A deaf mother and daughter (Ki-joo Jin and Hae-yeon Kil) find themselves running from a serial killer (Wi Ha-Joon) after accidentally stumbling upon his latest victim. The plot of Midnight isn’t complex, but it’s an effectively stripped-down horror/thriller that keeps you entertained and tense as the cat and mouse game plays out around the back roads of a South Korean city. Wi Ha-Joon is chilling as serial killer Do Shik, able to present a friendly, trustworthy façade when faced with the authorities while convincingly terrifying when hunting for his next victim, while Ki-joo Jin and Hae-yoen Kil are protagonists you desperately want to see survive as they fight for their life through the long night.

The film makes good use of its concept, with dramatic devices like sound sensors and activated lights, and creative uses of the soundtrack increasing the tension throughout the film. But having a deaf main character is more than just a gimmick for scares or to create easy sympathy, it’s integral to the core of the film. Midnight is a film concerned with how we treat people with disabilities in society, shunting them to the side, and why we treat those in suits as bastions of goodness and truth. It’s protagonists find it so difficult to escape because they aren’t believed, society rending itself as part of the problem along with the killer. Midnight builds to this point in a clever ending that wrongfoots you while playing into its overall statement.

Midnight is a pleasure of a horror. Stripped down and lean, it’s clever and well-executed while maintaining a social message throughout. Another horror hit from Korea that deserves to be seen.

MIDNIGHT is available on Blu-ray now from Eureka Entertainment