Bullet Points: Minutes to Midnight
If you find yourself spending New Year’s Eve 2020 all alone, may I suggest you head over to Tubi and check out 2018’s Minutes to Midnight.
I make this suggestion not because Minutes to Midnight is a cinematic masterpiece, but because a key component of the film involves a group of twentysomethings ringing in the New Year at a lodge in the woods. The group of friends includes some characters that will make you absolutely cherish your solitude…
- Engagement: The movie starts off with a guy named Charlie and his gal Emily out in the woods a few days before Christmas. Charlie got Emily to go out to the woods under the guise that the two would have a romantic picnic for two, but in actuality he had grander romantic plans in mind. Charlie is going to pop the question… but before Charlie can ask Emily for her hand in marriage, Emily asks Charlie an important question… why are they in the woods where people were rumored to be murdered!?!? Charlie is like fuck that noise, check out this amazing view and then moments later he is brutally murdered by a masked maniac and Emily is abducted. Not that it matters at this point, but I wonder if Charlie went to Jared?
- The Office: The movie jumps ahead hours to midnight on New Year’s Eve, we meet Sophia (Sara Fletcher) and her co-workers as they are pre-gaming it in the office before they head up to the woods for a New Year’s Eve party that they’ll never forget. I am not sure what kind of work is done at this office, but I do know that the man in charge is Mr. Walters (William Baldwin, Fair Game). Walters wishes them all a Happy New Year before he heads home. And that’s about the time Sophia’s high school sweetheart Michael (Bryce Draper) shows up after having moved away to Hollywood and not responding to Sophia’s text messages. This subplot really doesn’t add much to the movie and me mentioning it in this review really only adds to my word count.
- Johnny Action: John Hennigan (Boone: The Bounty Hunter) plays Travis Crenna. Travis is in town looking for his brother Charlie who came up to this little town to propose to his girlfriend Emily and has not been heard from since… when Travis has no luck in town, he takes his search to the woods. In the woods, Travis first encounters Sophia, Michael and the rest of the party goers and that doesn’t turn out well… especially after Travis shares some newspaper stories about the murders that happened in the area. These stories are news to all the twentysomethings at the party… presumably because the murders happened before they were alive, but you would think in a small town these stories would become legend. Michael’s best friend Kyle (Phillip Andre Botello) is especially bothered by Travis’ buzz killing stories and asks him to leave. They’ll soon find out that the stories were true…
- Horror Movie 101: After Travis leaves, the lodge gets some more uninvited guests in the form of the masked maniacs. Then it is Horror Movie 101 as the annoying characters are offed one by one with our two main characters Emily and Michael making it to the end. This is also the point in the film where the action picks up as Travis teams up with Sheriff Wyatt (Richard Grieco, Attack of the Unknown) and they battle the masked maniacs… with Travis vs. Angus (Aaron Aguilera) being the movie’s action highlight.
As I said at the start of this review, Minutes to Midnight is in no way a cinematic masterpiece but if you are a fan of cheesy horror movies, Richard Grieco or John Hennigan… you may want to give this one a try.
I’d also suggest trying out these Bonus Bullet Points…
- Familiar Faces: Dominique Swain (Battle Drone and Eminence Hill) plays Chloe, one of Sophia’s friends that never makes it to the lodge because she is killed before she ever gets there… Christopher Judge (Stargate SG-1) plays Ranger Taso, who becomes another victim of the monstrous Angus.
- Naked Intermission: About midway through the movie there are back to back scenes featuring female nudity.
- Second Generation: Minutes to Midnight was directed by Christopher Ray. Ray is following in the B movie directorial footsteps of his father, Fred Olen Ray.
- World’s Worst Boss: Mr. Walters gets creepier and creepier every time he is featured in another scene.
