''The Midnight Man'' is a 2016 horror film directed by Travis Zariwny and starring

Gabrielle Haugh Gabrielle Genevieve Haugh is an American model and actress who portrayed the role of Jade Michaels on the NBC soap opera ''Days of Our Lives.'' Early life Haugh was born in Sacramento, California. Prior to moving to Los Angeles in 2014 upon tur ...

Lin Shaye Linda Shaye (born October 12, 1943) is an American film, television, and theater actress. In a career spanning over forty years, she has appeared in more than a hundred feature films. She is perhaps best known for her starring role as Elise Rain ...

and Grayson Gabriel.

Cast

as Alex Luster **Callie Lane as Young Alex *

as Anna Luster **Summer Howell as Young Annie *Grayson Gabriel as Miles *

Robert Englund Robert Barton Englund (born June 6, 1947) is an American actor and director. He is best known for playing the supernatural serial killer Freddy Krueger in the '' Nightmare on Elm Street'' film series. Classically trained at the Royal Academy o ...

as Dr. Harding **Logan Crenan as Young Dr. Harding *Emily Haine as Kelly **Abigail Pniowsky as Young Kelly *Kyle Strauts as The Midnight Man *

Louise Linton Louise Linton ( née Hay; born 20 December 1980) is a Scottish actress. She has appeared in the horror films ''Cabin Fever'' and '' Intruder'', in minor roles in the television series ''CSI: NY'' and ''Cold Case'', and wrote, directed, produced ...

as Annie Luster *Michael Sirow as Allen *Meredith Rose as Mary *Keenan Lehmann as Max

Production

Producer

Cassian Elwes Cassian Cary Elwes (born 7 August 1959) is a British independent film producer and talent agent. Early life and education Cassian Elwes was born on 7 August 1959 in London, England. He is the son of Dominic Elwes, a portrait painter, and Tessa ...

first acquired the rights to a remake of the 2013 film ''Midnight Man'', by Irish director Rob Kennedy, after seeing the film at a festival. Soon after, Elwes courted

production designer In film and television, the production designer is the individual responsible for the overall aesthetic of the story. The production design gives the viewers a sense of the time period, the plot location, and character actions and feelings. Wo ...

turned director Travis Zariwny to helm the film. Along with Kennedy's film, Zariwny noted similarities with his own film to '' The Midnight Game'', saying "the most terrifying thing as a filmmaker, is while I’m writing a story somebody else is making the movie that I’m writing". By March 2016,

and

boarded the film, rounding out a cast including

, Grayson Gabriel, Summer Howell, Keenan Lehmann, Meredith Rose, Kyle Strauts, and Michael Sirow. Production began that same month in

Winnipeg Winnipeg () is the capital and largest city of the province of Manitoba in Canada. It is centred on the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine rivers, near the longitudinal centre of North America. , Winnipeg had a city population of 749, ...

. According to Zariwny, a full day of filming and $80,000 were lost during production due to a drop in the

US dollar The United States dollar ( symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the officia ...

and a raise in the Canadian dollar.

Release

''The Midnight Man'' first debuted in

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

on September 30, 2016. The film remained dormant until

IFC Midnight IFC Films is an American film production and distribution company based in New York. It is an offshoot of IFC owned by AMC Networks. It distributes mainly independent films under its own name, select foreign films and documentaries under its ...

bought the distribution rights, setting the release date for January 22, 2018. The film released on VOD on January 19, 2018.

Home Media

Shout Factory Shout! Factory is an American home video and music company founded in 2002 as Retropolis Entertainment. Its video releases include previously released feature films, classic and contemporary television series, animation, live music, and comedy ...

released the film on

Blu-ray The Blu-ray Disc (BD), often known simply as Blu-ray, is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released on June 20, 2006 worldwide. It is designed to supersede the DVD format, and capable of st ...

and

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kind ...

on June 5, 2018.

Reception

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

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 Midnight Man'' holds an approval rating of 27%, with an average rating of 4.50/10, based on 11 reviews. Sara Michelle Fetters of ''MovieFreak'' praised the production design and claimed the film was a step up from Zariwny's ''

Cabin Fever Cabin fever is the distressing claustrophobic irritability or restlessness experienced when a person, or group, is stuck at an isolated location or in confined quarters for an extended time. A person may be referred to as stir-crazy, derived from ...

'' and '' Intruder'', she criticized the monster's rules and called the ending "unintentionally laughable". Frank Schenk, for ''

The Hollywood Reporter ''The Hollywood Reporter'' (''THR'') is an American digital and print magazine which focuses on the Hollywood film, television, and entertainment industries. It was founded in 1930 as a daily trade paper, and in 2010 switched to a weekly larg ...

'', said the film was "derivative" and "forgettable". For '' Dread Central'', Matt Donato wrote "''The Midnight Man'' is largely a robotic hide-and-seek slog". Writing for ''FilmInquiry'', Stephanie Archer complimented the performances of Shaye and Englund and Gavin Kelly's cinematography. Of ''TheFrightFile'', Dustin Putman wrote "''The Midnight Man'' isn't exactly deep and the film is not quite sure how to stick the landing, but as a trifle offering a stylish sheen and a handful of effective chills it proves more successful than not."

External links

* * *

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Midnight Man, The (2016 horror film) 2016 horror films 2010s supernatural films 2016 films American supernatural horror films 2010s English-language films Films directed by Travis Zariwny 2010s American films