’12 to Midnight’ Review
Stars: Robert Bronzi, Daniel Roebuck, Valerie Bittner, Tito Ortiz, Sadie Katz, Helene Udy, A.C. Bernardi, Patrick Voss Davis | Written by Mark Savage, Joe Knetter, Jeff Miller, Tom Parnell | Directed by Mark Savage
12 to Midnight stars Charles Bronson lookalike Robert Bronzi (Exorcist Vengeance, From Hell to the Wild West) and a title that sounds like Bronson’s film 10 to Midnight. The film even opens with Detective Toth (Robert Bronzi) walking in on, and bloodily dispatching, a couple of armed robbers who are standing between him and his beer. “You look familiar,” the shaken cashier tells him. “I get that a lot”. But, more importantly, it has something Bronson never had to deal with, a werewolf.
Unfortunately for Toth, he was off duty and already reeking of booze at the time of the incident, so instead of a commendation, he gets suspended by Captain Rhodes (Daniel Roebuck; Hunting for the Hag, Las Vegas Frankenstein). He tells him to get his shit together so he won’t have to make it permanent, but all Toth wants is another drink.
And why was he in such a state? Three weeks ago, his wife Tammy (Valerie Bittner; Monsters in the Closet, Beaster Day: Here Comes Peter Cottonhell) was killed in an attack that looked more like the work of an animal than a man. Toth, blaming himself for not being there to save her, dealt with his guilt by crawling into a bottle. But when the killings not only continue, but the killer leaves a message calling Toth out, he’s put back on the force and sent after the killer.
12 to Midnight was directed by Mark Savage (Purgatory Road, Circus of Dread) who co-wrote the script along with Joe Knetter (That’s a Wrap, Strip Club Slasher), Jeff Miller (Inoperable, Clown Town) and Tom Parnell (Painkiller, Stressed to Kill). The result is a hybrid of the police action and horror genres that works better than you might expect.
Their script is backed with a cast that includes several familiar faces, including Tito Ortiz (Boo 2! A Madea Halloween, Operation Black Ops) as Marco, one of the last residents of Centralia PA, the town that helped inspire Silent Hill, Sadie Katz (Wrong Turn 6: Last Resort, Automation) as Sheriff Cooper, who ends up working rather closely with Toth after the creature takes a pair of victims in her jurisdiction and Helene Udy (My Bloody Valentine, Deadly Dealings) cameos as one of the victims.
While there’s no question that the killer is a werewolf, even Rhodes and Toth come to that conclusion early in the film, there’s plenty of doubt as to just who it is with possible suspects ranging from a sleazy security guard (A.C. Bernardi) to Peter (Patrick Voss Davis; Lucky Louie, The Fries Rebellion) a young man Toth talks out of suicide and even his buddy Marco.
And that’s where 12 to Midnight runs into its biggest problem, one of those subplots takes up way too much of the film’s time. In and of itself, it’s not bad and manages to deliver some gunplay and chase scenes to keep the film moving, but it takes up so much of the film’s midsection, pushing out most of the other plot threads and characters, I was left wondering if it was imported from another script and the werewolf plot worked around it.
Thankfully, there’s still time for several werewolf attacks, and the filmmakers aren’t afraid to put intestines and internal organs on the screen as the attacks become more violent as the film goes on. The gore effects by Oliver Poser (The Black Mass, Stan Against Evil) and his team are solid, as is what we get in the way of a transformation scene. The creature itself though is odd-looking, and could almost be mistaken for Bigfoot in some well-lit scenes. They would probably have been better off sticking to darkness and letting cinematographer Michael Su (Hell’s Coming for You, Dante’s Hotel) shoot more atmospheric scenes with the beast kept in the shadows.
But as long as it keeps its focus on the hunt for the creature, and avoids moments like the cringe-inducing scene between Toth and Cooper in his hotel room, 12 to Midnight is a fun creature feature, that isn’t afraid to embrace its grindhouse roots with plenty of bloodshed and even a bit of skin. And that was just what I needed after the disappointing Wolves Against the World.
***½ 3.5/5
12 to Midnight is currently in limited theatrical release and is also available on DirecTV; it will be available on more platforms in early November.
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