Writer/director/producer Ansel Faraj has gifted us an outstanding treat: the expressive, short film, Screening After Midnight (a Theatre Fantastique Halloween 2025 Special).
The film depicts an impassioned collector, Douglas Eames' Rick Farnham, who seeks a mysterious man named Mr. Endore, portrayed by David Selby of Dark Shadows and Faraj's Loon Lake, who claims to possess a copy of Tod Browning/Lon Chaney Sr.'s long-lost London After Midnight. However, as Endore comes to explain, he's merely the movie's caretaker. For Farnham to see the print, he must meet the actual owner, played by the haunting Elyse Ashton, though as Farnham's luck would have it, there's a frightful "cost of admission" attached.
Faraj cowrote his tale with Daniel Titley (the leading historian on the Browning/Chaney production and author of the acclaimed book, London After Midnight: The Lost Film). Faraj and Titley made their tribute "silent" (even though it's capped by a sound portion rendered in the delightful, Edward Van Sloan vein). To accentuate the old-school approach, Faraj even enlivened the script with splendid, black-and-white, Hollywood imagery, which is embellished by Geoffrey Burch's spellbinding score, with the film's leads simulating the acting style of the era, being captivating, if not downright mesmerizing, in their interactions. Truly, the artistic culmination left me on the edge of my seat from beginning to end, and the ending is (wow!) unforgettable for its fierce, cinematic twist.
Screening After Midnight is dark yet joyous, original yet traditional: without question, the best of both worlds. Above all, it mirrors our hopes and dreams that a print of London After Midnight might be discovered, that at long last we might see it, relish it, though without the unsettling catch that poor Farnham undergoes.
Experience Screening After Midnight as soon as you can. You're destined to come away chilled, enthralled and uplifted.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ERHirJDajnc
And for those interested in Dan Titley's book, it can be purchased at Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1399942549?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title
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