MIDNIGHT PEEPSHOW (2022)

New in On Demand and digital download from Dar Star Pictures!
Directed by Andy Edwards, Airell Anthony Hayles, Ludovica Musumeci, Jake West.
Written by Andy Edwards, Airell Anthony Hayles, Jake West.
Starring Zach Galligan, Ryan Oliva, Derek Nelson, Jamie Bacon, Richard Cotton, Mark Hampton, Ocean M. Harris, Chiara D’Anna, Bethan Walker, Dylan Baldwin, Miki Davis, Kit Shirley, Roison Browne, Sarah Diamond, Jack Fairbank, Rusty Egan, Crispin Holland, Melanie Thompson, Georgina Bitmead, Beatrice May, Christopher Lloyd James, Iona Stewart-Richardson, Titiana Franic
Check out the trailer here!!

Just in time for Valentine’s Day, MIDNIGHT PEEPSHOW highlights the kinkier side of horror with an anthology focused on sexual horror from some very twisted filmmakers. Reminiscent of the anthology LITTLE DEATHS from nearly a decade ago (an anthology definitely worth looking up), MIDNIGHT PEEPSHOW is a sick and twisted little affair dealing with all kinds of stuff that is not for those with sensitive dispositions.

The wraparound concerns a down and out businessman who stumbles into a seedy part of town and finds a business called the Midnight Peepshow, kinda like the name of the movie, you see. This guy pays for a gander at one of the booths and it turns out each booth babe has a devious story to tell, making up the three stories of MIDNIGHT PEEPSHOW. Ludovica Musumeci has only directed a few short films and does a decent job with this story interlacing the three tales together and making everything look and feel consistent like any good wraparound segment should.

Airell Anthony Hayles directed WEREWOLF SANTA and THEY’RE OUTSIDE, and handles the first segment called “Personal Space” which deals with a cuckhold situation that is bound to make some squirm, as it really doesn’t hold back in the humiliation. This sordid affair has a surprise or two, but really is sort of a run of the mill situation that you’ve seen play out if you’ve happened to find yourself on some popular porn sites. Or at least that’s what I hear. Still, I couldn’t help but be freaked out a bit at the way this one played out.

“Eff, Marry, Kill” is from the director of PUNCH and the upcoming CINDERELLA’S REVENGE, Andy Edwards, and while it repeats the uncomfortability of the cuckhold situation, it does so in a much more sort of light-hearted way as a woman finds herself collared and trapped in a room with three former suitors, with whom she has to decide which one to eff, marry or kill. This segment is a SAW riff where an unseen voice guides the woman through the rules of the game. BTW, that unseen voice is Zach Galligan from GREMLINS, though I didn’t recognize him. I found this one just ok as well, though it seemed to have less of a perverted tone and more of a comical as all three of the former suitors, of course, are not happy to see each other at the mercy of this woman’s preference.

The saving grace of MIDNIGHT PEEPSHOW is “The Black Rabbit” by Jake West who was responsible for RAZOR BLADE SMILE, EVIL ALIENS, DOGHOUSE, and PUMPKINHEAD: ASHES TO ASHES. West tells an expansive little story in a very short time. This one deals with some really complex issues in terms of intimacy and how the spark of one’s marriage fades after time. Sarah Diamond stars as the dissatisfied housewife who finds that when her husband pays for sex, it excites her. Diamond really stands out as a sympathetic but psychologically broken woman and does a great job with some complex feelings to play with. When her husband refuses to give in to her kink, she seeks thrills elsewhere, leading her down a very demented rabbit hole of prostitution, S&M, and finally to a dark web snuff room. This could have been made into a feature length film as I was riveted to this plot from beginning to end. The monster known as the Black Rabbit is horrifying and while I definitely got some HOSTEL and A SERBIAN FILM vibes, this short keeps its dignity intact by saving the gratuitous violence to the very end.

And whoa what an ending. I would recommend MIDNIGHT PEEPSHOW for that final segment alone. The first two serve as decent lead-ins to the main course, but it’s Jake West’s segment that steals the show. It’s perverted stuff, but it is also good, mature, and twisted horror that is a nice detour from the safe horror that permeates the genre. All in all, if you don’t have any issue with having your boundaries pushed, MIDNIGHT PEEPSHOW exists to kink up your horror real nice-like.