TEN MINUTES TO MIDNIGHT | FILM REVIEW
Dir: Erik Bloomquist (15, 73 mins)
A smalltown radio station becomes the gore-soaked setting for some existential vampiric horror, as a DJ performing her last broadcast starts getting a taste for blood. Caroline Williams, veteran of Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2, plays Amy, a punk rock disc-spinner who has always played the midnight hour slot. On this night, however, a hurricane rages outside, and it looks like she may have been bitten by a rabid bat on her way to work. She’s also got to contend with a creepy boss, William Youmans, and a younger woman, Nicole Kang, who seems to be her replacement. There’s the stake-making security guard Ernie (Nicolas Tucci), an apparently caring sound guy Aaron (Adam Weppler) and a Kafka-esque gathering oddness as reality starts to fragment. Hallucinations, tampon-sucking and throat-ripping abound.
There’s an examination of the plight of ageing women, with Amy exploited by those around her until she is no longer of any use: working at the radio station for little reward for 30 years, putting up with the advances of her slimy boss and the manipulation of others before being unceremoniously tossed on the scrapheap. Whether what unfolds is reality, or a fever dream brought on by a rabid bat or strange unseen solar flares, is open to question – roles are reversed, people might not be who they seem, and things become even more trippy as Amy’s nightmarish final night on air continues.
Notwithstanding some heavy-handed dialogue about having bites, people being trapped in places and gender roles and metaphoric meditations on death, this is still a quirkier film than initially expected, with a MeToo undertone. The flesh-ripping and low-budget B-movie bravura moments, along with some headscratching twists, make this a diverting if not entirely satisfying experience for horror fans.
Released via DVD and digital download Mon 24 May
words KEIRON SELF