morrison-dylan-fan
Having found the last two Gialli that I have seen of Lamberto Bava (A Blade In The Dark and Body Parts) to be fun,easy going,films,I decided to take a look at this near forgotten Giallo of his,which despite Bava's clear dislike for the final movie, (Bava is credited as John Old Jr) looked like a Giallo worth taking a midnight ramble with.The plot:Secretly catching his wife trying some suggestive bra & panties on in front of another man,police officer Nicola Levi violently confronts his wife Sara in their flat over who the mystery man was that she was with.Getting no answer at all from Sara,Nicola starts fighting with her,until Sara gives the KO blow by stabbing him in the shoulders with an ice pic.Not feeling too cheerful about being stabbed,Nicola walks out of the flat and goes to visit a friend.Trying to relax after the blazing fight,Sara decides to take a shower.Shortly after starting the shower,a stranger suddenly appears and uses the ice pic to murder Sara.As the police start trying to gather details about the murder,some of the officers start to wonder,if this killing is in fact a "sign" of a long dead serial killer coming "back" from the dead?.View on the film:For the first 30 minutes of this smooth Giallo,screenwriters Lamberto Bava and Dardano Sacchetti keep the film moving at a very speedy pace,with Bava delivering some eye-catching stylised shots in Nicola and Sara's flat during the rough looking fight,whilst also giving sneak peaks at the motives and face of the killer.Whilst the rest of this Giallo is far from bad,Bava seems to lose most of the excitement that he has for the movie once it crosses the 30 minute mark,which with the exception of one or two unique moments, (such as a girl attacking the killer with a whisk!) ends up feeling like a middle of the road TV episode,with an almost too terrible to watch Scobby Doo pulling off the mask "twist".
christopher-underwood
It is not very original and it is impossible to predict the outcome because it is so ridiculous. But otherwise there is plenty to enjoy with lots of gory killings and if there is less flesh on display than one might expect this is probably because of the film's TV origins. The movie has style and is helped by a decent score and to Bava's credit he does keep the film moving and makes the police investigations as interesting as possible, particularly in this case perhaps because of their seeming involvement. Enjoyable and will be fun to watch again to see if too much cheating went on! You'll know what I mean when you have seen it, oh and the title has no relevance but do they ever in giallo?
HumanoidOfFlesh
Nicola's beautiful wife is brutally murdered in the shower immediately after he discovers that she has been cheating on him.Naturally the police assume Nicola is responsible, but the possibility of another suspect becomes more and more likely..."You'll Die at Midnight" is one of the better Lamberto Bava's giallo efforts.The film is surprisingly stylish and the killings are quite gory.The film borrows a lot from Dario Argento's brilliant "Tenebre",although I enjoyed it more than earlier Bava's giallo "A Blade in the Dark".The murder of a young woman who has underwear stuffed down her throat is an obvious nod to the first killing scene in "Tenebre".The stalking scene in the abandoned theater is truly creepy.The score by Claudio Simonetti is great and the acting is decent with Valeria D'Obici and Leonardo Treviglio in the leading roles.The story is pretty derivative,but "You'll Die at Midnight" shouldn't disappoint fans of Italian giallos.7 out of 10.
Phroggy
A psycho strikes again, except that he's been dead for a while. though the scenario just goes through the motion, this movie manages to be sometimes effective (especially the ending in a deserted building by the sea) though not really creepy.Basically, it has the feel of a (honest) TV movie. Maybe the post-Scream crowd will enjoy this. Maybe
AD
