It’s always interesting to see a repeat screening of a Midnight Madness film at noon, just because of the completely different makeup of the crowd. So it was with today’s screening of Acolytes (tiff), which was full of retirees and, presumably, Hitchcock fans. While it was likely the tamest horror flick I’ve ever seen programmed for MM, it drove a few older viewers out of the theatre early on. The lady behind us warned her friends up front that she didn’t like scary, but she was a trooper and stuck it out. I guess it helped that it wasn’t that scary.

Sure, it had a few jumpy moments, but those were mostly achieved with sudden cuts to violent scenes accompanied by screeching music. It did manage a little better on the tension scale than most horror films, and was a little longer on story. None of the characters were ridiculous, but the dialogue was often weak.

If you’re sort of a fan of horror films but like tension more than violence, this one’s probably for you.

C+

[tags]tiff, tiff08, acolytes[/tags]