In 2012 Jeremy Gardener and Christian Stella made a name from themselves among horror fans with the ultra low-budget zombie film The Battery. I will be the first to admit that when I original watched the film I had mixed feelings. I was charmed by how the duo did so much with very little and while the dialogue was fantastic I found some scenes dragging. I’m sure the fact that by 2012 I’d had over five years of Zombie Fatigue didn’t head things.
I was apprehensive about After Midnight for this reason, but the concept was really an interesting one. Eventually intrigue took over and After Midnight jumped fairly high on my “To Watch” list of movies while at Fantastic Fest.
The film follows Hank (Gardener) as he deals with his girlfriend of 10 Years Abby (Brea Grant) leaving him with nothing more than a note in the Kitchen one morning. If that’s not hard enough every night some creature comes out of the woods behind his house and terrorizes him. No one seems to believe him about the monster, including the local sheriff who also happens to be his girlfriend’s brother.
The film manages to be Rom-Com with Horror elements and juggles all three genres so well that they all succeed in activating the intended emotions. The romantic moments are genuinely sweet, the horror elements are full of successful jump scares and the film is laugh out loud funny.
Using a non-linear storytelling to allow jokes (and scares) to have a stronger punch this is a movie that demands that you see it and even more so demands it be seen with an audience. For me it was the run-away hit of Fantastic Fest.
Below enjoy the interview I conducted with the team behind the movie