After Midnight

 **½
 
Unremarkable but decent anthology horror film has the wraparound story featuring a rather creepy "Psychology of Fear" professor, Edward Derek (Ramy Zada) offering a gathering to students in his class if they are interested in experiencing "real fear". He was going to have a unique class for the semester at the college of the film, but when he literally causes a jock to piss his pants (a diabolical gun experiment that *would not* be allowed in the schools today), Ed is told to dispense with the shenanigans.

So some of the kids from his class gather at his home, and hence offered are tales which make up this late 80s omnibus.

On the night of his birthday, Kevin (Marc McClure) agrees to take his wife on a "midnight ride". Well, sufficed to say, the car's tire flattens and the only place nearby is an old dark house [natch]. Five people were murdered in the infamous house, but Kevin's wife, Joan (Nadine Van Der Velde), scoffs at it as old wive's tales, nothing more or less. Kevin is genuinely nervous and afraid to go to the house and ask for help, while Joan encourages him to do so. What awaits them as there's a light that was on and eventually goes off?

This one uses the twist of "when you play around with someone's emotions and present a scenario where it appears a person loved is in danger unfortunate circumstances could arise from the surprise". Joan is pressed into the window of the house, with Kevin soon following in after her. When she goes missing, and Kevin has a hard time finding her, soon seeing some other "eerie" figure perhaps about to harm her (with her screams justifiably concerning him), he takes action, not realizing what all this is. A bloodless (but I found it quite hilarious in how much of a prop it looked) decapitation results. Ed gets jaws dropped to the floor after sharing this with his class. Nothing at all extraordinary about "Old Dark House", as it essentially Kevin looking for his wife, finding her in the worst possible way.

A student offers the second tale about four teenage girls (Judie Aronson, the delectable babe from Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter; Penelope Sudrow, the "Welcome to Primetime Bitch" asylum victim in A Nightmare on Elm Street: The Dream Warriors"; Tracy Wells of the television show Mr. Belvedere; Monique Salcido) who are "on the town", hoping to get into a club. Once denied of that, they get lost in the warehouse district of their city, encounter a filthy, sleazy street thug (Luis Contreras, who made a home in these kind of human wretch roles), and must outwit and flee the scuzzball's snarling Great Dane mutts. Imagine ferocious guard dogs with only one thing in mind: destroying human girls.

This isn't too shabby as it does unleash the dogs on one of the girls who is unable to outrun them. The car runs out of gas [natch], leaving them to run through alleys and dark, smoggy streets on foot while the ferocious dogs follow in hot pursuit. Aronson (who I think is the most attractive Friday gal of the franchise) is easy on the eyes while the Contreras (even though just representing the old street scum cliche) stereotype offers momentary skin-crawling.  I think this does the "night of hell" bit rather well, as the girls, not in their territory, must be resourceful in order to survive. "A Night on the Town" pits pretty girls against bloodthirsty killer canines...for me that is not all bad.

Pamela Adlon (I think fans of the comedian Louis CK's show will know her, and she voiced Bobby Hill on the popular Fox series, King of the Hill) is Cheryl, the friend of the spooky Allison (Jillian McWhirter), who I will elaborate more on in a few. Cheryl is the "I love being scared" friend, who seems excited about Ed's class, while Allison has deep reservations about her own involvement in the whole deal. Cheryl has her own story to tell.

Cheryl's story is "All Night Operator" starring the delightful Marg Helgenberger (CSI) as a telephone operator at a dying company, working the night shift when she receives a number of calls from psychopathic strangler Alan Rosenberg (who she married the very year of this movie). He doesn't like to be lied to and when she tells him she hadn't talked to a woman Rosenberg is obsessed with, he takes it not-so-well. Because he has been keeping watch for the woman of his obsessions outside in a phone booth not far from the hotel she currently resides, he knows Marg has been lying to him. So after disposing of her, Rosenberg sets his sights on Marg. Calling her boss, and informing the security guard does little to stop Rosenberg who is determined to visit upon his quarry a violence meted he feels she deserves. A broken leg, on crutches, Rosenberg soon in the building, Marg will try to use her brains to keep from being his next victim. This an old fashioned thriller; the 80s had plenty of these, for sure. It has all the elements of a real corker. I couldn't help but think of John Carpenter's "Someone is Watching Me" while viewing "All Night Operator" as a model in that movie was being stalked, with little to help her escape the guy pursuing her, it seemed. The final moment is a doozy. Rosenberg is in an atypical role here, but he does well with the stereotype he's given. He is your garden variety, bug-eyed creep, with a cold, demanding voice, and posits a stern presence that essays to us that he means business. Carries a slasher feel to it.

"Allison's Story" is the name of the wraparound that forms the anthology. If you have seen what I consider (as does many others) the quintessential anthology film, "Dead of Night", the wraparound has Mervyn Johns (Bob Cratchet in one of the all times greats, A Christmas Carol, playing opposite Alistair Sims) as a haunted lead protagonist who feels like something is off or about to happen. He can't put his finger on it. The final minutes of Dead of Night has all the tales presented in the film converging upon him, as he is among those characters talked about in each story. This happens in similar fashion to Allision in After Midnight. She has her own tale to tell, but when Ed presses her to share, she isn't quite ready. She feels like something will happen, and those involved in her tale are the students and professor.

I think it's safe to say that "After Midnight" is not "Dead of Night". Its stories aren't all that bad (if not all that spectacular), but the wraparound is a mess that doesn't quite cohesively blend Allison within the tales told throughout like "Dead of Night" did with Johns. While the latter was masterfully weaved together in impressive form, the former is cobbled bits without uniform. I appreciate its attempt as a homage to "Dead of Night" though, even if it doesn't succeed. Harryhausen might be proud of the ax-wielding skeleton of Ed after he's burnt alive while chopping up a jock student who was seeking revenge on him. The severed heads aren't all that convincing but Cheryl's talking head isn't all that bad. Allison is not a really thrilling or interesting character. I'm thinking it is the choice in the lead actress. Her look is right but her cold, dead-pan delivery leaves much to be desired. While Johns has a quality of harbinger of doom about him, as if he is the tool in something ominous ahead, Allison is an aloof weirdo with little personality.

Zada is framed and lighted to calculate on specific lunatic expressions. As if he were an escaped nutso from an asylum who happened to have a few degrees that landed him the Psych 102 class, Zada gets plenty of time up close and personal as he makes sure to widen his eyes and speak in a manner most foul. Similarly, Rosenberg is framed and performs almost identical to Zada. The photography is often quite cool...like when the lightning strikes and shows the jock holding an ax nearby the window of Zada's house as it rains. Quite professionally shot, with decent production value, this anthology is a MGM property, and it can be found quite easily. I remember seeing it showing up on IFC occasionally when they were showing a lot of horror and had a Grindhouse night on their schedule. I have seen better and worse than After Midnight, but fans of horror anthologies might find some value in this.