The Midnight Hour

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The Midnight Hour
File:The Midnight Hour DVD.jpg
The Midnight Hour DVD cover
Written by Bill Bleich
Directed by Jack Bender
Starring Shari Belafonte-Harper
LeVar Burton
Lee Montgomery
Peter DeLuise
Dedee Pfeiffer
Jonna Lee
Dick Van Patten
Kurtwood Smith
Theme music composer Brad Fiedel
Country of origin United States
Original language(s) English
Production
Producer(s) Ervin Zavada
Cinematography Rexford L. Metz
Editor(s) David A. Simmons
Running time 94 minutes
Production company(s) ABC Video Enterprises
Capital Cities
Distributor Disney-ABC Domestic Television
Release
Original network ABC
Original release <templatestyles src="Plainlist/styles.css"/>
  • November 1, 1985 (1985-11-01) (television premiere)

The Midnight Hour (also known as In the Midnight Hour) is a 1985 American comedy-horror television film that aired on ABC on Friday, November 1, 1985, at 9:00-11:00 PM EST. It stars Shari Belafonte-Harper, LeVar Burton, Peter DeLuise, and Dedee Pfeiffer. The plot focuses on a small New England town that becomes overrun with zombies, witches, vampires, and all the other demons of hell after a group of teenagers unlock a centuries-old curse on Halloween. The film marks Macaulay Culkin's first screen role as an uncredited trick-or-treater.

The film was released on VHS and DVD by Anchor Bay Entertainment in 2000. In addition to an original musical number, "Get Dead", the film's soundtrack features songs by Creedence Clearwater Revival, Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs, Three Dog Night, and The Smiths.[1]

Plot

It is Halloween in the small town of Pitchford Cove located somewhere in New England, and five high school friends, Phil (Lee Montgomery), Mary (Dedee Pfeiffer), Mitch (Peter DeLuise), Vinnie (LeVar Burton), and Melissa (Shari Belafonte), plan on making it a night they will never forget. They steal outfits from the town's historic museum and come upon other old artifacts, including an old trunk encasing a paper scroll which contains an ancient curse. When Melissa, latent sorceress, recites the curse at the local cemetery, things take a turn for the worse.

The town's dead, led by Melissa's great-great-great-great-grandmother Lucinda Cavender (Jonelle Allen), a witch who was put to death 300 years earlier, rise up from their graves and roam the town. As Melissa, Vinnie, Mitch, and Mary enjoy themselves at their annual Halloween costume party, Phil encounters a mysterious girl, named Sandra "Sandy" Matthews (Jonna Lee), dressed in a vintage 1950's cheerleader outfit, who warns him that the whole town is in danger.

Meanwhile, Lucinda and the various undead crash the costume party. At first, nobody pays much attention to them since everyone is in costume. However, Lucinda begins turning the party guests into vampires, starting with her great-great-great-great-granddaughter Melissa.

When Sandy discovers that Phil and his friends recited the ancient spell in the cemetery, they realize that the whole town is being overrun by the living dead and decide to team up to break the curse. The only way to do so is to find the Grenville Spirit Ring inside the grave of a witch-hunter Nathaniel Grenville - who, coincidentally, was Phil's great-great-great-great-grandfather and slave owner of Lucinda Cavender her arch-nemesis - and use it to undo the curse. It is up to Phil and "good ghost" Sandy to restore the town to normal by midnight before it is too late and the curse becomes permanent.

Cast

Home media

Vidmark released The Midnight Hour on VHS in May 1989.[3] Anchor Bay Entertainment released it on Region 1 DVD on September 19, 2000.[4][5] The film was previously released on VHS by Anchor Bay Entertainment on July 20, 1999. Both releases of the film are out of print and are extremely rare among collectors.[6][7]

Reception

Gary Militzer of DVD Verdict called it "a mediocre made-for-TV horror/comedy" that was not worthy of being released on DVD.[5] Writing in The Zombie Movie Encyclopedia, academic Peter Dendle said, "Even zombie movie completists will have a hard time stomaching this lame made-for-TV drivel".[8]

Soundtrack

The film features the following songs, as adapted from the film credits:

References

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External links

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  4. ↑ Amazon.com, The Midnight Hour DVD release info
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