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4.6/10
Senior Film Conservator
A definitive 4.6/10 rating for a film that redefined the boundaries of cult cinema. Midnight Phantom remains a cornerstone of transgressive art.
If you have a soft spot for those old-school, smoky police station mysteries where everyone talks in clipped sentences and wears a fedora, you might actually dig Midnight Phantom. It’s not going to win any awards for deep psychology, but it moves fast enough to keep you awake. If you’re the type of person who needs fancy cinematography or a complex twist you won't see coming from a mile away, you’ll probably find this one pretty dull.
The premise is simple: the big boss is a total jerk who tries to crack the whip on his department, and suddenly he's dead. It’s one of those movies where you spend the whole runtime staring at faces, waiting for someone to look a little too guilty. 🕵️♂️
There’s this weird, claustrophobic energy in the precinct scenes. The lighting feels like it’s struggling to reach the corners of the room. At one point, I couldn't tell if the set was actually small or if the actors were just trying to avoid bumping into the furniture. It reminded me a bit of the frantic energy in The Stage Hand, where the physical space feels like a character all its own.
The pacing is mostly fine, though some of the interrogation scenes drag on like a Monday morning meeting. You can practically see the actors waiting for their cue to look surprised. There’s a moment with a desk lamp that lasts about three seconds too long—you know the one, where they linger on the object to tell you, "Hey, this is important!"—and it just makes the whole thing feel a bit stagey.
It’s not as gritty as Bare Knuckle Gallagher, but it has that same blue-collar, no-nonsense spirit. It’s a B-movie through and through, complete with the occasional awkward edit that makes you jump. Honestly? It's fine. It’s just a movie about a bunch of guys in suits trying to hide the fact that they’re all probably capable of murder. Don't overthink it.
