Midnight Killer
Italian theatrical release poster by Enzo Sciotti[2]
Directed by	Lamberto Bava
Screenplay by	Lamberto Bava Dardano Sacchetti[1]
Story by	Dardano Sacchetti[3]
Produced by	Lamberto Bava Massimo Manasse Marco Grillo Spina[1]
Starring	Paolo Malco Valeria D'Boichi Leonardo Treviglio
Cinematography	Gianlorenzo Battaglia[1]
Edited by	Lamberto Bava[1]
Music by	Claudio Simonetti[1]
Production companies	Dania Film Reteitalia[3]
Distributed by	Medusa[4]
Release date	1986
Running time	88 minutes[3]
Country	Italy[1]

Midnight Killer (Italian: Morirai a mezzanotte, lit. 'To Die at Midnight') is a 1986 Italian giallo film starring Valeria D'Obici and Leonardo Treviglio, and directed by Lamberto Bava.^[3]

Plot

A mysterious serial killer murders the wife of a police officer, and the officer is suspected of the murder. Anna, a criminologist who is investigating the case of the legendary "Midnight Ripper" (a sex maniac who died years earlier) believes the policeman is innocent and suspects that the Ripper is still alive.

Cast

Production

Midnight Killer was Lamberto Bava's second giallo film and was initially developed as a television film.^[1][4] Bava later stated he was uneasy making these types of films, stating that "I find doing scenes where women get stabbed to death repugnant. Dario Argento does it so well, but I feel sick as soon as I see the knife in the murderer's hand"^[1]

Release

Midnight Killer was released in 1986.^[4][5] It was released on home video in Denmark as You'll Die at Midnight and in France as Midnight Horror.^[3]

Reception

From retrospective reviews, Italian film critic and historian Roberto Curti declared the film as "drab and hardly engrossing, with only sequences set in a hotel standing by the sea standing out."^[4] Adrian Luther-Smith in his book Blood & Black Lace found the film to be "hardly a ground-breaking genre entry" while it still had enough style and imagery to make it a must-see for giallo regulars.^[3]