Sister Midnight (UK/India, 2024)

Although Sister Midnight has been well reviewed and it appeared on a number of critics’ best-of lists for the year so far, it does seem to be something of a sleeper. It’s not a film I really see discussed online. Maybe people expected a film set in Mumbai to be more like a Bollywood movie, or its unusual approach to genre might have made it difficult to market. Whatever the reason, this is a film that deserves a lot more attention.

While it’s too early to say for sure, I’d be surprised if Sister Midnight doesn’t make my top three for the month.

Sister Midnight is currently available to rent in the UK.

Synopsis

Newlywed Uma moves from the countryside to Mumbai with her husband Gopal, a man she hardly knows. While Gopal goes off to work and drinks late into the evening with his colleagues, Uma sits alone in their one-room home and struggles to find a new identity for herself. While a friendly neighbour helps her adapt to domesticity, Uma finds her main comfort in going for long walks at night.

As she embraces this nocturnal existence, Uma finds herself changing in other ways. The sunshine begins to feel cold to her and she complains about strange sounds no one else can hear. Her skin grows paler, prompting women she meets to ask what skin-whitening cream she uses. Strangest of all, she develops a taste for blood, feeding on small animals that never quite stay dead afterwards.

The more Uma explores this new existence, the more difficult she finds it to connect with the daylight world. Is there any way back for her? And why would she even want that that life again anyway?

General Thoughts

From the synopsis, you can probably infer that Sister Midnight is a vampire film. And, sure, it’s about someone who goes out at night and drinks blood. Even so, this doesn’t feel like any vampire story I’ve seen or read. Uma is never bitten by anyone — hell, we never even see another vampire in the film — and she comes across more as a depressed goth than a predatory creature of the night.

That said, Uma does still go out on some awkward nocturnal hunts for goats and birds to sate her growing thirst for blood. These hunting scenes are very funny, especially as she apologises to her prey every time. It’s easier to see Uma as a dysfunctional Disney princess than a modern-day Carmilla.

When the animals she feeds on return from the dead, their movements are jerky, conveyed through stop motion. The first time this happened, I wondered if budgetary constraints made it look so artificial, but the cumulative effect is so weird and creepy that it must be a stylistic choice. This is a film with very few visual effects, but these went a long way towards setting the tone.

Verdict

For the first half-hour of Sister Midnight, I wondered why it was marketed as a horror film. It takes its time introducing any weird elements, and even then they are subtle and ambiguous. Don’t get me wrong — I found myself completely caught up in the absurdity of Uma’s life — but it to be pure black comedy.

But the story grows more and more grotesque as it goes on. It never stops being funny, but the humour shifts from Uma’s awkwardness to the sheer bloody strangeness of her situation. Even when there is violence, it is played more for slapstick than shocks. Ultimately, Sister Midnight is a comedy/drama that uses elements of horror, but it is still more than dark enough to win over horror fans.

What makes Sister Midnight work more than anything else is the way it is told. There is no exposition, no explanation of what is happening to Uma, only escalating weirdness. The direction, cinematography and editing work together perfectly in a way that reminds me of Takeshi Kitano at his best, framing scenes tightly, like little snapshots into Uma’s disintegrating existence.

Sister Midnight is now the strongest contender for my film of the month. It’s a beautiful, ambitious, and slightly deranged piece of cinema, and quite unlike anything else I’ve seen.

The October Horror Movie Challenge

Please do join in and share your own thoughts with us about this or any other films as the month goes on. You can usually find us on BlueSky, Reddit, Discord, or lurking in the dark corners of your home.

If you would like to play along at home, my provisional selections are:

Heretic (USA, 2024)
The Sadness (Taiwan, 2021)
The Uninvited (USA, 1944)
The Lodge (UK/USA, 2019)
WolfCop (Canada, 2014)
Valerie and Her Week of Wonders (Czechoslovakia, 1970)
The Monkey (USA, 2025)
Sister Midnight (India/UK, 2024)
Roadgames (Australia, 1981)
Nightmare City (Italy, 1985)
Dangerous Animals (Australia, 2025)
Dead Talents Society (Taiwan, 2024)
Winterbeast (USA, 1992)
Byzantium (UK/Ireland, 2013)
The Ugly Stepsister (Norway, 2025)
A Page of Madness (Japan, 1926)
Heart Eyes (USA, 2025)
Grafted (New Zealand, 2024)
Arrebato (Spain, 1979)
Hatching (Finland, 2022)
Abigail (USA, 2024)
Ganja & Hess (USA, 1973)
The Devil’s Bath (Austria, 2025)
Pieces (Spain, 1982)
Infested (France, 2023)
Best Wishes to All (Japan, 2022)
A Cat in the Brain (Italy, 1990)
Enys Men (UK, 2022)
Creature From the Black Lagoon (USA, 1954)
Perewangan (Indonesia, 2024)
Bring Her Back (Australia, 2025)

A Final Note

If you have been enticed here by these posts, please do look around at some of our other film reviews. We also have a podcast, called The Good Friends of Jackson Elias, which occasionally covers horror films. If this appeals, you might want to check out some of the following episodes.