Plantiana Yawn. Poorly Filmed Snooze Fest.

Beanbioca As Good As It Gets

Freeman This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

Darin One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

chrichtonsworld Midnight Killer is exactly what you would expect from Lamberto Bava.Full of suspense,thrills,twists,turns,red herrings.But also people (mostly women acting stupid). Some of the victims act in such an illogical manner that at one point you begin to think."Don't tell me she is that stupid.Go ahead,kill her already". The pace is really good and you are constantly wondering who the killer is. At one point you can deduce it for yourself. Although I must admit that Lamberto successfully made me doubt a couple of times. He uses some clever tricks to put you off the trail.And in this case I simply loved that.Of course the ending might be too far fetched for some especially since the explanation is fast and short.It did not matter to me since it was effective.Overall Midnight Killer is a very decent giallo that delivers.

BA_Harrison Even with the inclusion of several red herrings and an implausible motive, I still managed to guess the identity of the murderer in Lamberto Bava's The Midnight Killer way before the end of the movie. Maybe I've just seen too many giallos and have come to expect the unexpected, but I figure that the reality is that this just isn't a great example of the genre.Nicola, a policeman who discovers his wife is having an affair, is suspected of murder after his adulterous spouse turns up dead in her shower, having been stabbed with an icepick. After another victim turns up, killed with the same weapon, things do not look good for the poor copper, and he goes to his colleague Anna, a criminologist, for help. Anna believes Nicola to be innocent and suspects that the man really responsible is in fact Franco Tribbo, a murderer who supposedly died in a fire several years before...Despite some great cinematography, a fabulous pulsing score courtesy of Claudio Simonetti, and an attractive selection of young women destined to die nasty deaths, The Midnight Killer still manages to be something of a disappointment. For a giallo, the death scenes are relatively free of gore, the story is not nearly as complex or as clever as it might be, and there is a distinct lack of nudity.Worst of all, the film attempts (very poorly) to cheat its audience: at the end of the movie, the killer is revealed to be wearing a rubber mask in order to hide their true identity—despite the fact that their face is visible earlier on in the film and is clearly flesh and blood, even scowling and grimacing during one frenzied attack.The Midnight Killer is a decidedly average effort that will be of little interest to anyone but the most ardent fan of Italian horror cinema.

christopher-underwood It is not very original and it is impossible to predict the outcome because it is so ridiculous. But otherwise there is plenty to enjoy with lots of gory killings and if there is less flesh on display than one might expect this is probably because of the film's TV origins. The movie has style and is helped by a decent score and to Bava's credit he does keep the film moving and makes the police investigations as interesting as possible, particularly in this case perhaps because of their seeming involvement. Enjoyable and will be fun to watch again to see if too much cheating went on! You'll know what I mean when you have seen it, oh and the title has no relevance but do they ever in giallo?

Luisito Joaquin Gonzalez (LuisitoJoaquinGonzalez) In any industry, I think it's always hard to follow in the footsteps of your father. It must be especially tough though if he's an outright legend that's credited with not only defining a genre, but also launching one. No matter how well you and your dad get along, there's always going to be a little bit of friendly rivalry. Plus you can virtually guarantee that critics will always compare the works of a senior with that of his son. That's why it must've been hard for Lamberto Bava to escape the consistent comparisons and make his own name in Italian cinema. But Morirai a mezzanotte (Midnight Killer) goes someway to showing that talent certainly ran thickly through the genes of the Bava family. It's just a shame that Mario was not alive to witness his son's worthy addition to the category that he created.Now in all honesty, despite being extremely knowledgeable about the slasher cycle, I must admit that I have spent very little time researching the giallo. But I have still thoroughly enjoyed the likes of Mystery in Venice, Eyes without a Face, Too Beautiful to Die and Blood and Black Lace. It wasn't until after I'd been impressed with this rarity that I began tracking down other genre classics. So you could say that Midnight Killer was something of a turning point for me…It opens with a middle-aged woman shopping for some lingerie in a bustling town centre. Her husband Nicola (Leonardo Treviglio) sees her walking the street and begins following her. He buys a flower and waits outside the shop to give her a charming surprise. He certainly didn't expect to see another man enter the changing rooms and he is even more shocked when they sneak out of the rear exit and shoot off in the mysterious stranger's car. Later that night when she finally returns, the couple has a violent argument, which ends with Nicola storming out of the flat. After he has left, a black gloved assailant creeps into the apartment and brutally murders the promiscuous female with an ice pick. Inspector Pierro Terzi (the essential Paolo Malco) immediately suspects Nicola as the killer and so he enlists a psychological profiler named Anna Berardi (Valeria D'Obici) to help him crack the case. Berardi is a good friend to the Detective and she also teaches his daughter's college course. She doesn't think that Nicola is the guilty party, instead she suspects Franco Trebo – a serial murderer that was supposedly killed in a fire eight years earlier. As the bodies begin piling up round the city, it's looking more and more like Trebo is back from the grave. The most worrying thing for inspector Terzi is that this bizarre maniac seems to have a viscous taste for his youngest daughter Carol (Lara Wendel). Will he be able to stop the ruthless psychopath before he tracks down his daughter? Many critics have been disappointed with Lamberto Bava's directorial work since his debut feature (Macabre) pretty much flopped on release in 1980. But I believe that it's only because they always compare his filmography to the seminal works of his father. It's a shame that this murder mystery was not distributed to a much wider audience, as it is a little seen gem that deserves recognition. This is mainly due to a fantastic score from Brazilian composer Claudio Simonetti (of the Goblin fame) and some truly chilling set locations. The killer stalks his way through a neglected theatre, a sinister museum and a vacant hotel with relish, and the atmosphere-engrossing musical accompaniment helps to create some decent suspense. He also looks extremely menacing in a rubber facemask and his victims usually suffer at the hands of a stylishly directed set piece. The acting is fairly good from the leads and credit to Bava for enlisting Lucio Fulci-favorite Paolo Malco to join a comfortable cast. Many previous Italian giallos (Eyes without a Face/Massacre) have suffered from inept and poorly translated English voice-overs. Fortunately that's not the case with Midnight Killer, which was dubbed with considerable thought for non-Italian viewers.Fans of Italian gore cinema may be disappointed at the minuscule amount of the old gooey stuff. Also the lack of any nudity will probably switch off exploitation buffs that have been spoilt over the years by the likes of The New York Ripper. The mystery-aspect is not as complex and intelligent as many of its genre forefathers have proved to be either, which may cause bedroom Agatha Christies to search in the opposite direction. But still this is a refreshing and fairly absorbing entry that deserves to be seen by a wider audience. I do agree that Lamberto is a much better screenwriter than he is a director, but Midnight Killer is good enough to make his father proud if he had been alive to see it. Recommended