''Midnight in the Switchgrass'' is a 2021 American

crime thriller Crime fiction, detective story, murder mystery, mystery novel, and police novel are terms used to describe narratives that centre on criminal acts and especially on the investigation, either by an amateur or a professional detective, of a crime, ...

film directed by

Randall Emmett Randall Emmett (born March 25, 1971) is an American film producer and television personality. He is the chairman and co-founder of production company Emmett/Furla/Oasis Films. Emmett is best known as the producer of the films ''2 Guns'', ''Sil ...

in his directorial debut from a screenplay by Alan Horsnail. It stars

Megan Fox Megan Denise Fox (born May 16, 1986) is an American actress. She made her acting debut in the family film '' Holiday in the Sun'' (2001), which was followed by numerous supporting roles in film and television, such as the teen musical comedy ...

Bruce Willis Walter Bruce Willis (born March 19, 1955) is a retired American actor. He achieved fame with a leading role on the comedy-drama series ''Moonlighting'' (1985–1989) and appeared in over a hundred films, gaining recognition as an action hero a ...

Emile Hirsch Emile Davenport Hirsch (born March 13, 1985) is an American actor. He played Chris McCandless in '' Into the Wild'' (2007). Other notable film roles include '' The Girl Next Door'' (2004), ''Lords of Dogtown'' (2005), ''Alpha Dog'' (2006), ''Spe ...

Lukas Haas Lukas Daniel Haas (born April 16, 1976) is an American actor and musician. His acting career has spanned four decades, during which he has appeared in more than 50 feature films and a number of television shows and stage productions. Early life ...

, Colson Baker and Lydia Hull. It was released in limited theaters and

video-on-demand Video on demand (VOD) is a media distribution system that allows users to access videos without a traditional video playback device and the constraints of a typical static broadcasting schedule. In the 20th century, broadcasting in the form of ...

on July 23, 2021, by

Lionsgate Lions Gate Entertainment Corporation, doing business as Lionsgate, is a Canadian-American entertainment company. It was formed by Frank Giustra on July 10, 1997, domiciled in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada and is currently headquartered ...

and was critically panned upon release.

Synopsis

Based on the true story of

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...

's most dangerous serial killer, the film has the dramatization translocated to

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

FBI The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic intelligence and security service of the United States and its principal federal law enforcement agency. Operating under the jurisdiction of the United States Department of Justice, t ...

Agent Karl Helter and his partner, Rebecca Lombardo, are very close to busting a sex trafficking ring. When they realize their investigation has crossed the path of a brutal serial killer, they team up with

Florida Department of Law Enforcement The Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) is a state-wide investigative law enforcement agency within the state of Florida. The department formally coordinates eight boards, councils, and commissions. FDLE's duties, responsibilities and ...

Agent Byron Crawford, who has worked for years on the case. When Rebecca herself is abducted by their target and her life hangs in the balance, Byron has preciously-few hours to piece together the last clues and to put an end to the infamous " Truck Stop Killer."

Cast

as Rebecca Lombardo *

as Karl Helter *

as Byron Crawford *

as Peter * Colson Baker as Calvin *

Sistine Stallone Sistine Rose Stallone (born June 27, 1998) is an American actress and model. She made her acting debut as Nicole in the survival horror film '' 47 Meters Down: Uncaged'', directed by Johannes Roberts. Career In 2016, she signed to IMG Models, an ...

as Heather *

Michael Beach Michael Anthony Beach (born October 30, 1963) is an American actor. He has appeared in films '' Lean on Me'' (1989), ''One False Move'' (1992), ''Short Cuts'' (1993), ''Waiting to Exhale'' (1995), ''A Family Thing'' (1996), ''Soul Food'' (1997), ...

as Detective Yarbrough *

Caitlin Carmichael Caitlin Elizabeth Carmichael is an American actress. Life and career Carmichael was born in Tifton, Georgia. She has appeared in a number television shows and films, including ''Shake It Up'', ''iCarly'', ''Hot in Cleveland'', '' Law & Order: ...

as Tracey Lee * Alec Monopoly as Suspect / Tall Man * Welker White as Ms. Georgia Kellogg * Jackie Cruz as Suzanna

Production

On January 22, 2020, it was announced that film producer

would make his directorial debut on the film, with

set to star.

and

were cast on February 16, with filming beginning on March 9 in Pensacola, Florida. On March 12, 2020,

, Colson Baker,

, Welker White, Alec Monopoly, and Jackie Cruz joined the cast of the film. On March 16, production on the film was halted because of the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

. Production on the film resumed on June 29.

Release

''Midnight in the Switchgrass'' had its world premiere on June 13, 2021, at the

Tampa Theatre The Tampa Theatre is a historic U.S. theater and city landmark in Downtown Tampa, Florida. Designed as an atmospheric theatre style movie palace by architect John Eberson, it opened on October 15, 1926. The theatre features a wide range of ind ...

, where it was the closing night film of the

Gasparilla International Film Festival Gasparilla International Film Festival (GIFF, stylized as gịff) is an annual independent film festival that takes place in Tampa Bay area, Tampa Bay, Florida. The festival is run by the Tampa Film Institute, a non-profit organization dedicated t ...

. In attendance were Randall Emmett, Alan Horsnail, Timothy C. Sullivan, Lukas Haas, Emile Hirsch, Caitlin Carmichael, and Katalina Viteri. The screening was followed by a 40-minute Q & A moderated by Tyler Martinolich. The film was later released in limited theaters and VOD on July 23, 2021, by

. Megan Fox did not attend the film's Los Angeles premiere and cited concerns regarding the COVID-19 pandemic. Machine Gun Kelly did not respond, but on

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

, he mentioned that he does not talk about a movie if it is trash. In response, Emile Hirsch posted a screenshot of Machine Gun Kelly's tweet on Instagram and stated, "We definitely disagree here, Colson! achine Gun KellyNothing but respect to you guys though - especially because you and Megan are so f#*king great in this movie."

Box office

As of March 14, 2022, ''Midnight in the Switchgrass'' grossed $97,518 in Portugal and Russia, plus $636,769 in home video sales.

Reception

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, the film holds an 8% approval rating, based on 38 reviews, with an average rating of 3.40/10. The website's critics consensus read,: "Dull and predictable, ''Midnight in the Switchgrass'' squanders an evocative setting and some committed performances on a would-be thriller that rarely raises a sweat." On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

, it has a score of 24 out of 100, based on reviews from 9 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews". Robert Kojder of Flickering Myth said that "the fact that ''Midnight in the Switchgrass'' is an all-around terrible movie comes as no surprise, but there is a sting since for star Megan Fox, it's coming off a career-best and physically impressive performance in '' Till Death.''" Jackie K. Cooper rated the film 5 out of 10 saying that "Megan Fox steals the show while Bruce Willis is missing in action." In his review for ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'', Ben Kenigsberg said that "the atmosphere is thoroughly sleazy without being distinctive, and everything about the movie - the emotionless line readings, the half-baked back stories - exudes a terse functionality." Waldemar Dalenogare Neto rated the film 2 out of 10 and stated that it is one of the "most generic thrillers of the year (...) I really don't know yet what the purpose of this film is other than the fact that it tries to profit from Megan Fox's image and Bruce Willis." In a positive review for the ''San Jose Mercury News'', Randy Myers said that "it's worth a watch if you like serial killer thrillers but don't expect to see anything revolutionary going on." Jesse Hassenger was less complimentary in his review for ''

Paste Magazine ''Paste'' is a monthly music and entertainment digital magazine, headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, with studios in Atlanta and Manhattan, and owned by Paste Media Group. The magazine began as a website in 1998. It ran as a print publication fro ...

'' by saying that it looks like the filmmakers are trying to punish Megan Fox for her performance in ''Till Death'', and he concluded, "It's entirely because of Fox that ''Switchgrass'' stays compelling far longer than it should, raising vain hopes that she'll be able to work it into something pulpier and more defined. Despite the eventual disappointment, I hope she sticks with genre fare a bit longer, and finds some more shackles to break."

Accolades

References

External links

* {{IMDb title, 11656220 American crime thriller films 2021 directorial debut films 2021 independent films 2021 films Films set in 2004 Films set in Florida Films shot in Puerto Rico Film productions suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic 2021 crime thriller films Lionsgate films 2020s English-language films 2020s American films English-language crime thriller films