Hank (Jeremy Gardner) and Abby (Brea Grant) have been dating for a decade and have fallen into something of a rut; one day Hank wakes up to discover that Abby has vanished. Plagued by memories of better times, Hank tries to assess where their relationship started to go wrong, but before he can, he finds himself stalked by a mysterious entity that attacks his house in the middle of each and every night. As his friends become concerned about Hank’s grasp on reality, he does everything in his power to prove that he is perfectly sane, with disastrous results.
In addition to co-directing and leading After Midnight, Jeremy Gardner also holds down the lead role. The story, in part, came to him through a personal experience, and he clearly taps into some of that old torment to portray Hank’s anguish perfectly. As the present-day Hank he is a dysfunctional mess, full of aggression and frustration. This is juxtaposed wonderfully with snippets of his memories of the early days with Abby. Here he’s all super sappy, romantic, and a bundle of adorable nerves.
Although pushed to the masses based on its monster and horror elements, After Midnight is at its core, a love story. And a modern and relatable one at that. Whilst Hank’s monster visitor may or may not exist, the demons of his relationship with Abby are all too real. As Abby, Brea Grant may only have a svelte amount of screen time, yet her presence is always felt. Even when she’s not on-screen via flashbacks of Hank’s memories, we can feel the weight that her absence is having on him. When we do get a further look at her, it’s refreshing to see that she’s a fully-formed character. Rather than being the archetypal bitchy girlfriend, or needy waif, Abby has a mind and feelings of her own and it’s her plight that really hooks in the viewer.
There’s a magnificent sequence around the halfway point that sees our couple air out their frustrations to one another that almost completely changes everything we’ve seen previously. It’s a quiet, poignant, and heavily emotional scene that lays both characters bare, and transports the viewer temporarily to the theatre. The whole sequence is framed as if we were looking upon a stage, and the action all plays out in one take with no cutaways.
Both Henry Zebrowski and Justin Benson give fantastic support as Hank’s sounding boards. Each provides a very different type of support. Zebrowski’s Wade is the conspiracy theorist babbling on about aliens and Discovery documentaries; Benson on the other hand plays local Sheriff Shane, who sees things much more in black and white. Nonetheless, both characters provide some genuine instances of pure comedy that will leave you with big cheesy grins.
If After Midnight had been made in the nineties, it would have almost certainly have been directed by Richard Linklater. Directors Jeremy Gardner and Christian Stella tap into that Before Sunrise relationship drama beautifully. The cast would have likely included Ethan Hawke (star of Before Sunrise) with After Midnight also oddly reminiscent of Ben Stiller’s Reality Bites. It even shares a soundtrack link with Lisa Loeb’s Stay (I Missed You) in a very memorable moment, which will ensure that you’ll never hear the song in the same way again.
Of course, the film isn’t purely about the couple’s romantic troubles, there is this whole other story involving Hank’s battle with a nocturnal creature. As Hank waits for Abby to re-materialise, he finds himself under attack on a nightly basis. These nighttime visitations cleverly punctuate the daytime dramas, adding an almost Paranormal Activity effect, causing instant chills and unease the moment the viewer realises dusk has fallen again. Gardner and Stella are very clever with how they showcase the creature, thankfully respecting their budget restraints and opting to stick to the mantra that less is more.
Arrow Video have a reputation for quality and championing physical media, and their release of After Midnight is no exception. The Blu-ray disc is jam-packed full of extras, including a commentary and several interviews. The real highlight though is that the limited edition Blu-ray comes complete with a second disc containing Gardner’s previous directorial project, The Battery. That disc also contains a feature-length making-of documentary, meaning you’re essentially getting three features for the price of one.
A beautiful study of the relationship dynamics of the sexes, whilst at the same time maintaining an elegant air of mystique, After Midnight is a wonderfully accomplished piece of cinema. One that will break and fill your heart simultaneously.
After Midnight arrives on Blu-ray via Arrow Video on Monday 8th June.
