeBeforeEntering: The killer uses his weapon to break through a door and kill the biker with a heart of gold.
16	* CampingACrapper: The killer ambushes Sully as he emerges from a stall in the cinema bathroom.
17	* CassandraTruth: [[spoiler:Timmy]] survives, but nobody will believe his story about a maniac who came out of the film and killed everyone.
18	* CellPhonesAreUseless: Once the cinema has been sealed, everyone trapped inside finds that their cell phones no longer work.
19	* CouldntFindAPen: While in the asylum, Radford bites into his wrist and tears out a chunk of flesh, and then starts scrawling on the floor in his own blood.
20	* DirtyCoward:
21	** [[spoiler:Mario]] eventually leaves [[spoiler:his girlfriend]] to be killed and later he even pushes [[spoiler:Timmy]] aside when he's blocking his way of escaping. Harley is genuine disgusted by this.
22	** Radford proves to be one when [[spoiler:Josh]] confronts him without fear.
23	* EvilCripple: Radford is a violent SerialKiller with a limp which doesn't seem to slow him down anyway.
24	* EvilOldFolks: Radford is a SerialKiller in his early sixties.
25	* ExtremelyShortTimeSpan: Barring the prelude, the entire film plays out over one night: starting just before midnight and ending before dawn.
26	* EyeScream: [[spoiler:Josh]] gets stabbed through the eye with the killer's corkscrew blade.
27	* TheFaceless: The killer is never seen without his distinctive skull-like mask. However we fully see his face at the movie's beginning where he's interned in an asylum.
28	* {{Fingore}}: The killer causes a sash window to slam shut on Samantha's fingers.
29	* FriendToAllChildren: For all their faults, Harley and Babe seem to be this as they're shown to be very protective towards Timmy.
30	* GoodPowersBadPeople: The killer is an empath who uses his power to track his fleeing and hiding victims.
31	* HandicappedBadass: Despite his crippling, Radford is still a very though and agile murderer.
32	* HeroicSacrifice: [[spoiler:Bridget]] jeopardizes her chance to escape from ''The Dark Beneath'' to ensure that [[spoiler:Timmy]] makes it.
33	* HighVoltageDeath: [[spoiler:Mario]] is electrocuted when the killer grabs hold him, and the jams his blade into a socket; sending electricity coursing through him into [[spoiler:Mario]].
34	* HillbillyHorrors: The ShowWithinAShow "The Dark Beneath", the origin of the SlasherMovie villain, is this sort of generic slasher film.
35	* IHaveBoobsYouMustObey: Rachael, who despite telling Kenny that she has a boyfriend and has no interest in dating him, is still able to persuade Kenny to go to the basement and change a bladder of syrup for her by promising him to show him her new tattoo.
36	* ImprobableInfantSurvival: [[spoiler:Timmy, the youngest character]] is the SoleSurvivor (it was a close call, though).
37	* ImprobableWeaponUser: The killer uses a strange corkscrew thing that gets several close-up shots and two scenes of it getting sharpened.
38	* ImmuneToBullets: Detective Barrons fires a few shots at the killer, but they do little more than annoy him.
39	* ImplacableMan: The killer appears to be completely indestructible in the real world, as he shrugs off being shot repeatedly in it, but in his film world he is far more vulnerable, at one point being temporarily downed by being stabbed in the neck with a nail.
40	* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Harley might be a troublemaker biker but he genuine loves Babe and he seems to care about the protagonists' well being, expecially Timmy. He also express anger at Mario's cowardice.
41	* KarmaHoudini: While [[spoiler: Timmy manages to escape]], Ted Radford is ultimately unpunished for his crimes, and seeing as [[spoiler: the film is still intact]], he'll surely be able to kill again.
42	* LovesTheSoundOfScreaming: Radford, the killer; when he prepares to torture Bridget, he takes the gag away from her so he can hear her screams.
43	* MalevolentMaskedMan: Redford the skull-face masked maniac.
44	* MeltingFilmEffect: Indicates when a real life location is spliced into the film.
45	* NotAfraidOfYouAnymore: Bridget says this as a method to try and defeat the killer. [[WrongGenreSavvy It doesn't work.]]
46	* PoliceAreUseless: Detective Barrons tries his hardest but he still doesn't make it very far. Arguably, also the cop outside the theatre.
47	* PottyEmergency: Sully has a bad reaction to some chocolate coated raisins, and first develops uncontrollable flatulence, and then has to dash off to the cinema bathroom.
48	* RefugeeFromTVLand: A lumbering, [[TheFaceless masked]] serial killer breaks free from the movie ''[[ShowWithinAShow The Dark Beneath]]'' to begin stalking the patrons and employees of the movie theatre.
49	* RollingPinOfDoom: In the FilmWithinAFilm ''The Dark Beneath", the killer's mother uses a rolling pin to knock out one of the girls for her son.
50	* ShoutOut: The hallway in the house in the [[ShowwithinAShow Film Within a Film]] is fairly identical to the one from the original ''Film/TheTexasChainSawMassacre1974''.
51	* ShowWithinAShow: The theater is doing a screening of ''The Dark Beneath'', a ''Texas Chainsaw Massacre''-style horror film created by Ted Radford.
52	* SilentAntagonist: Played straight with Radford as we only hear him grunting and breathing heavilly. [[spoiler: However when he catches Bridget he finally gets some dialogue.]]
53	* SinisterScythe: In the FilmWithinAFilm, the mother kills the FinalGirl with a sickle. Later, [[spoiler:Timmy]] uses the sickle to kill the mother.
54	* SkeletonsInTheCoatCloset: The killer's mask incorporates pieces of a human skull.
55	* SlashedThroat: Doctor Dave's death.
56	* SoftSpokenSadist: [[spoiler: Radford in his only one scene where he has some dialogues speaks in a very calm and smooth tone of voice.]]
57	* TheFourthWallWillNotProtectYou: In universe. A death scene, for either a character in the [[ShowWithinAShow Film Within A Film]] or the film itself, results in odd glitches with the movie.
58	* ThisIsADrill: The killer uses a drill-like knife to kill his victims.
59	* ThreatBackfire: Detective Barrons tells the killer that if he wants to get to the girl behind him, "You'll have to go through me." The villain obliges. Literally.
60	* ToiletHorror: The second time the killer escapes from the film, he attacks Sully in the restroom and gores out his heart. The patrons still in the cinema get to watch this occur on the screen.
61	* TrappedInTVLand: Anyone murdered by the killer becomes trapped in the black and white HillbillyHorrors film he originates from.
62	* VillainousBreakdown: Radford gets very angry when Bridget tries to show no pain for the torture he's putting her through.
63	* WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes: Babe is afraid of heights, and Harley is afraid of small spaces. Both phobias become a hindrance while attempting to escape the killer.
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Context Film / MidnightMovie