Heart of Midnight

This film has haunted me since I first saw it on cable. The acting is excellent, especially Jennifer Jason Leigh, and the story (from the author of The Color Of Night) is creepy and intriguing. I would give it a 7 1/2

From the opening scene of Matthew Chapman's Heart of Midnight, we know we are in for a visual tour-de-force. Jennifer Jason Leigh begins a new life in a bizarre, sinister, Lynchesque apartment complex, formerly occupied by her weird uncle, a pervert of sorts, whom Leigh slowly begins to remember.

Writer/director Chapman breathes sinister life into this creepy abode of a building. It seems to take on a life of its own in between the shadows, macabre lighting and ethereal noises that emanate from nowhere.

The film instantly draws us into a dark world where we are never sure what is exactly real and what is a figment of Leigh's imagination. Like any good psychological thriller, circumstances and events are revealed to us slowly, as we need to know them, and always advancing the plot.

More than anything else, the film sustains a brooding, macabre feel that always keeps us feeling uneasy, which seems to mirror Leigh's character. She is excellent here as a woman trying to comes to grips with both her mental illness and a sordid past. The musical score is both eerie, yet powerful, further drawing us into the film's creepiness.

Those who are fans of David Lynch and of movies that create a convincing, yet creepy world of their own, should enjoy Heart of Midnight.

I have seen this movie many times over the years. It's just the right genre of creepy for me, interesting old place the girl inherits full of old clothes, etc., it has that grandma's attic feeling about it. A little Psycho, a little sixties scary-movie feel. Then the psychological twist gets folded in, along with a nice little romance and good acting. This movie is not formulaic overall, when you consider that it's almost impossible to make a scary movie of any kind that hasn't been done before. Sure, familiar elements are there, but even though the setting is modern for the period, it has a bit of a Gothic feel to it. If you like suspense and a creepy plot without the gore, this is for you.

I was surprised to discover this was really a horror film. I don't know if it's labeled that, but that's what it should be called. It's spooky and creepy and just plain weird. With Jennifer Jason Leigh in the lead, I'm not surprised. She is pretty good at playing disturbed people as she showed later in "Single White Female."

For me, however, the best part of this film was the color. This film had a color palette that was fascinating at times. and the audio was good, too, with creepy sounds to go with the colorfully-painted nightclub/house interiors.

Some of the story left a bad taste in my mouth, just a bit too sordid in spots. With the exception of the social worker, there are no likable, trusting characters in this film. The one who is hardest to figure out is the one played by Peter Coyote.

Yet, despite this not being a particularly attractive story, the haunting audio and visuals keep sucking me back every 5-8 years into this bizarre tale.

Heart Of Midnight is a perverse, disturbing, highly underrated atmospheric thriller with a knockout turn from Jennifer Jason Leigh, a superb actress who isn't afraid of taking risks, going to some dodgy places and travelling to the dark side of the soul in her excellent work. In this film she plays a girl who inherits a dilapidated, out of business night club from her creepy dead uncle in a part of town that's the last place she wants to be in. She takes up residence their and attempts to fix it up, utilizing a lazy construction team that's about as productive as a paper mâché bulldozer. She realizes something isn't right about the place pretty quick though. There are various rooms in this scuzzy labyrinthine hell hole that look like they are for violent fetish rituals and shadowy, illegal stuff. She starts having vivid, surreal nightmares that begin to bleed into her waking life. When she calls the police a mysterious detective (Peter Coyote) shows up, but he's distant and only vaguely cooperative, adding to the mystery. I love this films atmosphere to death. There's an ambient, voyeuristic, abstractly horrifying aspect to the cinematography, that makes us feel like we're in a sleazy Gothic nightmare where nothing makes sense and every clue only points in the opposite direction. It's like Mullholland Drive meets 8MM by way of The Sentinal, with a touch of Ken Russell just for fun. It's not without it's absurd comic relief though. Frank Stallone (Sylvester's brother) is hilarious as a kooky police sergeant. At one point Jennifer walks into his office and the entire staff are in full song as he belts out a rollicking set on a ukulele. That's how delightfully strange this films vibe is. They just don't make these extremely atmospheric, enigmatic fright fests anymore. Or at least not with the hazy, scarily bizarre haunted house vibe they had back then. Be warned though: it goes to some pretty dark, messed up places and is definitely not for the average cookie cutter film goer. It's incredibly niche, relentlessly strange and altogether special just for those reasons. Anyone willing to step over to the dark, weird side, give it a go.