Heart of Midnight is a prime example of why I love Kino Lorber. This is a movie from the late 80’s that I had no idea existed until Kino Lorber released it on Blu-ray. It’s an oddball of a little film that I likely would have never come across if it weren’t for them. They seem to release these type of titles on Blu-ray quite frequently and it’s pretty awesome. Unfortunately my feelings on the movie itself are pretty mixed, but still, it’s cool to see these type of films get proper treatment.

Written and directed by Matthew Chapman, Heart of Midnight deals with the seedy world of sex clubs. Chapman, who has primarily made his living as a writer, certainly seems to enjoy this subject matter as just about everyone of his films could be described as a sexual thriller. Heart of Midnight definitely falls in that wheelhouse with some more straightforward horror elements mixed in for good measure.

Jennifer Jason Leigh stars as Carol, a young woman who just inherited a nightclub from her recently deceased uncle. Carol moves into the club, which has living space, and is very excited about the potential it holds. She sort of has a wide-eyed vibe about her. It’s almost like she’s a small town girl heading to a big city with all these visions of the wonder and amazement it holds but no idea of the potential danger. Basically Carol doesn’t know any better.

Carol immediately gets some contractors to work to start getting the club up and running again. One evening a few of the contractors, led by a young Steve Buscemi, think Carol is giving them an invite to join her so they decide to pay her a visit. That actually isn’t the case at all, but they don’t care as they proceed to attack and sexually assault Carol. As she fights them off and makes a run for it police outside her the commotion. It ends with them shooting and killing an innocent boy.

When Carol goes to the police to discuss the situation they don’t really seem to care all that much about what happened to her. They imply that Carol was asking for it and hint at her ultimately being responsible for the death of an innocent kid. This is largely to do with the reputation of the club and her uncle. Apparently he was a very perverted man and that club was home to a lot of filth and sleaze. The assumption is that it must run in the family. They do finally agree to send a detective to investigate the situation but they make it clear that it’s not much of a priority.

At this point in the movie Heart of Midnight is already super weird but then it turns things up to 11. While this introduces some cool ideas and interesting visuals, it makes the story incredibly hard to follow. The movie almost feels like it’s trying to trick you. You’re never sure if what you’re seeing is real or is it all in Carol’s head or possibly a weird flashback or memory. The movie fails to establish any real rules so you can’t really make sense of it all. On the plus side the film does have some cool style present, so kudos to Chapman and DP Ray Rivas.

Even stranger than the plot is the music. Not that music itself is all that bizarre, but it was done by Yanni and that’s weird. I don’t really know Yanni as someone who does scores, but he did this one. A quick rundown of his IMDB resmue shows me he has done a few TV movies but Heart of Midnight is his lone theatrical release. So that’s a thing.

Overall the movie feels uneven and just incomplete story wise. There are some cool ideas at play and some wonderful moments, including a strong performance from the always enjoyable Leigh, but at the end of the day Heart of Midnight never really goes anywhere. It’s just kind of there. Sort of like a poor version of a Brian DePalma film. Kino Lorber does a strong job with the release, the transfer looks fantastic. And I am glad they’re releasing oddball titles like this one, I just wish the movie itself was better.

Heart of Midnight is out now on Blu-ray from Kino Lorber.