Once upon a time, back before the theater chains bulldozed the locally owned cinemas out of existence, there was a phenomenon called the Midnight Movie. It was a magic time, boys and girls. A time of subversion. Of anarchy. It was wild, reckless, outlaw. The Midnight Movie.
Almost since the beginning of the motion picture, theaters would show edgy, adult-oriented movies at midnight. It was a good way to keep the toddlers out of the theater. But the Midnight Movie as we know know it started off in the early 1970's and ran until sometime in the early 80's.
Alejandro Jodorowsky's El Topo is widely considered to be the first true Midnight Movie. This wild, surreal, psychedelic Western was something that no one had seen or imagined before. El Topo opened at New York City's Elgin Theater in December 1970 and it astonishingly ran until June 1971. El Topo not only played, it routinely sold out on most of the nights it showed. This was the birth of a brand new audience for outre cinema. An audience whose brains were fueled by rock and roll music and psychedelic drugs.
Other movies followed suit, bringing in droves of freaks out to see things they couldn't see anywhere else. John Waters' Pink Flamingos did huge business at midnight shows, as did Peter Bogdonovich's first movie, Targets. Another early hit at the midnight screenings was the Jamaican-lensed crime thriller, The Harder They Come. Others followed suit, like Eraserhead, Arlo Guthrie's Alice's Restaurant, Heavy Metal, Night and Dawn of the Dead, and countless others.
Of course the most famous Midnight Movie was and is The Rocky Horror Picture Show. It still plays midnight shows in various theaters across the country. I personally never saw Rocky Horror at a midnight show. I looked at the people going in and decided quickly that it wasn't for me. I went instead to see things like Bloodsucking Freaks, A Boy and His Dog, and Flesh Gordon.
Older films like Reefer Madness were brought back and were played for their camp effect.
Rock and roll movies were also a big draw at the midnight shows. Led Zeppelin's The Song Remains The Same, Jimi at Berkeley, Pink Floyd Live at Pompeii, and numerous other concert films were shown.
The Midnight Movie phenomenon started out in the urban metropolises, like New York and L.A., but it quickly spread like a virus into the suburbs. I was fortunate enough to come in at the tail end and experienced a few years of it.
Folks, it was unbridled chaos. Illegal drugs were openly consumed. Alcohol was rampant. Young people were typically ripped to the gills and they howled with abandon at the insanity on the screen. And if sometimes the movie was a disappointment, it was always a blast to be there. It was a social event for the insane.
I went to so many. I saw Kentucky Fried Movie, Animal House, The Evil Dead, Monty Python's Life of Brian and The Holy Grail, Last House on the Left, The House on Sorority Row, Easy Rider, José Ramón Larraz's Vampyres. Heck, I don't remember them all. It's not like I was even close to sober at any of the shows.
As the 80's crept on, things began to change. Nobody wanted insanity in their neighborhoods any more. Idiots that couldn't control themselves began to destroy theater seats. Chains were forcing the little theaters out of existence. The Midnight Movies began to trickle down. Now none play any more around here.
Oh there are midnight shows. Popular films play at 12:01 AM on the day of their releases. One of the Twlight movies recently did enormous business at a midnight show. I don't think I have to tell you that it is far, far from the same thing. The kind of unfettered insanity that we used to enjoy is no longer tolerated. For all anyone knows, it could be terrorists creating all of that havoc. Better to up security and keep the kids pacified. It's safer that way, and besides, the little darlings need our protection.
I feel sorry for kids today. They don't have the Midnight Movies, they don't have drive-ins. Sure, there are some here and there still going on, but it's a neutered version of its former greatness. The kids have their X-Boxes, their Playstations. Their Ipods and their fancy phones. Recently a kid I work with was gushing over his expensive phone/computer (with all the apps, of course) and he said, "I don't know what people did before they had these!!!". I said, "We lived".
There's a pretty good documentary available on DVD that does a decent job of chronicling the Midnight Movie period. It's called, appropriately enough, Midnight Movies. I recommend it to anyone that was there, and especially to those that weren't.
Almost since the beginning of the motion picture, theaters would show edgy, adult-oriented movies at midnight. It was a good way to keep the toddlers out of the theater. But the Midnight Movie as we know know it started off in the early 1970's and ran until sometime in the early 80's.
Alejandro Jodorowsky's El Topo is widely considered to be the first true Midnight Movie. This wild, surreal, psychedelic Western was something that no one had seen or imagined before. El Topo opened at New York City's Elgin Theater in December 1970 and it astonishingly ran until June 1971. El Topo not only played, it routinely sold out on most of the nights it showed. This was the birth of a brand new audience for outre cinema. An audience whose brains were fueled by rock and roll music and psychedelic drugs.
Other movies followed suit, bringing in droves of freaks out to see things they couldn't see anywhere else. John Waters' Pink Flamingos did huge business at midnight shows, as did Peter Bogdonovich's first movie, Targets. Another early hit at the midnight screenings was the Jamaican-lensed crime thriller, The Harder They Come. Others followed suit, like Eraserhead, Arlo Guthrie's Alice's Restaurant, Heavy Metal, Night and Dawn of the Dead, and countless others.
Of course the most famous Midnight Movie was and is The Rocky Horror Picture Show. It still plays midnight shows in various theaters across the country. I personally never saw Rocky Horror at a midnight show. I looked at the people going in and decided quickly that it wasn't for me. I went instead to see things like Bloodsucking Freaks, A Boy and His Dog, and Flesh Gordon.
Older films like Reefer Madness were brought back and were played for their camp effect.
Rock and roll movies were also a big draw at the midnight shows. Led Zeppelin's The Song Remains The Same, Jimi at Berkeley, Pink Floyd Live at Pompeii, and numerous other concert films were shown.
The Midnight Movie phenomenon started out in the urban metropolises, like New York and L.A., but it quickly spread like a virus into the suburbs. I was fortunate enough to come in at the tail end and experienced a few years of it.
Folks, it was unbridled chaos. Illegal drugs were openly consumed. Alcohol was rampant. Young people were typically ripped to the gills and they howled with abandon at the insanity on the screen. And if sometimes the movie was a disappointment, it was always a blast to be there. It was a social event for the insane.
I went to so many. I saw Kentucky Fried Movie, Animal House, The Evil Dead, Monty Python's Life of Brian and The Holy Grail, Last House on the Left, The House on Sorority Row, Easy Rider, José Ramón Larraz's Vampyres. Heck, I don't remember them all. It's not like I was even close to sober at any of the shows.
As the 80's crept on, things began to change. Nobody wanted insanity in their neighborhoods any more. Idiots that couldn't control themselves began to destroy theater seats. Chains were forcing the little theaters out of existence. The Midnight Movies began to trickle down. Now none play any more around here.
Oh there are midnight shows. Popular films play at 12:01 AM on the day of their releases. One of the Twlight movies recently did enormous business at a midnight show. I don't think I have to tell you that it is far, far from the same thing. The kind of unfettered insanity that we used to enjoy is no longer tolerated. For all anyone knows, it could be terrorists creating all of that havoc. Better to up security and keep the kids pacified. It's safer that way, and besides, the little darlings need our protection.
I feel sorry for kids today. They don't have the Midnight Movies, they don't have drive-ins. Sure, there are some here and there still going on, but it's a neutered version of its former greatness. The kids have their X-Boxes, their Playstations. Their Ipods and their fancy phones. Recently a kid I work with was gushing over his expensive phone/computer (with all the apps, of course) and he said, "I don't know what people did before they had these!!!". I said, "We lived".
There's a pretty good documentary available on DVD that does a decent job of chronicling the Midnight Movie period. It's called, appropriately enough, Midnight Movies. I recommend it to anyone that was there, and especially to those that weren't.
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