10 to Midnight

1983 "A cop... A killer... A deadline..."
10 to Midnight
6.3| 1h42m| R| en| More Info
Released: 11 March 1983 Released
Producted By: City Film
Country: United States of America
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website:
Synopsis

Warren Stacy, an office equipment repairman, begins murdering women after they reject his advances. To minimize the evidence, Stacy always kills while naked, wearing nothing but gloves, and further evades the law with his strong alibis. Veteran detective Leo Kessler is convinced of Stacy's guilt and begins using questionable methods to catch him.

... View More
Stream Online

The movie is currently not available onine

Director

Producted By

City Film

Trailers & Images

Reviews

Fella_shibby I first saw this on a VHS in the mid 80s. Bronson as a cop in this film or as a vigilante in Death Wish films? It is unfortunate that Bronson's name became associated with these violent films, as his acting talents were wasted on these mediocre roles and screenplays. It has lots of naked knifings, bare breasts, and blood spatters. If Bronson n Thompson's name weren't associated with this film, it would hav been jus a cheesy typical 80s slasher flick. Some of Bronson n Thompson's collaborations were amazing action flicks. The killer is shown from the beginning and there is no mystery in that, but his methods of killing are whats interesting. Gene Davis was noteworthy The ending chase scene shud b seen to b believed, very cheesy.
Predrag Of all the career ending movies Charles Bronson made for Cannon films in the mid-to-late eighties, "10 to Midnight" is the best. He plays a cop trying too hard to catch a smart, handsome, and devilishly twisted psycho killer (Gene Davis). When the game of cat and mouse eventually snags the cop's daughter (Lisa Eilbacher), he takes a desperate gamble to catch the crafty murderer. Director J. Lee Thompson masterfully blends the Dirty Harry Rogue Cop thriller with some slasher film moments of brutal terror that will have viewers squirming in their seats.Gene Davis" plays a sexually repressed psychopath whom of course has "mother issues" he kills women while he is nude,so killing while naked was fashionable way before Christian Bale's "Patrick Bateman" did it.This film has elements of the Richard Speck story "Chicago Massacre" but still stays original. You could call it a slasher because the killer does slash his victims and there are some good kill scenes, but it's basically a psychological thriller... The story is good and the action is nonstop.Bronson is on top of his game in this movie especially since the character that plays his daughter "Lisa Eilbacher" lives in the student nurse dorm that is being terrorized by the naked killer. This film is quite well done and realistic despite 1983's ingenuity and technology which certainly can't compete with today high tech electronics and computerized fractal science.Overall rating: 8 out of 10.
FlashCallahan Paul McAnn teams up with Detective Leo Kessler to investigate the murder of Betty Johnson and her boyfriend, by a naked killer in a park. Kessler recognises the victim, as they lived in the same neighbourhood many years ago. The killer, Warren Stacey, goes to the funeral and overhears Betty's father telling Kessler that his daughter had a diary. He breaks in Betty's apartment and kills her roommate trying to find the diary. But Karen had already delivered the journal to Kessler, who is sure that Warren is the killer and her plants evidence in his apartment.Now Warren is stalking his daughter to revenge against her father....In the eighties, The Cannon group made some really good films, the kind you would watch on a Friday night with your dad. And Bronson was the king of Cannon movies.This has to be one of his best, because its not just straightforward action, in fact, Thompson pulls a double whammy, cashing in on the Death Wish movies, and cashing in on the slasher movies of the early eighties.Other than that, its Bronson being Bronson, staring at people from bridges and nosing through people's bathrooms.The rest of the support are good, particularly Elibacher as his daughter. But unfortunately he same cannot be said for the guy who played Stacey. I'm sure he thought his motivation was 'robots' because he moves like one, and seems to think that he should approach his victims in the slowest way possible.But he's my only gripe, its a brilliant thriller, and it must have threw audiences back in 1983, as its so ungeneric, compared to other cop thrillers around his time.Its obviously influenced by Bundy, but if you like Bronson and Cannon, this is for you.
Jonathon Dabell Charles Bronson and director J. Lee-Thompson made nine movies together, and 10 To Midnight certainly makes a worthy attempt at being the kinkiest, sleaziest and most violent of the lot. I expected this to be a real bottom-of-the-barrel entry considering the subject matter, and the fact that Bronson was appearing in one tired revenge-fantasy after another at this point of his career, but Ten To Midnight isn't a total loss. It has a few entertaining set pieces, an interesting moral core, a modicum of suspense during some of the murder sequences, and a decent enough soundtrack courtesy of Robert O. Ragland. Alas, when all is said and done, it is still a fundamentally unpleasant exploitation piece in which the slaying of nubile – and often nude - young women, by a naked knife-wielding psycho no less, is served up for our viewing pleasure. It's not exactly art… it's one of those movies you need to come into accepting for what it is.Weird and voyeuristic office youth Warren Stacy (Gene Davis) has a real problem with women, especially when his overbearing advances are met with rejection and humiliation. However, he gets his revenge by tracking down any women that have refused him and brutally murdering them with a huge knife. Rather perversely, he commits these killings in the nude to avoid leaving any fibres or other incriminating evidence at the crime scene. Old-fashioned cop Leo Kessler (Charles Bronson) is assigned to catch the killer, and partnered with inexperienced rookie Paul McAnn (Andrew Stevens). It doesn't take them long to figure out that Stacy is their man, but pinning evidence on him proves a much trickier challenge. Ultimately Kessler decides to plant incriminating evidence to get the killer jailed, but his plan goes awry and Stacy is soon back on the streets feeling meaner than ever. With Kessler's daughter Laurie (Lisa Eilbacher) the next in line to be killed, it becomes a race against time to stop the psycho before he strikes again…10 To Midnight is not an especially well-acted film. Bronson is in his typically wooden '80s mode; Stevens spends the movie looking handsome but vacant; and Davis looks physically powerful as the bad guy but sounds kind of goofy as soon as he speaks in his peculiar "idiot-drawl". Of the main characters, Eilbacher at least does OK as Kessler's daughter and the killer's potential next target. There are some lulls between the murders and action bits, and the film struggles to maintain much interest when it isn't focusing on these sensational aspects. But fans of Bronson's unique style of squalid, simple, blood-and-thunder action flicks will probably come away satisfied, while the rest of us are left to pick at occasional morsels of quality in an otherwise exploitative potboiler.