Copyright 1998-2004 Screaming Stoner Video || Last Update: 10/06/07 @ 4:20 PM

The Midnight Skater DVD hits the streets on May 25th of this year being released under the Splatter Rampage label and released by the awesome Tempe Entertainment. Midnight Skater was the brainchild of Speed Freak Productions and simply put, it is an extremely gory 91 minute college-based slasher flick set to the twangy guitar style of Dwane Eddy (or Glenn Danzig's The Misfits depending on what year you were born). Meant to be a dark comedy of sorts, Midnight Skater had a little effect on us.

Here's why...

More like Archie & Jughead meet The Street Zombies, Midnight Skater seemed to us more like an elaboration on J.R. Bookwalter's classic 1994 film, Ozone told from the zombie's perspective at times and in this case the unfortunate drug addicts take a generic synthetic drug simply known as Z. While nobody really knows the exact chemical makeup of the drug, those misfortunate stoners who take the green tabs quickly become Zombified, Dead & Rotting.

Eventually the culprit is discovered and killed by a purple ninja (seriously).

Midnight Skater mostly relies upon character development to cover up sometimes cheesy gore effects and needless to say some of the film's characters are totally hittable and painful to look upon while others like the fine stoners pictured below we could easy smoke out with. In addition to those lovable drug dealers, this movie also features the acting talents of Nick Jackson as Bruce, the attractive Ashleigh Holeman as Kim, Jan Meissner as Shelly, Roza Haidet as Annie, assistant director Andy Campell as the annoying Danny, Ezra Haidet as Alvin, Erin Gannon as Heather and a whole slew of zombie extras. The zombies, by the way, being a very strong point for this film and much more believable than most of the cheesy and over-the-top gore effects.

Whilst Midnight Skater at the same time features some of the most generic acting we've seen to date and worst of all, the majority of the bad acting is in the hands of the film's lead maniac, Richard Norton (played by Cory Maidens). The most memorable and best-acted roles in this film were that of the Midnight Skater (Mike Neeson) and Jughead himself, director Luke Campbell in his portrayal of Pete.

At times this movie seems too long and most likely could've been edited down to a more logical running time rather than inserting long drawn-out sequences of the female actresses running every possible direction after the hour mark and cramming several neck-biting (and rather pointless) murders. Also, the shear amount of "Fuck words" in this film is only matched the date by that of Ryan Cavalline's Demon Slaughter (and oddly enough, the films favor one another in style and zombie effects).

There are also some cool camera angles and it is masterfully edited. Just think what could happen if Speed Freak Productions decided to make a serious Italian-style zombie film. We mean, they've already mastered the art of pig guts...

Evil Dead and Dead Alive fans will love this film even though at key moments the viewer can hear the wind on the camera's microphone and the print quality itself is ultra-sandy (almost super-8ish). While the movie's score supplied by Ryan Olinger is in very short supply, Midnight Skater relies mostly on a variety of metal music during key sequences and battle scenes. Bands such as The Pirates Who Carve Out Your Eyes and Piss In Your Eye Sockets, Dexter Chumley Attack, Lords of the Highway, Kill the Hippies, Sexual Tension and more grace the soundtrack in addition to one original song "Beware the Midnight Skater" by The Killer Dudes. Some bands are better than others.

DVD extras include a Feature Commentary by The Campbell Brothers and various cast members of the film. A 12 minute featurette showcasing the deleted scenes and introduced by Andy Campbell, Cory Maidens and Stacy Silvers. You also get the entertaining but pointless 6 minute silent short film, The Stranger introduced by Speak Freak actors Matt Kelley and Bob Hawkins.

The Midnight Skater DVD also has three trailers for Splatter Rampage Wrestling, Demon Summer (coming in June of this year) and Midnight Skater itself.

No collector's booklet though, hmmm?

On the whole this movie can be a fun one depending on how sick your sense of humor is. We were surprised at how sick ours was in the process of watching Midnight Skater and felt kinda' dirty at the same time.

Smoker's Soapbox:

Midnight Skater is totally a matter of choice. The first hour seemed to drag by but towards the movie's conclusion we were pretty engrossed. With a company whose logo is "We ain't happy until the barf bag's full" you really know what to expect. If you ever see Richard's girlfriend, don't let her give you head, okay? We hated the poo-poo humor and dick-chopping portions in this feature but loved the zombies towards the film's conclusion. We're sure we'll watch this DVD again but we're also sure it won't be this year either!

All in all, we're cool with the Midnight Skater...

[ 3 puffs! ] 60%