Soul's Midnight (2006) User Reviews

Reasonable Low-Budget Vampire Movie

[claudio_carvalho · 5/10 · 26 April 2008]

In 1975, a pregnant woman escapes alone from a dangerous sect that worships St. George in Guthrie, Texas, protected by her husband that shoots against the masked members. Thirty years later, her son Charles Milford (Robert Floyd) receives his will and a letter calling him for the funeral of his father, and he travels with his pregnant wife Alicia (Elizabeth Bennett) back to Guthrie. They lodge in a fancy hotel owned by Simon (Armand Assante) and they are introduced to his mistress Iris (Lucila Solá) in the Eve of St Geoge Festival. Sooner they discover that Charles is a descendant of St. George and the blood of his unborn baby is necessary to resurrect the leader of a vampire community.

"Soul's Midnight" is a reasonable low-budget vampire movie. The promising story has a stylish set decoration in the interior of the hotel and a very sexy unknown actress, the Argentinian Lucila Solá. Unfortunately the "hero" is a silly character and probably due to the restraint of budget, there are many situations not well resolved and the city looks like a ghost town without dwellers. My vote is five.

Title (Brazil): "O Sacrifício do Mal" ("The Sacrifice of the Evil")

Not as bad as I'd feared but hardly a masterpiece.

[poolandrews · 5/10 · 24 March 2007]

Soul's Midnight starts in 'Guthrie Texas, 1975' where Max (Ryan C. Hurst) & his pregnant wife Sara (Natalie Loftin) try to escape the 'Borgo Hotel' & the evils within, Max sacrifices himself so his unborn child & Sara make it out alive... Jump forward 'Thirty Years Later' & Max has died so his son Charles (Robert Floyd) & his pregnant wife Alicia (Elizabeth Ann Bennett) head to Guthrie for the first time to attend Max's funeral, while there they initially stay at the lavish Borgo Hotel now owned by a guy called Simon (Armand Assante) & his hot bird Iris (Lucila Sola) but things start to go bad straight away as there appears to be screaming in the hotel corridors late at night, Alicia has strange dreams & hallucinations while Charles is contacted by Ramos (Miguel Perez) one of his fathers friends who claim there was more to Max's death than anyone in Guthrie is prepared to say...

Directed by Harry Basil while I didn't exactly love Soul's Midnight I didn't hate it & it turned out better than most low budget straight-to-video (DVD?) potboilers that I have seen recently. The script by producers Jason & Brian Cleveland takes itself extremely seriously & has just about enough going on to retain ones interest although I'd have liked the mystery elements played up a bit more & the whole connection to St. George everyone seems to keep going on about seems tenuous to say the least. It moves along at a reasonable pace although looking back on it I can't say it was the mot incident packed horror film ever. Soul's Midnight is one of those films that for me passed 90 odd minutes painlessly enough but was neither amazingly brilliant or particularly bad in any specific department, it's all rather average & merely OK. The character's are alright & not too annoying, the dialogue is fine & it has a decent ending with a pretty cool winged monster but I'll bet half a cheese sandwich that by the end of the week I'd have completely, totally & utterly forgotten about Soul's Midnight.

Director Basil does OK, the art deco style hotel looks gorgeous & it's a shame more of the film wasn't set inside it. There's not much atmosphere & I definitely wouldn't call it scary but at least it actually fees like a horror film. There's not much gore here, there are a couple of Vampire attacks, someone gets a pair of garden shears stuck through their hand, a Vampires chest is melted with holy water & someone gets their finger sliced off in an ice dispenser machine. This one also has an impressive looking creature at the end which thankfully is realised by using traditional make-up effects rather than cheap CGI.

Technically Soul's Midnight is pretty good, it has decent production values & is generally well made which helps while your watching it. Apparently shot in Oklahoma in a two week period between October & November '05 Soul's Midnight actually looks quite good. A lot of 'name' actors have been making appearances in low budget horror films of late & it's the turn of Armand Assante here, he does OK as does the rest of the cast.

Soul's Midnight is an OK time waster if you have nothing else to do or are desperate, it's nothing overly special though.

well...

[ianbasore · 6/10 · 19 October 2006]

It was neat to see a film made here in my state, by people from my state (along with some bigger name actors like Armand Assante). I think they had a good idea going, with the St. George thing and all... but the movie just wasn't very coherent from scene to scene and some stuff was just really illogical.

Now, saying this, there were some nice bits of acting and some really intense scenes. This movie would almost fit in the "B" movie category for the way it all comes together.

This movie is okay. If you're from Oklahoma and you're pretty bored, you might enjoy it.

Fun for Vampire Fans!

[moviemogul26 · 8/10 · 28 March 2007]

If you love Vampire lore and are a fan of Gothic horror, then you might want to check out Soul's Midnight. I did not know much about this movie before I watched it, and I wasn't expecting much, but I found the movie to be fun and entertaining.

Starring Armand Assante as the leader of the vampires Simon, Soul's separates itself from other low budget vampire flicks by weaving in the mythology of St. George and the Dragon in a fun new way.

I'm not sure what the budget for this movie was, but I sense that if it was a little more then they might have really been able to hit home the gore and effects.

If you're up late one night and you're in the mood for a fun low budget vampire flick then Soul's Midnight is a good choice.

The Vampire is Back

[scriptandstory · 10/10 · 27 March 2007]

As a huge fan of horror, I had given up on the vampire sub-genre due to the fact that in most vampire flicks the vampire has become feminine and non-threatening, benign and basically weak. This was the attitude I brought to a viewing of Soul's Midnight and I am happy to say that the vampires in this film at least have the hunger to kill old ladies and sacrifice babies! Armand Assante, one of my favorite actors of all time, was born to play the charming vampire with savage intensity.

Another thing that interested me is that the central location is the Borgo Hotel. That is cool because (and I went back to my high school copy to look this up) in Dracula, the Borgo Pass is where Jonathan Harker must pass to get to Dracula's castle.

Finally, my hats off to whoever made the decision to make the creature a real effect and not a darn CGI! That's the one thing great about many low-budget movies, they cannot afford the garbage computer effects that plague many Hollywood monstrosities.

Bottom line...this is better than Underworld for sure, especially if you are a vampire purest. Cheers, JA

Classic Vampire

[ddinny · 10/10 · 29 March 2007]

Soul's Midnight stars Armande Assante (Simon) who stared in "The Mambo Kings" and Elizabeth Bennett (Alicia Milford). Together with Sexy vampire vixen, Lucila Sola (Iris), Simon lures pregnant Alicia and her husband Charles into the netherworld of Soul's Midnight. Assante sinks his fangs into the script by writers Brian and Jason Cleveland and you enjoy watching him and Iris kill. Alicia and Charles (Robert Floyd) try to stay alive while gore keeps your lust for blood sated.

(spoiler alert) In today's jaded landscape, it comes as no surprise that a back-stabbing preacher gets bitten. Set looks cool – lots of detail at the Borgo Hotel and cool special effects at the end. I had a lot of fun watching this movie – it doesn't take itself too seriously and looks great.