I often find myself lamenting the loss of the low budget genre fare on the big screen. Horror and comedies still plays regularly in that regard, but beyond that, we don’t see nearly as many low budget action and thriller films hitting the big screen in wide release as we used to. Midnighters falls into the latter category and as I was sitting there watching it, memories of ’90s thriller fare constantly came to mind.
20-25 years ago, this is the kind of film that would have opened nationwide as counter-programming against some blockbuster. It may have even starred a few familiar faces in the leading roles. The plotting is good enough and the direction assured enough that it would have become a late night cable mainstay in the decades to follow.
Such avenues aren’t really open to most films like Midnighters anymore, but that doesn’t make the film itself any less impactful. The thriller and crime movie tropes that it deals in throughout its running time are all well-worn narrative turns, but that matters not when the writing and acting remain on point for its duration. In the end, this is a very tight piece of work full of twists and turns that is well-executed from start to finish. It’s one of the best films I have seen at the festival this year and those who made it should be proud.
Midnighters is an original crime thriller. It is directed by Julius Ramsay, from a screenplay by Alston Ramsay. The film is produced by Jarret Blinkhorn, Michael Bowes, Alston Ramsay, Burke H, Ramsay, and Julius Ramsay. It stars Alex Essoe as ‘Lindsey’, Dylan McTee as ‘Jeff’, Perla Haney-Jardine as ‘Hannah’, Ward Horten as ‘Smith’, K.C, Faldasz as ‘Vic’, Andrew Rothenberg as ‘Officer Verone’, and Joseph Anderson as ‘Office Campbell’.
