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   Final Film Critique: 
   The Midnight Special
 
   Director: Patrick A. Prejusa
   Expected Rating: R due to language
   Distribution: None
   Budget: $2,000
   Genre: Horror/Comedy

   Running Time: 98 minutes

   Release Dates: December 1, 2006
   Website: http://www.monstercops.com
   Trailer: Click Here
   Review Date: April 1 , 2007
   Reviewed By: Monika DeLeeuw-Taylor

Final Score:
7.7
How do we critique films? Click Here To See.
Vampires. Warewolves. Zombies. Thought by many to be creatures of legend, but the men of the secret government organization known as The Shadow Company know better. This film follows the exploits of a team of Federal Agents, headed up by Lt. James “Cutter” Agpalo, these decicated (albeit somewhat comical) men make it their mission to rid the world of dangerous creatures. While sometimes they miss the mark or goof off a ltitle too much, in the end they always get their man (or monster.)
When dangerous creatures
threaten the world...
...the agents of The Shadow
Company are there to help.

Content
This movie is meant to be a training video for agents of The Shadow Company. As such it is shot documentary style, with various shots of each agent being interviewed, intercut with random footage of them out on patrols or dispatching of monsters and villans.

There are some great moments of humor in this film. It seemed as though there was no real script and that a lot of the dialogue was add-libbed. This can be a dangerous convention to use if your actos aren’t good at add-libbing or aren’t completely comfortable without a script. IN the case of The Midnight Special, however, it was definitely a good choice. These actors did a really good job at spouting off all manner of random things to the camera and to each other. One moment that made me laugh was when two of the agents are being interviewed and they begin to make fun of Cutter. The cameraman joins in on the banter, but the agents start to get mad at him since they think that only people who know Cuter should be allowed to make fun of him. As the cameraman backtracks, one agent – Nigel, the Scottish weapons man – looks to the other and very calmly says, “Let’s kick his ass.” The camera soon topples over and cuts out, resuming later after the supposed ass-kicking.

There are also numerous night-vision type shots of the agents in the car and the random conversation they are having, which is a really nice touch. Considering the subject matter of the film – fighting monsters – one would assume that a lot of the action takes place at night. One funny moment comes when, during an interview with one of the agents, he talks about how good they are and especially how tough their leader Cutter is. Then there is a cut to nighttime footage of Cutter and his cousin sitting in a car singing “The Twelve Days of Christmas.” This movie is full of many such mock-serious moments.

The only problem with the structure of this film is that the genre is a little hard to define and it starts to confuse and perhaps bore the audience after a while. This movie goes from being serious to mock-serious to downright goofy, then suddenly to very serious and back to mock-serious again. While the premise is good, it’s sometimes difficult to tell if one ought to be laughing or not. It might be a good idea to cut out some of the extraneous humor – funny though it is – and introduce more scenes that help to develop the plot a little better. I think the film would flow much smoother if it were more of a drama with moments of comic relief or a comedy with only a few small moments of drama. It also might be a good idea to try to re-structure the film in order to make it conform better to the standard three-act structure. While there are movie out there that don’t follow this rule, by and large most of them do. (And those that don’t have a very good reason for it.)

Finally, as a vampire lore enthusiast, I have a minor complaint with the way that vampires, werewolves (also known as Lycans), and zombies were dispatched of in the film. The Shadow Company agents dispel monster with special bullets known as MKs (Monster Killers), which are loaded with a mixture of silver and garlic. Garlic and silver are traditionally referenced as vampire repellants, and silver bullets are supposed to do away with werewolves, but the traditional way to kill a zombie is to destroy its brain.

However – speaking strictly about vampires – silver, garlic, and cross will only be effective if the vampire is from a certain clan and/or myth. Eastern European vampire myths and those that claim that Judas Iscariot was curse with vampirism after betraying Christ say that these vampires are susceptible to traditional repellants – Eastern Europeans favored garlic and a stake to the heart of the suspected vampire, while the Judas legend says that those vampires are averse to silver because of the 30 piece of silver Judas was paid, as well as to holy or blessed objects, and that the stake to the heart must be a piece of the real cross. However, there are other vampire legends in which these measures are not effective. For instance the theory that Lillith – Adam’s first wife – would later become Cain’s wife and that the two of them would start a race of vampires. Another theory – made popular by novelist Anne Rice – claims that vampires began in Ancient Egypt. Since both of these predate the time of Christ, these vampires are immune to holy objects. Finally, at the end of the film, there is mention made of a Chimera, and that it is a vampire, plus a werewolf, plus a zombie. In zoology, a Chimera is an animal that has been artificially produced by mixing cells from two different organisms. In Greek mythology, however, the Chimera was a female fire-breathing creature with the head of a lion, the body of a goat, and the tail of a serpent. As most people might not know about either usage, this part may get a little confusing for them. That being said, it might be a good idea to give a brief primer on the monsters that The Shadow Company battles with; not only for those who may be unaware of these myths, but also for those viewers who are monster enthusiasts (well, nerds, more like it) like me.

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