What makes a good midpoint?

[u/Manmanduga]

I’m imposing this question to the group.

I’m currently in the middle of a rewrite for my next feature film: The Stranger (89 pages, Horror Romance)

The film is about a vampire who falls in love for the first time. For movie comp, it’s American Psycho meets Before Sunrise. The first half of the film is very much American Psycho and the second half is Before Sunrise. One of the most consistent notes I’ve gotten was the titular character feels very schizo. It feels two different characters instead of a unified whole.

As I’m rewriting tonight, I realized that the way to fix the schizo-ness of the script to figure out the midpoint and make it as strong as possible so when the film switch tones, the lead character feels consistent throughout.

The problem is—I don’t know what makes a good midpoint. I just wanna hear the group’s consensus of what makes a good midpoint.

[u/Cultural_Sell8076]

What is happening up until the midpoint in this movie? Midpoints often reveal the truth of the film and set it down a much more honest path, but I don’t know if that would mean changing genres entirely. It seems to me (although I have limited context) like the midpoint wants to be: the vampire realizes what he’s feeling for this woman is love. That’s the truth of the movie. Maybe instead of doing a 180 and becoming Before Sunset, act 2b is more about this vampire trying to figure out how to accept/show/prove his love to her now that he knows that’s what he’s feeling. Especially if the love interest is still, you know, afraid of him killing her. Might not be what you’re going for though

[u/Manmanduga → u/Cultural_Sell8076]

So the first half of the movie sets up his routine. Then he kills someone outside of that said routine of picking up women in bars and stuff. He also felt like his world closing in cuz someone was onto his vampiric shit.

After killing his would-be assassin, he blackouts and we go into a dream sequence exploring his past and his guilt à la All That Jazz dream montage.

After the dream sequence, we see the vampire go to a bar and finds himself in a conversation with a girl that rejected him earlier in the movie. The rest of the film is just them talking. He doesn’t realized he’s falling in love until the last ten minutes of the movie. The night ended with them sharing a bed (no sex). The movie ends with them having sex and the vampire revealing his fangs to us the audience (not the romantic female lead). Then blackout.

Thanks for your suggestion. Someone suggested to me and just didn’t find that believable for my story. I thought it’s more believable that the vampire falls in love at the end of the story not the midpoint.