We live in a world where simply watching a lone woman walk down an abandoned street at night in a low-trafficked part of town can make for an unnerving moment, irrespective of the country. Make that potential target of violence a deaf woman and the tension only increases. On such scares has Midnight been built. Kwon Oh-seung's thriller revolves around a young deaf office-worker (Jin Ki-hoo) and her deaf seamstress mother (Kim Hae-yeon), who together unwittingly interrupt a serial killer (Wi Ha-joon) during his latest slay. That's not a bad start. This is not a particularly consistent nailbiter however. To wit, when the latest victim's brother (Park Hoon) — who happens to be a security guard — confronts the killer, our boys in blue are hanging outside the precinct headquarters, chatting, then let the bad man free for fairly sketchy reasons. In what reality, do police officers trust a total stranger (with a briefcase of knives) without taking a report? Why wouldn't they rush out to track him down once they've realized they'd made a mistake? Oh, Kwon, what were you thinking?!
Perhaps Midnight is a film about police incompetence. Which gives its bloodthirsty villain free rein to stalk and torment his witnesses at home and in their oddly underpopulated neighborhood. I don't think I've ever run down so many late-night streets without a homeless person or fellow drunk in sight, regardless of the hour. Then again, I also can't explain the satisfaction that comes from people chasing each other through a maze of alleyways, regardless of the plot-holes and the potholes. But since Kwon's screenplay fails to incorporate vibrations, peripheral vision, and neighbors who can hear a young woman cry out for help, I never doubted for a moment that this "final girl" would survive. I did like the how of it though!
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