Midnight
Son is probably not done any favours by its own promotional
materials, which call the film 'horror/romance', make mention
of the fact that the film is due out in time for Valentine's day
and and saddle the film with a sleeve that is more Mills and Boon
than horror – not to mention the rather catchpenny title
that certainly seems to fit in with the bland romance genre. It
all brings to mind the likes of Twilight and a bunch of other
anaemic supernatural melodramas, and so is hardly inspiring. But
while there is a romance at the heart of the film, don't expect
sparkly vampires or moody romantic heroes in this film.
Instead, Midnight Son is a dark, restrained and
minimalist, lo-fi study of alienation and disease – the
disease in this case being vampirism, which has infected Jacob
(Zak Kilberg) through unknown means. It takes him a while to work
out why he's losing weight despite eating furiously and why the
sun burns his skin, but a taste of blood at least offers him a
solution to his illness. Not that Jacob is a predator –
he tries to get his blood through shady deals with a hospital
worker. But inevitably, things start to get out of hand, and his
clumsy, faltering relationship with equally dysfunctional coke
head Mary (Maya Parish) isn't made easier by his gradual discovery
of what his condition entails.
This is pleasingly low key horror, filmed mostly in tight close-ups
and restraint – the moments of silence, the naturalistic
dialogue and performances and the banal nature of Jacob's life
are a satisfying alternative to the sound and fury of much modern
horror. But at the same time, director Scott Leberecht manages
to avoid stumbling into the self-congratulatory mumblecore approach
that a depressing amount of modern horror takes, instead allowing
the story to build steadily – with increasing violence and
action – before reaching a satisfactory conclusion.
In
terms of atmosphere, you can't help but think of Romero's Martin,
especially early on, though this film is far less ambiguous about
its protagonist – while undead tropes like the lack of a
reflection are pointedly dismissed, Jacob is certainly a vampire.
However, the nature of vampirism is up for debate here –
while shown to be a transmittable infection, it's unclear if this
is the traditional supernatural vampirism or simply another modern
disease. Indeed, the film often resembles – in terms of
atmosphere at least – Todd Haynes' Safe,
another 'horror' film in which the main character seems to suffer
from an allergy to modern life.
Admittedly, the introduction of a second vampire late into the
story briefly threatens to derail Midnight Son
into ordinariness, but the film manages to stay on the right path,
and reaches an ending that, if not exactly surprising, is at least
satisfying. An intimate little treat, this is the ideal antidote
to the increasingly antiseptic vampire films that have come to
dominate the genre, and for that alone deserves your attention.
Midnight
Son is probably not done any favours by its own promotional
materials, which call the film 'horror/romance', make mention
of the fact that the film is due out in time for Valentine's day
and and saddle the film with a sleeve that is more Mills and Boon
than horror – not to mention the rather catchpenny title
that certainly seems to fit in with the bland romance genre. It
all brings to mind the likes of Twilight and a bunch of other
anaemic supernatural melodramas, and so is hardly inspiring. But
while there is a romance at the heart of the film, don't expect
sparkly vampires or moody romantic heroes in this film. 
In
terms of atmosphere, you can't help but think of Romero's Martin,
especially early on, though this film is far less ambiguous about
its protagonist – while undead tropes like the lack of a
reflection are pointedly dismissed, Jacob is certainly a vampire.
However, the nature of vampirism is up for debate here –
while shown to be a transmittable infection, it's unclear if this
is the traditional supernatural vampirism or simply another modern
disease. Indeed, the film often resembles – in terms of
atmosphere at least – Todd Haynes' Safe,
another 'horror' film in which the main character seems to suffer
from an allergy to modern life.