We watch a young couple sneak into a shed, have sex, and then someone breaks
in and kills the boy. Another couple was spying on them. The second girl looks
at her boyfriend, who is now shown in a theater seat, with a knife through his
neck. Murder number one is in a film - a movie within a movie. Murder two is
real.
Cut to two years later. The theater is about to reopen with a horror
festival. The new cop in town, Ron White, is besieged with letters asking him
not to allow it. We are introduced to numerous suspects, including the bad boy
who is in love with the daughter of the female projectionist, the sister to the
girl whose boyfriend was murdered, the theater owner's gay "friend," a weird kid
who works in the theater and wants the girl, the girls' father - a successful
director introducing his new film for the festival, an obnoxious newsman who has
a history with the cop, etc. People start dying, and we are able to cross them
off the suspect list.
Midnight Matinee (1990) is a Canadian film made for cable. It is
positioned as a horror film but at its heart is really a murder mystery. There
isn't that much gore in that the murders are off camera, and there is very
little terror or suspense, so those who expect a horror film will rate it low,
as IMDb readers did. On the other hand, if a B-movie whodunit is your idea of fun, this one will entertain you.
If you are not familiar with our grading system, you need to
read the
explanation, because the grading is not linear. For example, by
our definition, a
C is solid and a C+ is a VERY good movie. There are very few Bs
and As. Based on our descriptive system, this film is a:
