Wednesday, June 28, 2017

MIDNIGHT INTRUDERS (1973)

Lesson to future filmmakers: Opening a movie with nearly six minutes worth of airplane footage spliced together with horribly photographed scenes of two unattractive people having unenthusiastic sex is never a good idea.  Especially when your film only clocks in at 58:15 (when the closing credits start rolling).

After the unbelievably slow opening (I can only guess that at one point there was hardcore sex scenes that were later removed to make this film), the loving couple talk and then drive to the airport.  The husband leaves and the wife goes home.  Her lover comes over and they fuck with the excitement of two people overdosing on Ambien.  But then her husband comes home, quickly followed by two drug-crazed psychopaths.  Things get weird, but not too weird.

The basic idea for MIDNIGHT INTRUDERS is interesting (I would love to see a well-made reimagining of it where the returning husband is attacked in the garage by the psychopaths and then discovers his wife is cheating on him as he's shoved inside), but the whole film is too uneven to be truly enjoyable.  It really does seem like filler scenes from an early 70's porno.

Uneven pace, two naked females, funny voice over work that barely even matches the people's mouths...if at all (I loved it when the wife and the lover were fucking and the dude proclaims "You sure do have a nice ass, lady!"), one woman with massive hair, continuity errors, wildly uneven photography (some of it was straight up terrible and then other shots were impressive), uneven lighting, a foot massage, clothed showering, 70's interior design, cameraman's shadow multiple times, uneven music, two surprisingly good scenes back-to-back (the bedroom fight and then the tunnel chase...which was the highlight of the film), dumb ending.

It'd be easy for me to crap all over MIDNIGHT INTRUDERS and say it was a terrible film, but honestly, it wasn't that bad.  I would love to learn about the making of it.  I have no idea who, but there were a few people involved that had talent.

Recommended for curious film explorers only.