Midnighters premiered in June 2017 at the Los Angeles Film Festival and saw its theatrical release in the US on March 2, 2018. It’s the feature-film directorial debut for Julius Ramsay, who has directed two episodes of AMC’s The Walking Dead—two very good ones, I might add: “Still” (s. 4, ep. 12 [2014]) and “Them” (s. 5, ep. 10 [2015])—as well as an episode of Scream: The TV Series (2015) and of Outcast (2016). The screenplay was written by his brother, Alston Ramsay, and the film’s four main leads are well cast: Alex Essoe from 2014’s Starry Eyes as Lindsey, Dylan McTee as her husband Jeff, Perla Haney-Jardine as Lindsey’s wayward sister, Hannah, and Ward Horton as alleged FBI agent Smith. While the plot is a little predictable (I definitely saw the final reveal coming and wondered why none of the characters seemed to), it is acted and directed extremely well. The pacing is perfect with each escalation of the tension happening at just the right time. You should watch this.
Lindsey (Alex Essoe) and Jeff (Dylan McTee) hit a man in the road
The film begins at a New Year’s Eve party, where the strain in Lindsey and Jeff’s marriage is immediately apparent. As they drive home through the woods, Jeff does that thing people do in movies—not look at the road for vast swathes of time. Inevitably, they hit the man standing in the middle of the road. Notice that I say “they hit the man.” Lindsey was in the passenger seat and she didn’t have her eyes on the road either. What Lindsey says first, after the initial shock wears off, says everything you need to know about their marriage and about the moral structure that will inform the rest of the film. She turns to Jeff and asks: “What have you done?” What have you done? She’s washing her hands of any responsibility here. Anyway, Jeff and Lindsey proceed to make several decisions that may not be too smart but which are all guided by efforts to cover their a***s. Lindsey’s sister Hannah—who has a checkered and possibly criminal past—gets drawn into the mix as the film makes it clear that what happened was not only an accident but also part of a bigger more concerted and insidious plot involving crime and a lot of money.
Here’s the trailer:
Aside from, as I said above, the great performances, direction, and pacing, one of the things I really liked about this film was its incredibly nihilistic view of human relationships. Couples turn on each other, it seems, at the drop of a hat. Almost as soon as Jeff and Lindsey’s sister Hannah retrieve some money belonging to the man Jeff and Lindsey killed in the road, Jeff suggests to Hannah that they not tell Lindsey about it: he wants control of the money himself—for himself. Indeed, it’s clear that a large part of the strain in Jeff and Lindsey’s marriage comes from money: he’s out of a job and she makes the money—and she doesn’t make what either one of them thinks is enough. This is post-Recession horror, many of the twists and turns of the plot, and certainly the relationships that drive it, informed by a deep sense of financial anxiety. And the great reveal at the end—really effectively filmed despite its predictability—made it incredibly clear how far some people will go for what is, in the end, not that much money.
Lindsey (Alex Essoe) and Jeff (Dylan McTee)
In an interview, Julius Ramsay has talked about his influences, citing Blood Simple (1984) and other early Coen brothers work, but mostly Shallow Grave (1994). I instantly thought of Midnighters in relation to A Simple Plan (1998), however, a brilliant film directed by Sam Raimi and starring Bill Paxton, Billy Bob Thornton, and Bridget Fonda. There are a lot of similarities: the plot hinges on the discovery of a large sum of money and accidental deaths. A Simple Plan, like Midnighters, begins on New Year’s Eve. And in both films, a character enters the film at a critical moment pretending to be an FBI agent.
Hannah (Perla Haney-Jardine) and Smith (Ward Horton)
Both A Simple Plan and Midnighters test relationships and loyalties. In A Simple Plan, Hank (Bill Paxton) pushes his brother Jacob (Billy Bob Thornton) to take his “side” against Jacob’s best friend. “There are sides?” Jacob asks, as he descends into increasing despair at the “evil” he’s pushed into in the name of loyalty to his brother and money. Similarly, in Midnighters, Jeff tells Lindsey that her sister Hannah isn’t on their “side.” And Lindsey tells him “It’s not about sides.” “It’s exactly about sides,” Jeff replies.
Both A Simple Plan and Midnighters are about the American Dream—and its perversion. Early in A Simple Plan, Hank says: “You work for the American Dream. You don’t steal it.” Tellingly, thirty years later, not a single character in Midnighters utters those words. Stealing the American Dream seems just fine if you can get away with it.
Hank (Bill Paxton) and Jacob (Billy Bob Thornton) stand over bodies their “simple plan” has left in its wake
By the end of A Simple Plan, Hank has lost his moral compass and he tells Jacob, as they stand over two dead bodies, that if he wants a wife and kids, “This is what it costs.” By the end, A Simple Plan voices the same cynical message that pervades Midnighters from the beginning. It’s a chilling message—but it’s one for our time.
You can watch Midnighters and A Simple Plan streaming on Amazon.
