The Midnight Hour
Encyclopedia
The Midnight Hour is a 1985
comedy
/horror
television movie
which aired on ABC
on October 27, 1985, and stars Shari Belafonte-Harper
, LeVar Burton
, Peter DeLuise
, and Dedee Pfeiffer
.
in the small town of Pitchford Cove located somewhere in New England, and five high school friends, Phil (Lee Montgomery
), Mary (Dedee Pfeiffer
), Mitch (Peter DeLuise
), Vinnie (LeVar Burton
), and Melissa (Shari Belafonte-Harper), plan on making it a night they will never forget. They steal outfits from the town's historic museum and come upon other old artifacts, including an old trunk encasing a paper scroll which contains an ancient curse. When Melissa recites the curse at the local cemetery, things take a turn for the worse.
The town's dead, led by Melissa's great-grandmother Lucinda Cavender (Jonelle Allen
), a witch who was put to death 300 years earlier, rise up from their graves and roam the town. As Melissa, Vinnie, Mitch, and Mary enjoy themselves at their annual Halloween costume party, Phil encounters a mysterious girl, named Sandra "Sandy" Matthews (Jonna Lee
), dressed in a vintage 1950's cheerleader outfit, who warns him that the whole town is in danger.
Meanwhile, Lucinda and the various undead ghouls rise from the grave and crash the costume party. At first, nobody pays much attention to them since everyone is in costume. However, Lucinda begins turning the party guests into vampires, starting with Melissa, then Vinnie, and so on.
When Sandy discovers that Phil and his friends recited the ancient spell in the cemetery, they realize that the whole town is being overrun by the living dead and decide to team up to break the curse
. The only way to do so is to find the Greenville Spirit Ring inside the grave of witch-hunter Nathaniel Greenville - who, coincidentally, was Phil's great-grandfather and slave owner of Lucinda Cavender's arch-nemesis - and use it to undo the curse. It's up to Phil and "good ghost" Sandy to restore the town to normal by midnight before it is too late and the curse becomes permanent.
1985 in film
-Events:* 3 December - Roger Moore steps down from the role of James Bond after twelve years and seven films. He is replaced by Timothy Dalton.* The Academy Award for Best Picture was won by Out Of Africa, while the highest grossing film was Back to the Future.* Bliss wins AFI Award for best Movie...
comedy
Comedy
Comedy , as a popular meaning, is any humorous discourse or work generally intended to amuse by creating laughter, especially in television, film, and stand-up comedy. This must be carefully distinguished from its academic definition, namely the comic theatre, whose Western origins are found in...
/horror
Horror film
Horror films seek to elicit a negative emotional reaction from viewers by playing on the audience's most primal fears. They often feature scenes that startle the viewer through the means of macabre and the supernatural, thus frequently overlapping with the fantasy and science fiction genres...
television movie
Television movie
A television film is a feature film that is a television program produced for and originally distributed by a television network, in contrast to...
which aired on ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
on October 27, 1985, and stars Shari Belafonte-Harper
Shari Belafonte
Shari Belafonte is an American actress, model, writer and singer. The daughter of singer Harry Belafonte, she is known for her role as Julie Gilette on the 1980s television series Hotel and as a spokesperson for the diet supplement Slim-Fast during the 1990s.-Personal life:Shari Lynn Belafonte was...
, LeVar Burton
LeVar Burton
Levardis Robert Martyn Burton, Jr. , professionally known as LeVar Burton, is an American actor, director, producer and author who first came to prominence portraying Kunta Kinte in the 1977 award-winning ABC television miniseries Roots, based on the novel by Alex Haley...
, Peter DeLuise
Peter DeLuise
Peter John DeLuise is an American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter, perhaps best known for directing episodes of science fiction television shows, particularly in the Stargate franchise.-Career:...
, and Dedee Pfeiffer
Dedee Pfeiffer
Dedee Pfeiffer is an American film and television actress.Pfeiffer was born Dorothy D. Pfeiffer in Midway City, California, the daughter of Donna , a home-maker, and Richard Pfeiffer, a heating and air-conditioning contractor...
.
Plot
It is HalloweenHalloween
Hallowe'en , also known as Halloween or All Hallows' Eve, is a yearly holiday observed around the world on October 31, the night before All Saints' Day...
in the small town of Pitchford Cove located somewhere in New England, and five high school friends, Phil (Lee Montgomery
Lee Montgomery
Lee Montgomery was a child actor in the 1970s, best known for his role as a lonely little boy who befriends a pack of killer rats in the film, Ben .-Hollywood:...
), Mary (Dedee Pfeiffer
Dedee Pfeiffer
Dedee Pfeiffer is an American film and television actress.Pfeiffer was born Dorothy D. Pfeiffer in Midway City, California, the daughter of Donna , a home-maker, and Richard Pfeiffer, a heating and air-conditioning contractor...
), Mitch (Peter DeLuise
Peter DeLuise
Peter John DeLuise is an American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter, perhaps best known for directing episodes of science fiction television shows, particularly in the Stargate franchise.-Career:...
), Vinnie (LeVar Burton
LeVar Burton
Levardis Robert Martyn Burton, Jr. , professionally known as LeVar Burton, is an American actor, director, producer and author who first came to prominence portraying Kunta Kinte in the 1977 award-winning ABC television miniseries Roots, based on the novel by Alex Haley...
), and Melissa (Shari Belafonte-Harper), plan on making it a night they will never forget. They steal outfits from the town's historic museum and come upon other old artifacts, including an old trunk encasing a paper scroll which contains an ancient curse. When Melissa recites the curse at the local cemetery, things take a turn for the worse.
The town's dead, led by Melissa's great-grandmother Lucinda Cavender (Jonelle Allen
Jonelle Allen
Jonelle Allen is an American actress, singer, and dancer.Born in New York City, Allen grew up in Harlem's Sugar Hill among neighbors that included Duke Ellington, Sonny Rollins, and Johnny Hodges, all of whom had an influence on her career choice...
), a witch who was put to death 300 years earlier, rise up from their graves and roam the town. As Melissa, Vinnie, Mitch, and Mary enjoy themselves at their annual Halloween costume party, Phil encounters a mysterious girl, named Sandra "Sandy" Matthews (Jonna Lee
Jonna Lee
Jonna Lee is an American television and film actress.-Career:Born Jonna Lee Pangburn in Glendale, California, Lee graduated from John Burroughs High School in Burbank, California in 1981, After high school, she moved to Hollywood and maintained an acting career through the 1980s.In 1985, Lee...
), dressed in a vintage 1950's cheerleader outfit, who warns him that the whole town is in danger.
Meanwhile, Lucinda and the various undead ghouls rise from the grave and crash the costume party. At first, nobody pays much attention to them since everyone is in costume. However, Lucinda begins turning the party guests into vampires, starting with Melissa, then Vinnie, and so on.
When Sandy discovers that Phil and his friends recited the ancient spell in the cemetery, they realize that the whole town is being overrun by the living dead and decide to team up to break the curse
Curse
A curse is any expressed wish that some form of adversity or misfortune will befall or attach to some other entity—one or more persons, a place, or an object...
. The only way to do so is to find the Greenville Spirit Ring inside the grave of witch-hunter Nathaniel Greenville - who, coincidentally, was Phil's great-grandfather and slave owner of Lucinda Cavender's arch-nemesis - and use it to undo the curse. It's up to Phil and "good ghost" Sandy to restore the town to normal by midnight before it is too late and the curse becomes permanent.
Cast
- Lee MontgomeryLee MontgomeryLee Montgomery was a child actor in the 1970s, best known for his role as a lonely little boy who befriends a pack of killer rats in the film, Ben .-Hollywood:...
as Phil Greenville - Shari BelafonteShari BelafonteShari Belafonte is an American actress, model, writer and singer. The daughter of singer Harry Belafonte, she is known for her role as Julie Gilette on the 1980s television series Hotel and as a spokesperson for the diet supplement Slim-Fast during the 1990s.-Personal life:Shari Lynn Belafonte was...
as Melissa Cavender - Peter DeLuisePeter DeLuisePeter John DeLuise is an American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter, perhaps best known for directing episodes of science fiction television shows, particularly in the Stargate franchise.-Career:...
as Mitch Crandall - LeVar BurtonLeVar BurtonLevardis Robert Martyn Burton, Jr. , professionally known as LeVar Burton, is an American actor, director, producer and author who first came to prominence portraying Kunta Kinte in the 1977 award-winning ABC television miniseries Roots, based on the novel by Alex Haley...
as Vinnie Davis - Dedee PfeifferDedee PfeifferDedee Pfeiffer is an American film and television actress.Pfeiffer was born Dorothy D. Pfeiffer in Midway City, California, the daughter of Donna , a home-maker, and Richard Pfeiffer, a heating and air-conditioning contractor...
as Mary Masterson - Jonna Lee as Sandy Matthews
- Jonelle AllenJonelle AllenJonelle Allen is an American actress, singer, and dancer.Born in New York City, Allen grew up in Harlem's Sugar Hill among neighbors that included Duke Ellington, Sonny Rollins, and Johnny Hodges, all of whom had an influence on her career choice...
as Lucinda Cavender - Cindy MorganCindy MorganCindy Morgan is an American actress best known for her appearances as Lora/Yori in Tron and Lacey Underall in Caddyshack.-Biography:...
as Vicky Jensen - Kurtwood SmithKurtwood SmithKurtwood Larson Smith is an American television and film actor. He is best known for playing Clarence Boddicker in RoboCop and stern parental characters , and for his appearances in the genre of science fiction...
as Captain Warren Jensen - Dick Van PattenDick Van PattenRichard Vincent "Dick" Van Patten is an American actor, best known for his role as patriarch Tom Bradford on the television sitcom Eight is Enough. He began work as a child actor and was successful on the [New York] stage, appearing in more than a dozen plays as a teenager...
as Martin Grenville - Sheila LarkenSheila LarkenSheila Larken is an American television actress.-Career:She is best known for playing the role of Margaret Scully on the popular The X-Files series....
as Janet Greenville - Wolfman JackWolfman JackRobert Weston Smith, known commonly as Wolfman Jack was a gravelly voiced US disc jockey who became famous in the 1960s and 1970s.-Early career:...
as the radio DJ - Kevin McCarthyKevin McCarthy-Politicians:*Kevin McCarthy , United States Representative from California's 22nd congressional district*Kevin McCarthy , member of the Iowa House of Representatives...
as Judge Crandall - Mark Blankfield as The Ghoul
- Hank Garrett as Sgt. Thompson
- Dennis Redfield as Lester Mitchell
- Mickey Morton as Vernon Nestor
- Vachik Mangassarian as Opera singer
- Joe Gieb as The Elf
- Bill DeLand as Man in Police Station
- Laura Owens as Mother
- Adam Myman as Son
- Jennifer Shockey as Tammy
- Macaulay CulkinMacaulay CulkinMacaulay Carson Culkin is an American actor. He became widely known for his portrayal of Kevin McCallister in Home Alone and Home Alone 2: Lost in New York. He is also known for his roles in Richie Rich, Uncle Buck, My Girl, The Pagemaster, and Party Monster...
as a Halloween kid (uncredited)