Midnighters

"Killing is easy. Getting away with it is murder."

Director: Julius Ramsay Year: 2018 Runtime: 94 min IMDb: ⭐ 5.7
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Synopsis

Midnight, New Year’s Eve: when all the hopes of new beginnings come to life – except for Lindsey and Jeff Pittman, whose strained marriage faces the ultimate test after they cover up a terrible crime and find themselves entangled in a Hitchcockian web of deceit and madness.

Sheltered since her early childhood, Katie Price has a rare genetic condition called xeroderma pigmentosum, which prevents an individual from being exposed to direct sunlight. She is housebound during daylight hours and is cared for by her father Jack and best friend Morgan. Katie comes out of the house every night after the sun has set. One night, her long time crush, Charlie, notices her while playing guitar at a train station. When he tries to speak to her, she leaves abruptly and forgets her notebook, which Charlie keeps. Charlie returns the next day and gives it to Katie when she shows up to retrieve it. He explains to her how he got his injury, preventing him from getting a scholarship to the University of California, Berkeley, before kissing her. However, Katie has yet to tell Charlie of her condition, despite her father warning her to do so. Charlie takes Katie out for a night to Seattle, where they go to a live show, and Charlie convinces Katie to play one of her songs on one of the city's streets. Once home, they go swimming out in the lake, and dry off with a fire on the beach. Charlie mentions watching the sunrise, and Katie suddenly realizes her watch stopped so she runs home in fear. Charlie picks her up and quickly drives her there, but she does not make it in time, and is exposed to the sunlight for just a couple of seconds. Katie runs inside, while Morgan and Jack come home soon after. Charlie is still standing at the front door, and Morgan explains Katie's condition to him. Once the doctors run some tests, they come to the conclusion that Katie's brain is contracting from her being in the sun, and it is only a matter of time before she dies. She develops twitches that prevent her from playing guitar and ignores Charlie’s messages and calls. Jack eventually convinces Katie to speak to Charlie, who still wants to be with her and does not care about her condition. She goes to Charlie's swim meet with the Berkeley coach, and they hang out at the house with Morgan and Jack. Charlie takes Katie out one night, and surprises her by booking a recording session, where she sings a song she wrote for him. Soon after, while hanging out at her house, Charlie mentions that he has to visit the boat for the last time, which he has been hired to take care of the whole summer. Katie, knowing that she is going to die, remembers the time Charlie told her that he wished they could sail together, and convinces Jack to let her go with him, despite it being during the day. Katie sails with Charlie, feels the sunlight, and spends her final moments with him, dying shortly thereafter. Some time later, Charlie goes to Katie's house, where he bids farewell to Jack as he is going to pursue his swimming dreams at Berkeley. Jack tells Charlie that Katie is who convinced the recruiter to come to the meet and also wanted him to keep the notebook. As Charlie is setting out, when he listens to Katie's song on the radio he reads the heartfelt message that Katie wrote for him in the notebook. In it, Katie tells Charlie to watch for the new things that are coming his way and to look up in the sky and always remember that she loves him.

Summary adapted from TMDb and Wikipedia sources.

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Content Warnings

⭐ IMDb Parents Guide 🛡️ Common Sense Media

someone is stalked
Yes
there's domestic violence
spoiler Physical violence and threats of physical violence between romantic partners.
someone gets gaslighted
Yes
alcohol abuse
spoiler A character drives drunk after attending a New Year's Eve party. They don't show them drinking, but they hit a pedestrian.
there's torture
Yes
there's finger/toe mutilation
spoiler A character gets their fingers nailed to a chair through the fingernails. They later pull their hand free, tearing through the nails.
teeth are damaged
Yes
someone struggles to breathe
spoiler A character struggles to breathe as another character strangles them.
someone has a seizure
spoiler A character has a seizure after being hit by a car.
someone is kidnapped
Yes
there's spitting
Yes
someone vomits
spoiler A character vomits in a toilet. The vomit itself never appears on screen.
shaky cam is used
Yes
the black guy dies first
spoiler its technically ambiguous but :/
the ending is sad
Yes
a person is hit by a car
spoiler The husband hits a pedestrian with his car when he's distracted touching his wife's thigh.
there's blood/gore
Yes
there's gun violence
spoiler A character kills someone with a gun about 17 minutes in. Police kill another character with guns near the end of the movie.

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