'12 To Midnight' Ending Explained & Movie Recap: Who Was The Werewolf?

I wasn’t familiar with Robert Bronzi’s wild career as an actor, carpenter, musician, and horseman until Mark Savage’s 12 to Midnight fell into my lap. And after watching this insanely entertaining film, which has the look and feel of a home movie (let’s face it, nobody in the crew took it seriously), I can see why Bronzi’s all the rage. But even his Wild West gunslinging and man-of-few-words mysterious air couldn’t make Savage’s film much better than Threat Level Midnight (I hope you get this The Office reference). But I also have to admit that this supremely bad tale of a werewolf and a grieving detective is the funniest thing I’ve seen in a while. So, let’s see what all the fuss is about.

Spoilers Ahead 

Detective Toth has a reputation for being sort of trigger happy. He probably would’ve found a way to put that behind him had he not been very unlucky. Someone murdered his wife in his own backyard. Losing the person he loved the most in the world was hard enough on Toth. But being unable to find the perpetrator has been eating away at him. His pain and frustration make him a big headache for Captain Rhodes. And I bet those two armed thieves who had a run-in with him in the opening scene weren’t too thrilled to have met him either. A drunk Toth shot those delinquents point-blank. And then on his way back home, he saved a stranger, Peter, from killing himself. But as his boss, who has to bear the brunt for his actions, Rhodes only cares about the dead thieves. So Toth’s ordered to surrender his gun and badge. But he soon gets them back when an influencer is murdered near the railroads, that too in a way that matches the MO of the perp who killed Toth’s wife.

What’s interesting about these kills is that both the victims looked like they were mauled by some rabid animal. But Toth’s aware that the killer he’s looking for doesn’t walk on all fours. And then there’s the factor that in the video that the influencer made before being killed, there was the silhouette of a man in the train right behind her. But none of that is the reason why Rhodes gives Toth the case and sends another of his detectives, Jenkins, with him to check out the crime scene. The killer scratched “Toth, stop me,” on the train. And while Rhodes is of the idea that the killer’s taunting him, it’s also very possible that the killer was asking Toth to put an end to their murder spree. The railroad’s security guy, McMahon, has done a pretty great job of coming off as suspicious by denying that he saw the influencer before she was killed. He’s obviously trying to avoid taking blame for groping her right before her death, but the influencer mentioned that incident in the video, which only means that the cops are going to keep an eye on him. Now, Toth knows that McMahon’s not his man. He finds pieces of coal in the traincar and goes to the nearby abandoned mines. That’s where he finds a handful of fur. Rhodes is pretty uncomfortable with entertaining the possibility that their victims were killed by an urban legend. But when we see that prostitute get killed in the woods, we get a good look at the werewolf that’s behind these gruesome kills.

Toth even saves us some contemplation by mentioning that the legend implies that the longer a person’s been a werewolf, the more chances there are of them changing during the day. That explains why our wolf buddy rips the two poor girls to shreds in the lake by the woods. But that area falls under the jurisdiction of Sheriff Cooper, and she’s in no mood to let Toth snoop around. But when Toth gets some intel and finds out that McMahon has property in that area, he has a solid reason to go after him. McMahon’s so jumpy because he’s in the drug business. Even Toth knows that he’s not the killer. So I think it’s Toth’s need to vent his rage that makes him kill McMahon. In any case, he’s done the world a favor by taking out that trash. Cooper only agrees to speak to Toth because Rhodes filled her in on the murder cases with the same MO. But she really feels a connection with Toth based on the fact that he’s lost his wife. Cooper has recently lost her husband too. And she hasn’t been able to feel a moment of respite from the terrible pain even though she’s put his killer behind bars. So Cooper actually understands the source of Toth’s anger. It’s only after Toth talks to Cooper that he finds the courage to drop the bottle in the trash can. It’s a hopeful sign that he’s found the strength to do what he needs to do with a clear head. 

Wanna know something funny? Before I started the movie, I thought it’d be a “Memento” situation. And when the werewolf factor was introduced, I thought it was gonna be a werewolf “Memento” sort of thing. But the film makes it pretty clear soon enough that Detective Toth isn’t the werewolf. Then there was Peter to consider. 12 to Midnight kind of set him up for our suspicion with that whole suicide attempt. We’re bound to think that the guilt of killing was weighing on him, and maybe that’s why he was trying to kill himself. And we’ve got Marco too, Toth’s buff friend who used to be a football star player. He lives all alone near the mines. So it makes sense to wonder what he gets up to out there. 

The climax clears these two doubts one by one, though. First, we have Sheriff Cooper’s daughter coming to town. And when she befriends Peter on the train and he takes her for a photography tour of the mines, we’re scared for her life. But when the growl comes from afar, we know that Peter’s not the werewolf. Poor guy has his heart ripped out of his chest by the creature. Cooper shows up right on time to save her daughter and scares the werewolf away. By that point, Toth had shown up at Marco’s place looking for the werewolf. And what do you know? Marco would’ve been a snack for the wolf if Toth hadn’t been there.

In 12 to Midnight’s ending, it seems like Toth was just messing with Rhodes when he told him that the silver bullet thing was bogus. He melts his silver cross and makes bullets that’ll take care of the werewolf. By now, he’s figured out the identity of the werewolf. When he recalls the conversation he had with Jenkins at the bar, he remembers that Jenkins mentioned being really attached to the old mines. Jenkins wasn’t really at his best when he dragged his wobbly legs out of the bar. But unlike what Rhodes believed, it wasn’t because Jenkins was a lightweight who couldn’t handle his booze. Jenkins started turning. 

In the ending of 12 to Midnight, wounded by Toth’s bullet, Jenkins confesses that ever since he was attacked by something with yellow eyes near the mines, he’s been turning into this vicious werewolf. Even though he comes clean about having killed Toth’s wife, Toth understands that, given that was Jenkins’ first time turning, he didn’t know what he was doing. He doesn’t want to kill Jenkins. But when his life and that of Cooper are threatened, he doesn’t hesitate to put a bullet into Jenkins and put an end to his miserable existence. But the terror is far from over. In 12 to Midnight’s closing scene, when Toth, Cooper, and Marco are hanging out, we see Marco’s eyes glow a menacing yellow. He must’ve caught the werewolf infection when he was attacked by Jenkins, who bit a chunk of his flesh off. If we assume that the infection only spreads through the blood of the werewolf, that’d explain why Cooper and Toth are okay despite being scratched by the werewolf. But if we dare to go a little crazy with theories, then it’s possible that Marco’s always been the yellow-eyed alpha, the one who turned Jenkins in the first place. In either case, I hope Toth’s holding on to his cool gun and those silver bullets. The town’s gonna need him to protect them against the wrath of a vicious urban legend.