A quick litmus test: if patrons relish the hideous Saw and Hostel franchises, this gory horror anthology fits in, with a little deviant sex and voyeurism added.
The setting is the Soho area of London on Valentine's Day night. Disheveled businessman Graham (Richard Cotton) is tipped off by a drinking buddy to Midnight Peepshow, one of those sex parlors in which women "show all" behind the small windows in private booths. But here—in a sly exposition gimmick—Graham's staring at teasing, performing females cues three separate gruesome tales of lust, death, and bad relationships.
First, an unhappily married couple living in the same building as a dance club—constantly subjected to an endless throbbing bass beat—finds their miserable Valentine's night disrupted by a home invasion from a violent armed man who claims to be a laid-off DJ. But don't be quick to judge; things are not what they appear.
The second story is a very Saw-like affair, with a woman in bridal attire and three 'suitors' imprisoned with electro-shock collars in a high-tech dungeon, forced to play the rude party game wherein one chooses which partner to, er, make love to (we're being euphemistic here), marry, or kill. There's a cameo by Zach Galligan, the Hollywood actor who is probably the most recognizable name among the mixed cast.
The longest and best-realized segment goes into detail about the sinister and longstanding Soho vice enterprise, Black Rabbit, that is behind the peepshow. Now we are back with Graham, whose wife Isabel (Sara Diamond) can only get excited with him by role-playing as a prostitute. Graham is no longer amused when Isabel, tempted by Black Rabbit's website, assumes a lascivious persona as "Jezebel" and begins haunting the streets. Graham tries to visit the Black Rabbit lair, and the results are bloody and cruel indeed. The finale takes the material into the truly paranormal territory, complete with a chainsaw that seems to defy the laws of physics.
For a picture that intends to transgress, Midnight Peepshow does a few worthy (maybe) things. Sex usually happens fully clothed, and actual nudity is sparse. In the wraparound-yarn twist ending, what seems to be material portraying women as depraved and lecherous ends up kinda-sorta condemning the exploitation of females by obliviously callous partners. Although four directors put the portmanteau together (all males—of course—Andy Edwards, Airell Anthony Hayles, Ludovica Musumeci, and Jake West), it has consistency in its lurid tone, and actors go through the stuff bravely.
Extreme-horror fans will be tempted, of course, but Midnight Peepshow is an optional purchase for mainstream public library collections, though maybe an adventurous choice in somewhat perverse Valentine's Day displays.