Saturday, October 24, 2020

After Midnight (2019)

October Challenge Day 23: 

It's taken me a day to put this film together in my head. More alarmingly, it's also a romance and I HATE romance films. 

Romantic films bring out an unjustifiable rage in me - which is probably saying a lot more about me than the films, but I don't want to talk about it so let's move on.

I was, unsurprisingly, drawn to this film's poster. I overlooked the 'drama' genre tag and just focused on the poster for:

After Midnight

Whoa. This is a fun film! I loved it - I loved it even after the drawn-out romantic memories that interspersed the first half of the film. 

Here a guy is thinking back to the best times with his girl - gushy, cute, loving memories - after she suddenly disappeared. I was all, "yeah yeah, move on" with their cuddle sessions on a hammock, because there's also

A MONSTER THAT ATTACKS THE HOME EVERY NIGHT!

So scary folks. The visuals and atmosphere surrounding this man, who sits next to the door - waiting for this creature - is awesome. I was scared, I was on the edge of my seat, and then a loving memory would appear and again, I was all, "yeah yeah, move on". 

Overall a lot of typical romantic gestures make me uncomfortable, I don't like them. At all. Which is why this film is blowing my mind a little bit because there are a ton of typical romance in this film but also A VERY SCARY MONSTER, and and and and and - an ending with a typical romantic gesture that blew my mind so much I re-watched it about 5 times. At minimum.

I'm trying to relay what a dichotomy this movie watching experience was for me - while also relaying that this film is good! It took me a little bit to warm up to this creature feature but once I did, I was legit impressed with everything it shared. From atmosphere, dry but hilarious dialogue, to the *realness* of the experience, and why can I not stop loving that this couple brews their own wine ... I thoroughly enjoyed this film.

Again! This is one initially confused but ultimately delighted this cold, hard, creature feature loving heart. 

We have love, we have monsters, we have wine, we have a spooky house, we have a remote scary location, and we have a whole lot of smart dialogue - we have a bunch of wins in my book. 

You wooed me, After Midnight. And you did a damn fine job. [makes eyes] Cheers.

I watched this film on Kanopy, or use the Find It! Watch It! links on Horror Habit's side bar to locate where else you can find this heart-tugging feature. 

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