Content
This movie is meant to be a training video for agents
of The Shadow Company. As such it is shot documentary
style, with various shots of each agent being interviewed,
intercut with random footage of them out on patrols or
dispatching of monsters and villans.
There are some great moments of humor in this film. It
seemed as though there was no real script and that a lot
of the dialogue was add-libbed. This can be a dangerous
convention to use if your actos aren’t good at add-libbing
or aren’t completely comfortable without a script. IN
the case of The Midnight Special, however, it was
definitely a good choice. These actors did a really good
job at spouting off all manner of random things to the
camera and to each other. One moment that made me laugh
was when two of the agents are being interviewed and they
begin to make fun of Cutter. The cameraman joins in on
the banter, but the agents start to get mad at him since
they think that only people who know Cuter should be allowed
to make fun of him. As the cameraman backtracks, one agent
– Nigel, the Scottish weapons man – looks to the other
and very calmly says, “Let’s kick his ass.” The camera
soon topples over and cuts out, resuming later after the
supposed ass-kicking.
There are also numerous night-vision type shots of the
agents in the car and the random conversation they are
having, which is a really nice touch. Considering the
subject matter of the film – fighting monsters – one would
assume that a lot of the action takes place at night.
One funny moment comes when, during an interview with
one of the agents, he talks about how good they are and
especially how tough their leader Cutter is. Then there
is a cut to nighttime footage of Cutter and his cousin
sitting in a car singing “The Twelve Days of Christmas.”
This movie is full of many such mock-serious moments.
The only problem with the structure of this film is that
the genre is a little hard to define and it starts to
confuse and perhaps bore the audience after a while. This
movie goes from being serious to mock-serious to downright
goofy, then suddenly to very serious and back to mock-serious
again. While the premise is good, it’s sometimes difficult
to tell if one ought to be laughing or not. It might be
a good idea to cut out some of the extraneous humor –
funny though it is – and introduce more scenes that help
to develop the plot a little better. I think the film
would flow much smoother if it were more of a drama with
moments of comic relief or a comedy with only a few small
moments of drama. It also might be a good idea to try
to re-structure the film in order to make it conform better
to the standard three-act structure. While there are movie
out there that don’t follow this rule, by and large most
of them do. (And those that don’t have a very good reason
for it.)
Finally, as a vampire lore enthusiast, I have a minor
complaint with the way that vampires, werewolves (also
known as Lycans), and zombies were dispatched of in the
film. The Shadow Company agents dispel monster with special
bullets known as MKs (Monster Killers), which are loaded
with a mixture of silver and garlic. Garlic and silver
are traditionally referenced as vampire repellants, and
silver bullets are supposed to do away with werewolves,
but the traditional way to kill a zombie is to destroy
its brain.
However – speaking strictly about vampires – silver, garlic,
and cross will only be effective if the vampire is from
a certain clan and/or myth. Eastern European vampire myths
and those that claim that Judas Iscariot was curse with
vampirism after betraying Christ say that these vampires
are susceptible to traditional repellants – Eastern Europeans
favored garlic and a stake to the heart of the suspected
vampire, while the Judas legend says that those vampires
are averse to silver because of the 30 piece of silver
Judas was paid, as well as to holy or blessed objects,
and that the stake to the heart must be a piece of the
real cross. However, there are other vampire legends in
which these measures are not effective. For instance the
theory that Lillith – Adam’s first wife – would later
become Cain’s wife and that the two of them would start
a race of vampires. Another theory – made popular by novelist
Anne Rice – claims that vampires began in Ancient Egypt.
Since both of these predate the time of Christ, these
vampires are immune to holy objects. Finally, at the end
of the film, there is mention made of a Chimera, and that
it is a vampire, plus a werewolf, plus a zombie. In zoology,
a Chimera is an animal that has been artificially produced
by mixing cells from two different organisms. In Greek
mythology, however, the Chimera was a female fire-breathing
creature with the head of a lion, the body of a goat,
and the tail of a serpent. As most people might not know
about either usage, this part may get a little confusing
for them. That being said, it might be a good idea to
give a brief primer on the monsters that The Shadow Company
battles with; not only for those who may be unaware of
these myths, but also for those viewers who are monster
enthusiasts (well, nerds, more like it) like me.
