Midnight Skater (2002 Video) User Reviews

Midnight Skataaaaaaaah

[northridgecowboy · 4/10 · 19 July 2007]

When I look back on my college days at Ohio University, there will always be one event in which I will remember with fond memories. Channel 23 is OU's local access channel and until the last few years, pretty much played anything they were sent. This included many DIY movies ranging from a guy microwaving marshmallow Peeps and then scanning pictures of them online, to a version of Macbeth starring 8th graders who had apparently just learned how to make squibs.

However, the king, in my opinion, of the channel 23 lineup was Midnight Skater. The first time I watched it was around 2AM. I should have been studying. Or sleeping. Or watching regular TV. But no, all that is for pussies. My roommate and I watched Midnight Skater, and when it was complete, I don't think either of us believed that any of the movie had just happened. But sure enough, it was on a few nights later, and we had to come to grips that this movie did, in fact, exist.

I could go on and on about how awful it is, but its the sort of awful that makes life worth living. The plot is disjointed, the acting terrible, the everything soul scarring, but by god, if there are others watching with you, its impossible not to have a good time watching it. Its sort of like the first time you hear "Guts" by Chuck Pahalniuk. You hear it, you're disgusted and shaken, but five minutes later, all you want and desire is to make someone else experience the abject horror you just endured.

Long story short, Midnight Skater, for all of its epic flaws, makes for some very late night fun. Plus, I desperately want the Theme to Midnight Skater. Kudos to whoever wrote it and sang it. Sweet God I love that song.

amusing super-low budget gorefest; handy having a machete-wielding psycho when there's zombies!

[FieCrier · 6/10 · 3 June 2005]

Someone is skateboarding around a college campus at midnight, tagging buildings with graffiti. A group of students upset by that decide to try to identify him. Meanwhile, Richard is a psycho who kills women or any guy who angers him. Meanwhile, a Jay and Silent Bob-type pair of drug dealers are pushing "Z," which turns out to have the unfortunate side effect of turning people into zombies. Meanwhile, Richard's geeky roommate Alvin is making chainmail, and is getting annoyed by Richard's red "hair dye" in the shower, and the smelly "roadkill" in the trash.

So, there's actually a bunch of things going on here, which must all meet up somehow. There are a number of characters, but they're pretty easy to keep straight. The women are cute, particularly Victims 1 & 2, and Kim and Annie. The acting is pretty amateur-level, but not completely terrible. The zombies are mostly white-faced and black-eyed, though there are some gorier-looking ones. Gore effects, like arms or heads being cut off are pretty good, and covered with a lot of blood. No nudity in it, closest being a zombie in his underwear... although two guys have their (prostetic) penises exposed and they don't fare too well.

Marks against it include the terrible lighting. Night scenes are very grainy - the camera clearly wasn't designed for those. Indoor scenes tend to be very yellow, like the camera wasn't white-balanced. Sometimes people are poorly lit, while others are overlit. Sound is at times a problem - you can hear the edits as the background noise starts and stops. One bit seemed to have lost the dialog.

Apart from the theme song, the credits indicate the soundtrack is provided by CD Truth, Sexual Tension, Kill the Hippies, Lords of the Highway, Dexter Chumley Attack, and The Pirates Who Carve Out Your Eyes and {IMDb prohibited four letter word for urinate} In Your Eye Sockets (!). Can't say I noticed that much music in the movie. There's some surf music which steals a riff from the Munsters theme, and some sort of speed metal with gibberish singing.

What can I say? I was actually fairly amused for the whole running time. Not bad for a low, low budget movie.

Destined for Cult Status, Maybe.

[mike-aholic · 6/10 · 12 February 2004]

Watch this movie! Good, gory, no budget, low brow fun. A nonsense plot, cheap laughs, and tongue in cheek acting make this something special. Must be seen to be believed. An extremely impressive effort. Better than half the stuff released by Troma.

keep your eye on these guys

[Cryptorkidd · 1 September 2004]

Midnight Skater is an extremely enjoyable and impressive low-budget tongue-in-cheek horror flick. It's heavy on the gore, heavy on the humor and heavy on the "we're-not-gonna-take-ourselves-serious" attitude.

This is an example of pure D.I.Y. success! These guys and gals are great fun to watch. They are also nice people in person-check them out at a horror convention. My husband and I have run into them twice so far and are hoping to run into them again.

Think of a grainier pre-Hollywood Kevin Smith with lots of gore. And speaking of gore-if you are also big into special effects, you'll appreciate the Savini-esque staples of blood, guts and makeup.

Major effort needed

[Parker_Lloyd_Lewis · 1/10 · 2 December 2004]

This movie sucks. I know its D.I.Y. and the people who made this piece of crap identify this movie as garbage. Its a good thing they admit it. I respect these guys for trying to make a low budget movie but they just did such a terrible job. The starring role or killer guy of this feature is drunk throughout the whole movie(as he admitted) and sucked so bad at acting. All of the people in this movie suck at acting. If your going to make a low budget movie you should at least try or put in some sort of effort. The lighting is bad, the acting is really bad, the cut-aways are bad and most importantly the story is bad. I know 10 year olds that can use final cut pro or any editing software better than these jokers. I think this movie is just a giant inside joke. I'm sure the filmmakers friends thought it was hilarious. Why would this movie get released? I rented it at family video for gods sake! I rented it knowing it was going to be a bad low budget movie but expected at least some effort. The star/killer guy is obviously is in to hardcore because he was wearing a bridge nine records shirt and a bane shirt. Bottomline, if I ever see this guy at a hardcore show i will have to slap him for being part of this terrible piece of crap. Oh and one last thing, the music in this movie is the most annoying thing you will ever hear. Such as at the end, when all the zombies are on campus you hear this really really annoying surf music with double kick drum for about 20 minutes. The only reason I made it through this movie was because me and my friends were laughing so hard at this terrible attempt to make a low budget movie.

Rent this movie if your in for a night of being annoyed or extreme laughter. And any one who posts on here that this movie is OK for what it is, is a moron.

If you think you've seen the worst

[alphastudio-67811 · 1/10 · 11 October 2020]

Ask all your neighbours & Friends to play a mayor role in your movie and film it with your cell phone. You probably do better than midnight skater. Im a big horror trash fan, but this is plain awfull & unwatchable.

B Movie? Yes. DIY? Yes. First Movie? Yes. But Aestheically A+

[eastonpunk · 8/10 · 25 January 2005]

B Movie? Yes. DIY? Yes. First Movie? Yes. But Aestheically A+. This movie definitely had some bad sound/editing/lighting/acting/etc. etc. problems. However, this movie has many positive things about it. First off, the most annoying character dies first! Second, its made to be a parody/funny B Rated Horror movie. The comments our killer makes to his victims left me and my friends rolling around on the floor laughing.

The problem is a lot of people try to take every independent movie and expect it to be a masterpiece. Take it for what it is, a bunch of kids right out of high school made their first movie. For what it is, just that, it is really good.

"Skate or DIE!" yup.

[SheliakBob · 7/10 · 18 April 2006]

This is actually a groovy-neat little flick, made on absolutely no discernible budget with shot on video crinkliness . It takes a little while to warm up to it. The acting is so bad that it soon acquires a zen-like charm. After a few scenes, you stop noticing the awkward lines or rehearsed sound of some deliveries. The characters all develop a quirky charm, especially "Richard". Forget Anthony Hopkins, Maidens is the guy I'd hire to play a raving psychopath. He just seems to enjoy it so very much! Mixed in with the scenes of mad-slasher gore and zombie infestation are some truly visually effective shots of the title character, "The Midnight Skater" zooming through the campus in a black hoodie, looking for all the world like a cross between the Grim Reaper and, say, The Silver Surfer. These shots make the sometimes ludicrous things the characters say about the Skater seem almost ominous. The soundtrack features some very fun Garage-Punk tunes and the raspy, raucous meanness of it meshes well with the film's mood. Thumbs upish, I say.

Classic

[CaptainBollo · 9/10 · 17 March 2019]

This film is so awful its hilarious. Makes me laugh every time I watch it.

I love this movie!!

[spideyman2002 · 23 February 2006]

How can you not love this movie? I think that it rules! It is fun, interesting, and something in a class all by itself. My hat's off to the Speedfreak guys, this movie is something special. I have met several of the Speedfreak guys at the Cinema Wasteland conventions in Ohio in the past, and they are great guys. If anyone hates this movie then they are taking it waaaay too serous. It has something for everyone! Comedy! Horror! Great characters that you care about, and in my opinion Ashleigh Holman is one of the hottest women out there. I would jump at the chance to work with these guys on a film! My hat's off to the Campbell brothers and all the guys at Speedfreak. Thank you guys for a great film! Oh, and by the way I think that Demon Summer and Teenage Zombie House Massacre rule as well. Long live Speedfreak!!

BEWARE THE PURPLE NINJA!

[nogodnomasters · 10/10 · 19 May 2019]

This is another Tempe production made in the same cheap cheesy mode as Bad Movie Police series. There is a killer loose at Kent State who is not in the National Guard. He stalks mostly women and kills them, although the skate board aspect disappears. In one scene he has sex with a victim while "she is still warm." A group of inept students decide to locate the killer. There is an equally bad subplot which involves zombies. Cheap special effects, bad acting, and dialogue.

F-bomb, sex, male nudity, necrophilia, and a severed organ.

No go

[necroscope24 · 8 August 2005]

This pile of junk is awful. How did it get onto DVD let alone into my video store? Its misleading when you put amateur horrible garbage on the shelves making it look like a real movie. Whoever is producing these movies for these jack@sses needs to buy a clue. All of their movies are terrible, they need to just stop already. I'm a fan of horror movies, even some bad ones. This is horrible. They're worse than uwe boll, even though uwe boll seems to actually thinks he's good. They should team up and make the most annoying, irritating, unprofessional video game adaption ever. Avoid at all costs people. Some bad movies are fun, some bad movies are bad. This is one of the latter. Hopefully someone throws them into the toilet before they make another movie. And please, for the love of god, flush twice.