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Powerful

A lot more amusing than I thought it would be.

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Fred Olen Ray made his name in the 1980s directing sleazy thrillers just like this 2012 sleeper. In a lot of ways, After Midnight is a perfect extension of his Hollywood Chainsaw Hookers. But the sex and violence is replaced with better directing and a slightly clever ending. Sure, its a rip-off of the panned "I Know Who Killed Me" but its also well-executed for its cheap and fast production. Its campy enough and fast enough that you never get bored. And unlike earlier Olen Ray films, younger women might be interested in this too. FOR has been directing movies for LifeTime for the last decade so After Midnight has that cheesy, guilty pleasure quality. Perfect for a bored late night and the company of gossipy girls.

I was terribly conflicted watching this film. I'm still not sure if the acting or the dialogue were worse. A line containing "i'm gonna eat your face" is just as bad as Richard Grieco's phone-in performance that might have been helped by a shave and a shower or both. The top prize should go to Jeneta St. Clair, who was lucky enough to have her character killed off early in the movie. There are all sorts of unnecessary characters in the cast who contribute absolutely nothing to the plot or anything even remotely interesting to the film as a whole. It's impossible to single out anyone for worst performance. It really says something about your acting ability when you are overshadowed by Tawny Kitaen. I happened to see this on Netflix. So all it cost me was about 90 minutes of my life. It did make me miss the filmmaking genius of Ed Wood.

Its a basic murder mystery story with a sister trying to find out who murdered her sister. But it is held back because it appears to have been written by an amnesiac rhino. Characters actions make no sense because the script tries to make them all out as possible killers, so there's about 8 red hearings wandering around. A MAJOR plot point gets dropped halfway through the movie, like it was added last minute. The main girl becomes a stripper to find out what happened to her sister. And not a single line said by the owner, the barman, or the other strippers makes sense. Some of the lines are REALLY cringe worthy. The handful of effective scenes were immediately ruined. I didn't see the twist coming, but I wasn't really paying attention.As for the nudity, there's a lot of strip scenes. Maybe two are good. Not really worth it for the nudity.

I could not hear the mildest swear word in forty minutes of this film. I really don't like too much profanity, but it's absence does not match the characters, setting or situation. It's set in a strip bar, yet a sermon from my minister couldn't be as holy. The dialog is cleaner than an after-school special or religious drama. The strip routines are just ho hum and Catherine Annette is supposed to be a newscaster, not Annette Funicello. She talks like a child not old enough to have finished junior high school. The main frustration was too many flashbacks giving hints about who the murderer was.. always belonging to the person who supposedly hadn't witnessed the crimes. Fred Olen Ray used his own name in this film when he should have stuck with Nicholas Medina. He seems to be stressed out by some kind of personal hassles of his own behind the scenes in his career. Just like the mainstream names, low budget film makers often get spoiled by success so it dulls their edge or they take themselves too seriously.