1. Plot

2. Cast

3. Release

4. Reception

5. Home media

6. References

7. External links

Midnight (also released as Backwoods Massacre)^[3] is a 1982 American exploitation horror film directed by John A. Russo and starring Melanie Verlin, Lawrence Tierney, and John Amplas. It is based on Russo's 1980 novel of the same name, published by Pocket Books.^[4] It follows a female hitchhiker en route to San Francisco who finds herself at the mercy of a backwoods Satanic cult in Pennsylvania who sacrifice young women in an insane attempt to try and resurrect the rotting corpse of their dead mother.

The film was shot on location outside Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and features special effects by Tom Savini.^[4] While not prosecuted for obscenity, the film was seized and confiscated in the UK under Section 3 of the Obscene Publications Act 1959 during the video nasty panic ^[5]

Plot

In rural Pennsylvania, a young girl screams for help in a rural meadow, her leg caught in an animal trap. A group of children, along with an older woman they call Mama, arrive, and one of the boys, Abraham, knocks the girl unconscious. Later, the children chant a Satanic prayer over the girl at the behest of their mother, and one of the children, Cynthia, proceeds to brutally stab her to death with a dagger.

Years later, teenaged Nancy Johnson runs away from her home after her stepfather Bert, a police officer, attempts to rape her. While hitchhiking to her sister's home in San Francisco, she is picked up by two benevolent young men, Hank and Tom. In the backwoods, they pick up a Baptist preacher and his adult daughter, Sandra, who they drop off at a cemetery to visit the grave of the preacher's wife. Sandra says a prayer and heads back toward their house; her father remains, and is stabbed to death by a man with a machete shortly after. Later, Sandra finds her father's corpse on their doorstep, and is murdered by the man with the machete.

At a local bar, Tom, Hank, and Nancy encounter racists who refuse to serve them because Hank is African-American. Short on money, the steal groceries from a small market and are chased by two local police officers. They lose the police, and drive onto a dirt road into the woods, where they witness the murderer carrying Sandra's corpse (covered in a sheet) into the woods. The three find a spot to camp overnight.

In the morning, Nancy goes for a walk, and returns to the campsite to witness two police officers, Luke and Abraham, arresting Hank and Tom, accusing them of murdering a local woman. They execute both of the men, and then pursue Nancy, who flees into the woods. She comes across a farmhouse, and inside finds a teenage girl, Cynthia, playing cards. She asks for a phone, and is directed to another room; when she enters, she finds the man she, Tom, and Hank saw earlier (whom she comes to find is named Cyrus) dismembering two men. She is confronted by the two police officers, who lock her in an animal cage next to another victim, Gwen Davis. In conversation, Gwen recounts Luke and Abraham's murder of two police officers the night before, and then stealing their uniforms.

Luke, Abraham, and Cyrus return to the campsite and burn the bodies of Hank and Tom. Later, Luke goes upstairs and has a conversation with his dead mother, a decomposed corpse the family keeps in a bed. The next day, he and Abraham kidnap teenager Sharon from her backyard. Meanwhile, Bert goes to a local police station to report Nancy missing. At the farmhouse, the family conduct a Black Mass at midnight and sacrifice Sharon in the name of Satan, as Nancy and Gwen watch from their cages. Nancy prays to God as they slit Sharon's throat before feeding her blood to their dead mother, attempting to resurrect her. They drive Sharon's body to a field the next morning and begin digging a shallow grave, an event witnessed by Bert, who is out searching for Nancy; he hears them discuss sacrificing Nancy and Gwen on Easter.

Later, while Cynthia sacrifices Gwen at midnight, Nancy recites the Lord's Prayer, and Luke drinks Gwen's blood. After the Black Mass, Luke prepares to bring Gwen's body outside, but is accosted by Bert, who clobbers him. He then holds Abraham and Cyrus at gunpoint, forcing Luke to retrieve Nancy. Just as Nancy is brought outside, Cynthia attacks Bert, stabbing him to death in the back. As he collapses, his gun fires off, shooting both Cyrus and Abraham. Nancy hides in the barn where Cynthia chases after her, not knowing exactly where she is concealing herself. However without warning, Nancy jumps out from behind her (seemingly almost out of nowhere) and in an expeditious act of revenge for the murder of her Stepfather, manages to gain the upperhand, then proceeds to slit Cynthia's throat with a sickle.

Luke regains consciousness, but Nancy is to quick to react and subsequently pours gasoline on the ground then lights him on fire. Nancy watches helplessly with satisfaction and reassurance as he burns to death while simultaneously screaming in agony. Severely traumatized by the whole ordeal, tears of both relief, anguish and despair begin to uncontrollably roll down Nancy's ashen face as she sighs to herself while realizing that the blood-curdling nightmare that she won't soon, or most likely ever forget is finally over. Knowing that her life will never be the same again, she presses her back up against the wall of a nearby wooden shed, and then looks in the direction of the camera with an incredibly forlorn look on her face until the credits begin to roll.

Cast

• Melanie Verlin as Nancy Johnson
• Lawrence Tierney as Bert Johnson
• John Amplas as Abraham
  • Daniel Costello as Young Abraham
• Greg Besnak as Luke
  • Chris Riblett as Young Luke
• John Hall as Tom
• Charles Jackson as Hank
• Doris Hackney as Harriet Johnson
• Lachele Carl as Sandra Carrington
• Robin Walsh as Cynthia
  • Debra Smith as Young Cynthia
• David Marchick as Cyrus
  • Billy Green as Young Cyrus
• Bob Johnson as Reverend Carrington
• Jackie Nicoll as Mama
• Amy Brinton as Girl in the Trap
• Ellie Wyler as Gwen Davis
• Maura Minteer as Sharon
• Doug Mertz as Billy
• Bud Mellot as Sheriff
• Lucian White as Man in Car
• Dan Kamerer as Gas Station Attendant
• David McCollough as Man at Station

Release

The film was released theatrically on December 31, 1982.^[2]

Reception

In 1993, Sight and Sound referred to the film as a "mediocre shocker".^[6] Film scholar Scott Aaron Stine called the film an "adeptly made low budget horror film, despite the simple arithmetic involved," and likened it to The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974).^[7] Tom Writer of Cinefantastique noted: "John Russo, whose solo filmmaking efforts have never come close to equaling his collaborative work with George Romero on NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD, deserves praise for this ambitious, low-budget film made in Pittsburgh."^[8]

Home media

The film was released on VHS by Vidmark Entertainment, and sold approximately $1 million worth of video cassettes.^[9] In 2005, the film was released on DVD by Lionsgate Home Video, before receiving a DVD release in the United Kingdom via Arrow Films in 2011.^[10]

References

External links

• {{IMDb title|0082744}}
• Midnight (1982) Horrorview.com DVD review. Accessed 6-23-2012.

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