Too much of everything

Strong and Moving!

Admirable film.

The biggest problem with this movie is it’s a little better than you think it might be, which somehow makes it worse. As in, it takes itself a bit too seriously, which makes most of the movie feel kind of dull.

Midnight Blue (1979) * 1/2 (out of 4) Yet another Italian rip-off of Wes Craven's THE LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT. This one here has three girls heading off to a private beach to spend the weekend relaxing. Three men end up showing up so they're added to the weekend party that includes sex and alcohol. Soon the women learn that the men are escaped prisoners and they then turn violent.You know, if you're going to rip-off a notorious violent movie it might be a good idea not to tame the subject down. MIDNIGHT BLUE is perhaps one of the least known rips and that's probably due to the fact that there's really not too much that happens here. Horror fans love the countless rip-offs that Italy has to offer but I think it speaks volumes that this film isn't known.The biggest problem is that the first forty minutes or so are nothing more than softcore sex scenes between the girls and the bad guys. They laugh. They talk. They have a good time and this stuff just drags on. Once the secret of who the guys are finally gets out there's still not much that happens. Once the "revenge" aspect starts its rather tame and there's not a single shocking thing that happens. The screenplay really doesn't offer up anything interesting except for the two dumb cops, another thing that was ripped from the Craven movie.

There! One quick glimpse at this user-comments subject line and experienced horror/cult cinema fanatics immediately know what type of exploitation movie we're dealing with here! Wes Craven's horror landmark "Last House on the Left" spawned a copious amount of cheaply made and rapidly edited imitations (mainly Italian ones) and "Midnight Blue" is easily the most forgettable one of them all. Actually this film already righteously resides in oblivion and only crazed smut-freaks, like myself, are stupid enough to dig it back up. "Midnight Blue" features the exact same story lines as all the other revenge films, except one of the female rape victims in this film is a practicing javelin thrower so you already know beforehand which attribute she'll use to extract her vengeance. Three young girls (not the world's sexiest ones, I may add) unwisely separate themselves from the rest of their group of touring athletes to spend extra vacation time in a house near a private beach. Whilst sunbathing topless, three men approach them in the hope to score a bit of random and casual sex and they do; even though two of them are old and downright hideous looking. Numerous gratuitous sex-sequences later, one of the girls coincidentally discovers the three are in fact fugitive criminals who needed a hideout place. When her attempt to signal the police fail, the three reveal their true malignant nature. Physical abuse, violence, humiliation and – eventually – retribution inevitably ensues… Not much to speak about here, "Midnight Blue" is completely mundane and by-the-numbers late 70's exploitation product. There's not even the slightest at building up tension, the cinematography looks ugly and the girls have more hair on their intimate areas than the average gorilla has over its entire body. Director Raimondo Del Balzo's input (who?) is entirely unnoticeable and none of the cast members has any other significant movie title on their repertoires. Not too hard to see why that is.

I'm a big fan of these films about people being held captive by a group of sadistic criminals and have been known to give out higher ratings than necessary at times. The likes of The Last House on the Left, House on the Edge of the Park, Death Weekend and Fight for Your Life are the best of the 'genre', with films such as The Last House on the Beach somewhere behind. Midnight Blue is a completely obscure entry, and that's hardly surprising since it's also not a very good one, in spite of some decent ideas. The plot is really quite routine, and focuses on three female athletes who are spending their summer holiday at a beach house. They are hit on by three men, who the girls begin spending time with. The six engage in sexual relations etc and everything seems well until one of the girls goes into town with one of the men and buys a newspaper; the front page of which reports three prison escapees, and features three pictures of the same men! The men hold the girls captive in the house, but being athletes, they have a few tricks up their sleeves...You can't expect too much deviation from the norm with films like this, but Midnight Blue is perhaps just a bit too routine for its own good. The final third does provide some entertainment as the girls turn the tables; but obviously this happened previously in superior films such as The Last House on the Left, so the film doesn't get many points for originality. Midnight Blue is rather gritty and director Raimondo Del Balzo is successful in creating a grim and foreboding atmosphere, which excellently compliments the plot. The locations used are rather bland, which isn't too surprising considering that this film was clearly a cheap production. The acting is not up too much, and the film really does lack a David Hess type figure - the guy with the moustache isn't quite up to standard. The best idea in the film features a javelin throwing lass who spearheads the revenge on the escaped convicts. This works fairly well, although again the film could have done with a bit more variety. I will say that this film is just about worth a look; but considering its obscurity, it's not really worth tracking down.

Three college girls out of a group on a tour decide against advice to detour for a weekend at a relative's posh villa. While on their private beach they are accosted by three young men. Since two of them Pier Luigi (Cantafora) and Bruno (Prete) are good-looking the girls unwisely invite them to stay for the weekend. It soon transpires that these men are not as well-behaved as they at first seemed. On a trip to the market one of the girls buys a newspaper and on the front page is an article showing the three men as escaped convicts all convicted of violent offenses, including murder. But Pier Luigi catches her trying to phone a warning to the other girls back at the villa. When they return to the villa the ugliness, violence and abuse begin. But these girls are in training for women's Olympic events: one of them throws javelins, so they have a few moves of their own in store for the vicious thugs. Midnight Blue is an improvement over the similar but much nastier "Last House on the Beach" of the previous year. It is still an unsettling and uneasy film to watch with tense fascination. You will want to know how it all turns out. Cantafora and Prete are memorable, as usual, even in these unlovely roles.