Midnight Son (2011)
The Gist: Jacob is a lonely night shift security guard who suffers from a rare skin condition; when sunlight touches his skin, it burns and boils (I can’t remember the name for the condition). He also spends his time painting sunrises which he will never see for himself (the sunrises, not the paintings). Outside a bar one night he meets Mary, a bartender, server and cigarette girl with a moderate cocaine habit. The two connect and become entangled in one another’s addictions.
Loners: Zak Kilberg (Jacob), Maya Parish (Mary), Jo D. Jonz (Marcus), Tracey Walter (Janitor), Larry Cedar (Detective Ginslegh)
My Take: I’ve wanted to see this movie for a while now, since it played at a local film fest that I didn’t get to go to. I finally picked it up last week and watched it. This is a slow-moving flick that evolves along with Jacob as he realizes that the roots of his skin condition and his malnourishment (even though he is always eating) come from a deeper underlying cause: he is a vampire. There is no explanation or origin for how he became a vampire, he just is. I do hesitate to say vampire because it’s not explicitly said. He doesn’t have fangs, he can’t transform into bats or mist but he burns in sunlight, craves blood and can infect others. Oh and his eyes turn this really cool amber colour when he is in a state of lust – blood and sexual. And there is a love story as the lonely young man becomes involved with the troubled Mary. Between his burgeoning relationship and his growing thirst for blood, Jacob has his arms full. Not to mention the hospital nurse who supplies Jacob with human blood and then becomes a deadly thorn in his side. I liked this movie because it wasn’t a traditional vampire flick. There weren’t any outrageous special effects or stylized theatrics or quippy one liners. It was subtle and kind of gross. I don’t normally have an issue with seeing blood suckers suck but there was something about watching Jacob drink from a blood bag or a Styrofoam container filled with animal blood, that just makes my skin crawl and my stomach turn.
Happily ever after?
Critique Much: Slow paced and I didn’t really care for the love story; at least not until the end. I guess I just found the Mary character uninteresting. Other than that character, I don’t have any complaints. It was low-budget but it was still well done and doesn’t come off like a lot of low-budget vamp flicks.
Yah or Nah: I would have to say Yah. Even though it is slow-moving, this pace serves to bring the viewer to the slow reality and realization of what is happening to Jacob at the same time that he is experiencing it. It was a good movie but won’t leave any lasting impressions. Still, it is worth a watch.
Dawning Creates 