Midnight is a 1982
horror exploitation film directed by John Russo based on
his book of the same name. The film follows a young woman named Nancy who runs away from her sexually abusive stepfather and ends up riding with two young men in rural Pennsylvania. Unbeknownst to them, they end up at the mercy of a satanic backwoods cult.
Tropes in Midnight:
- A Fête Worse than Death: The ritual sacrifices in the movie are carried out specifically on Easter Sunday.
- Bear Trap: The opening scene shows a young girl crying out with her leg in a bear trap.
- Big, Screwed-Up Family: The main antagonists of the movie are a family of murderous satanists.
- Black Dude Dies First: The first character to die is Reverend Carrington who is black. The next to die in order are Sandra Carrington and then Hank who is also black (though his death is later in the movie).
- Blood Magic: The women's throats are slit and their blood is poured into a goblet in order for the family to feed to their mother's corpse in an attempt to resurrect her.
- Confessional: The introduction of Nancy shows her confessing to a priest about having premarital sex with her boyfriend.
- Dead Guy on Display: The mother.
- Deadly Bath: Technically. The Reverend's daughter, Sandra, is killed in her bathtub but she wasn't bathing there to begin with and was instead, dropped in (and then murdered).
- Deadly Road Trip: Nancy hitches a ride with Hank and Tom in a road trip that doesn't exactly end well.
- Dehumanization: The women kidnapped by the family are put in cages and treated like animals.
- Don't Go in the Woods: "Lord have mercy if you decide to camp out around here! Didn't you hear me say that some people have been murdered?"
- Fiery Cover Up: The dead bodies are put in a pile and then set on fire.
- Forced to Watch: A woman is forced to watch her ambiguous relative get stabbed to death in front of her.
- Hillbilly Horrors: The centerpiece of the film naturally being the murderous backwoods family.
- Hollywood Satanism: A classic example complete with painted on forehead pentagrams, sacrifices of virgin women, and cult-ish black hooded cloaks.
- Human Sacrifice: Those humans are indeed sacrificed. Additionally Virgin Sacrifice is mentioned in passing but it's treated more as a bonus rather than a requirement.
- Product Placement: A quick one but there is a closeup shot of Hank drinking a Dr.Pepper.
- Religion of Evil: Certainly evil if it requires the blood of dead virgins.
- Slashed Throat: The family's modus operandi in the context of sacrifice.
- Stalker Shot: When Cyrus finds the Reverend in the graveyard and when Luke and Abraham are looking for potential victims.
- The Family That Slays Together: The whole family gets in on it! Even Dear ol' Mom!
- The Killer Becomes the Killed:(Rather killers) Every single character except for Nancy is killed by the end of the film.
