(1981)

When we featured Summer School, I mentioned how it was a non-horror movie with connections to the convention and with Midnight Madness we have a similar situation. While there is absolutely no horror content in the film, it does star American Werewolf in London's David Naughton (an attendee at the November convention) in his first feature film role. While it certainly is dated, it is still good fun and a movie that I remember fondly from my younger days.

I've talked a lot about the old days back when our family used to have one of those illegal converter boxes that piped HBO into our house for free. It seemed like back then there were certain movies that HBO played constantly and this was definitely one of them. Despite it's everpresence, my sister and I watched it just about every time it was on and before we knew it the word "fagabeefe" had entered our lexicon for good.

The story is about five or six teams of college kids playing a scavenger hunt type of game that takes them all over the city, solving clues to figure out the final destination and get there first. The mastermind of the game, Leon, runs the game from his nerdly lair and follows the teams' progress through each of his elaborately set-up "missions" to attain clues. Oddly enough, Joe Belfiore, inspired by this movie, created a similar type of game while he was at Stanford which eventually inspired the movie "The Game." Weird, huh?

Anyway, the plot is as simple as can be. Each of the teams represent a different cliched college subgroup. You've got the nerds (led by Eddie Deezen!), the meatheads, the girls, but most importantly you've got the good guys (led by Naughton, of course) and the bad guys (led by Stephen Furst at his shlubbiest). It plays out exactly as you'd expect, but it's still fun to watch as, one by one, the teams fall victim to their own quirks and fall behind in the race. Of course the end is a free-for-all scramble to the final destination ending with... well, you know.

Notice the DVD cover. It's pretty bad when your big names are David Naughton and Eddie Deezen! But you've gotta give Disney props for not featuring Michael J. Fox's name above the title (although his picture is pretty prominent). What? I didn't mention the Disney or the Fox? Yeah, this movie was stealthily released by Disney as their second ever PG rated feature (Black Hole was the first) and it is also the feature film debut of Michael J. Fox (billed here simply as Michael Fox). Honestly, it's pretty amazing how much effect this film has had on popular culture, yet still it remains relatively obscure.

Video Goodness!

Midnight Madness - Mr. Carson's Obese Male Child

Midnight Madness - 8,800 Keys

Midnight Madness - Meat Machine!

Midnight Madness - Mrs. Grimhaus

Midnight Madness - FAGA BEEFE!