After Midnight

After Midnight is a horror anthology film from 1989, starring Marg Helgenberger (from CSI). It features 3 scary stories.

After Midnight begins with a wrap-around story where a college professor is teaching a class called “The Psychology Of Fear”. He has a habit of play frightening pranks on his students in order to illustrate his points. When one of his pranks makes a jock wet himself in front of everyone, he comes close to losing his job. The professor believes that the only way to truly understand fear is to know real fear, so he invites his students over to his house one dark and stormy night. He tells the students three scary tales centered around fear.

In the first story, “The Old Dark House”, a young couple are on their way home when their car breaks down in the middle of nowhere. They go looking for shelter and find themselves near an old abandoned house. The house has a murderous past and when they break in, they discover that it may still be inhabited by a crazed killer.

The second story, “A Night on the Town”, revolves around four highschool girls who decide to go out one night and have some fun. After being refused entry to a nightclub, they go searching for a private party in the warehouse district. They end up at a run-down gas station. There, the girls cross paths with a weird gas attendant and get chased by a pack of ferocious German Shepard dogs.

In the third story, “All Night Messenger”, Marg Helgenberger is a telephone operator for an answering service. After breaking her leg on a ski trip, she takes a late night shift. One of her clients complains that a man has been stalking her and leaving creepy messages. The operator finds herself in a deadly cat and mouse game with a deranged and murderous stalker.

After Midnight is entertaining and while it can’t compare to classic horror anthology movies like Creepshow and Cat’s Eye, it is still worth watching. There is a shocking twist in the beginning that will grab your attention and the individual tales are quite well done. The first story is probably the best and is based on an old urban legend.