31 Days of Spooky Movies: The Midnight After

Day #6

那夜凌晨，我坐上了旺角開往大埔的紅VAN

[The Midnight After]
(2014)

The passengers on a late night bus in Hong Kong suddenly realize that everyone else in the world has disappeared except for them.

Fright Factor:

1 / 5  Pop Rocks Sponsors

Gore Factor:

2 / 5  Major Toms

Should you watch it?

I have very little idea what was supposed to be happening in this movie. It’s a lot like Stephen King’s The Langoliers or perhaps the TV show Lost? But a version that didn’t care about the cause of the characters’ supernatural isolation so much as it did cultural shifts in present-day Hong Kong?

To be honest, I considered turning it off multiple times, but I REALLY wanted to know what possible explanation there could be for all the madness. BUT IT NEVER CAME! Many things are mentioned (alternate dimensions, purgatory, nuclear explosions, and so on), but nothing comes of them. Watching the movie is a lot like watching TV with someone who’s channel surfing and keeps changing the channel right when you start to get interested in the show.

Oh, and just to warn you: there’s a rape scene in the movie. Why they felt it was necessary to throw one in is beyond me. It kind of comes out of nowhere and doesn’t really serve much of any point.

I went and read some online reviews hoping that maybe I was just missing something and the reviews do seem to point out that the film primarily serves as a satire. However, the satire is extremely esoteric; I get the sense that you’d need a pretty strong familiarity with Hong Kong in order to understand what this film is all about. So as a satire maybe this film is pretty great? However, from a horror perspective it’s far more likely to put you to sleep than to keep you up at night.

“Have you heard of David Bowie?”

“I’ve heard of John Travolta...”