After Midnight (2019) Limited Edition Blu-Ray Review
Ten years into his small-town romance with Abby, bartender Hank wakes up alone in an empty home with nothing but a cryptic parting note for company. As Hank drinks himself into heartbreak and depression, Abby’s sudden departure soon becomes the least of his concerns as mysterious monster starts clawing at his door on a nightly basis.
As the threat outside his door intensifies, Hank calls on Abby’s police officer brother Shane and best friend Wade for help. With no trace of the monster – and his behaviour becoming more erratic – his friends remain unconvinced of the creature lurking outside, and Hank slips further into his own paranoia and loneliness.
AFTER MIDNIGHT had the potential to be a decent monster movie but instead chooses to become bogged down with constant flashbacks to lead character Hank (Jeremy Gardner) spending time with his beloved Abby (Brea Grant). If that wasn’t enough overkill in with the lovey-dovey department then we have prolonged scenes of Hank sulking about Abby’s decision to spend time away from him.
I couldn’t empathise with Hank, yes I get that he aches to hear from her, to have her return to their homestead, but with him constantly trying to contact her by phone and taking pot-shots at passing vehicles he comes across as having anger management issues and a bit of a potential stalker. From where I was watching Abby was right to have chosen to disappear.
It’s a shame that Gardner’s latest directorial offering veers towards such maudlin subject matter as when it does venture into monster territory there’s tantalising glimpses as to the potentially decent creature feature AFTER MIDNIGHT (originally entitled SOMETHING ELSE) could have been. Instead the film’s scare factor is diminished by too many sickly-sweet flashbacks and the constant need to thrust yet another random song onto the audience’s lug holes. As with Gardner’s THE BATTERY (2012) the film feels indulgent but whereas that film lacked a beating heart, this has plenty, in fact its overkill.
The film has a great support cast with Hank’s buddy Wade, played by Henry Zebrowski, stealing every scene he’s in. When the film finishes you are left feeling rather let down, yes there is a creature but it’s dealt with so quickly it seemed rather pointless actually having one. It ends up feeling like the monster subplot was a story strand that was tacked on to give an otherwise meandering romance flick a unique selling point. If you wanted to analyse this mediocre offering perhaps the monster was intended as a metaphor for Hank or perhaps Abby, but either way I couldn’t really care.
Gardner’s previous film THE BATTERY is also included in this exhaustive two disc set from Arrow Video and will be reviewed shortly.
TWO-DISC SPECIAL EDITION CONTENTS
• Limited to 2,500 units
• High Definition Blu-ray™ (1080p) presentations of After Midnight and Jeremy Gardner’s first feature, The Battery – available on Blu-ray for the first time in the UK
• Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
• Reversible sleeve with a choice of artwork designs
• Reversible fold-out poster
• Limited edition collector’s booklet containing new writing on After Midnight by William Dass and an archive piece on The Battery by Jeremy Gardner
DISC ONE: AFTER MIDNIGHT
• Original 5.1 and 2.0 Stereo audio soundtracks
• Audio commentary with directors Christian Stella and Jeremy Gardner
• Lakeland Florida Q&A, featuring Stella, Gardner, actors Ashley Song, Nicola Masciotra and Taylor Zaudtke, script supervisor Elise Stella and 2nd assistant director Juan Ortiz
• Pitching ‘Something Else’, Stella and Gardner pitch the character of Wade to Henry Zebrowski. Featuring an intro by producer Aaron Moorhead
• Self-Interview While Self-Quarantined During the Coronavirus Outbreak, brand new interview with actor and producer Justin Benson, recorded exclusively for this release
• Brea and Barak find Fantastic Fest Scooters, actors Brea Grant and Barak Hardley hunt down scooters following the Fantastic Fest screening of After Midnight
• Behind-the-scenes featurette
• Outtakes
• Behind-the-scenes image gallery
• Official international and UK trailers
DISC TWO: THE BATTERY
• Original stereo audio
• Audio commentary featuring writer, director and actor Jeremy Gardner, producer and actor Adam Cronheim and director of photography Christian Stella
• The Making of The Battery, feature-length 90-minute documentary on the making of the film
• Featurette on the music of The Battery
• Outtakes
• Theatrical trailer