Review of The Midnight After (2014) by Steve W — 26 Jun 2016

I took a chance with this film and it burned me. From the director of Dumplings, (the cannibal segment of Three Extremes) Fruit Chan adapts an online novel about a satiric horror comedy where 17 people on a minibus go through a tunnel one night and come out on the other side, with the world gone.

After they visit some empty houses, they decide to re-connect at a restaurant as their hub, but they all keep secrets from each other. The movie starts off really good, developing the personalities and whisking the watcher back and forth with all these theories.

Are they dead? Are they in another dimension? Why are there gas mask wearing stalkers at every turn? Then people start to die by grisly CGI deaths, and the movie starts to slow down. There is a very dark;y comedic section involving mob justice, probably the highlight of the film.

But worst of all, it commits the cardinal sin of not giving a single answer, and the last two hours are a waste because it doesn't go anywhere. We don't find out anything, there's no pay off, so this film is better of skipped, despite the solid cast and occasionally amusing moment.