Plot in one sentence: police inspector Paolo Malco is trying to save his dumb teenage daughter Lara Wendel from a serial killer.
Despite some diabolically bad acting which Italian genre enthusiasts have come to expect from 'John Old Jr.' productions, MORIRAI A MEZZANOTTE starts out nicely enough.
There's a bit of violence, great score by Simonetti and the pacing is good.
It all chugs along well until about 25 minute mark when we're introduced to an obligatory group of soon-to-be-slashed teenagers led by Lara Wendel. In case you forgot, she's the girl that's been first mauled by a dog and then hacked to death in TENEBRAE. But even then MORIRAI A MEZZANOTTE remains fairly enjoyable for what it is.
The killer seems to have found his match in this
jaw-dropping episode
People that made MORIRAI A MEZZANOTTE from a modest giallo to an enjoyable, special film are:
GIANLORENZO BATTAGLIA
Lamberto Bava’s regular cinematographer.
Battaglia photographed it all: from A BLADE IN THE DARK to DEMONS 1 and 2 (and even DEMONS 3: THE OGRE) to the shitty late 80’s TV stuff such as GRAVEYARD DISTURBANCE. He also served as camera operator on some true classics, including Argento’s INFERNO.
Battaglia’s contribution to MORIRAI A MEZZANOTTE is immense.
He gave this flawed film a look which makes it worth revisiting.
His camera expertly captures the chill of desolate wintry exteriors.
Watching the film in a remastered print allows one to appreciate the subtle colour palette as well as precise framing.
Battaglia photographed it all: from A BLADE IN THE DARK to DEMONS 1 and 2 (and even DEMONS 3: THE OGRE) to the shitty late 80’s TV stuff such as GRAVEYARD DISTURBANCE. He also served as camera operator on some true classics, including Argento’s INFERNO.
Battaglia’s contribution to MORIRAI A MEZZANOTTE is immense.
He gave this flawed film a look which makes it worth revisiting.
His camera expertly captures the chill of desolate wintry exteriors.
Watching the film in a remastered print allows one to appreciate the subtle colour palette as well as precise framing.
GIAMPAOLO SACCAROLA
Saccarola is perhaps best known as Arthur who “was looking for keys” in Fulci’s gore classic THE BEYOND.
In MORIRAI A MEZZANOTTE he’s just another red herring: a dodgy watchman (and former sex offender) at an opera house where a brutal murder has been committed.
Not a great film, but immensely watchable.
Fun appearances by some familiar faces in supporting roles.
My favourite(together with MACABRO) among the often unimaginative work of Lamberto Bava.
Boring and stealing ideas from Argento's movies. I think that the mixer scene is the only reason for watching it.
ReplyDeleteAlways nice to have you around, Riccardo:)
ReplyDeleteI would sum up the majority of Lamberto Bava's work as boring and derivative.
But there are two or three films, that, despite flaws, are enjoyable.
For me MORIRAI...belongs in that category.
Admittedly second-rate, it's still miles above LE FOTO DI GIOIA or the pathetic recent THE TORTURER.
I've never even heard of this one, but then again L. Bava is not a director whose work I seek out. I do now Lara Wendel though! Not just from TENEBRE, but from the awful SATAN'S WIFE, where she played the bratty teenager who was supposedly the seed of Lucifer, or something like that.
ReplyDeletehttp://deathrattlethirteen.blogspot.com/2010/08/satans-wife-un-ombra-nellombra-1979.html
On a side note, nice to see a new post from you, Alex! How have you been?
Aaron, I did read your post about SATAN'S WIFE a while back!
ReplyDeleteIt sounded like a very odd film.
MORIRRAI A MEZZANOTTE has a cool Simonetti score but it is decidedly a minor film. At times it's exactly this sort of cinema that I want to write about.
Will have to confess my dislike of Lara Wendel.
Nothing wrong with her personally, but she had the bad lack of landing lead roles in some of the crappiest late 80's Italian genre films, namely:
THE RED MONKS (one of those 'Lucio Fulci presents' jobs)
ZOMBIE 5: KILLING BIRDS (a fucking shit film with direct sound produced by Filmirage)
GHOSTHOUSE (another shit film with direct sound produced by Filmirage, but this one has grown on me lately)
I'm spending a lot of time away from home these days, with no proper Internet access so blogging is going a bit tough. But yeah, I'm still around:) Although not as actively as I would like to be.
Always nice to read your new reviews!
ReplyDeleteWell, I also think that Lamberto Bava is overrated (he just can't be compared with his father), but between his films I like "Macabre", "A blade in the dark" and (in trashous way) "Demons" and consider watchable "Le foto di Gioia" and "Body puzzle" (I haven't seen "The torturer" and "Ghost son" yet).
Totally agree about MACABRE, that film is for me his very best. The only film in which Lamberto seemed to have cared for the acting side of things, and succeeded in making something special.
ReplyDeleteA BLADE IN THE DARK I also watch often, I think that film is good inspiration for independent low-budget filmmakers.
LE FOTO DI GIOIA is the one I find weak and lazy.
Even all the tits can't save it for me.
I haven't seen GHOST SON, either.
Looks sort of boring and mainstream to me.
Really, don't bother about THE TORTURER.
It starts out very promisingly, and than becomes such helpless trash that one can think Bruno Mattei(may his soul rest in peace) took over directing it:))
I loath Macabro (sorry), but this one is a favorite! But I have a tendency to like giallos from the eighties :)
ReplyDeleteHello Fred:)
ReplyDeleteNow I will have to find the strength to cope with the fact that you loathe MACABRO:)
It's not a movie for everyone, I suppose.
Reasonably subtle, and can easily seem boring.
Didn't you think Stanko Molnar was great in the lead role though?
Glad you enjoy MORIRAI A MEZZANOTTE!
It's a lot of fun and quite stylish for it's era.
No love for DEVILFISH?
ReplyDelete@Riccardo: Don't bother with GHOST SON. It's awful. There is a pretty cool scene of a baby projectile vomiting though.
Have to admit to not having seen DEVILFISH yet.
ReplyDeleteBut, on a Michel Sopkiw note, I have some love for BLASTFIGHTER:)
Trashfilmaddict that I am, I may actually bother with GHOST SON one day... but not before I saw DEVILFISH!
I actually haven't seen it yet either, but thought I'd throw that title out there. I do plan on seeing it some day though. In the realm of Italian JAWS rip-offs it can't be worse than TENTACLES. GHOST SON isn't a complete waste of time (I know Richard from Cinema Somnambulist is a fan), but I just thought it was kinda boring.
ReplyDeleteI am a total Italian JAWS rip-off virgin(probably because the original JAWS bored me stiff) and only read about TENTACLES.
ReplyDeleteWhat surprised me when reading about GHOST SON was the biggish names in the cast.
I should imagine those actors are wasted.