Movies - Midnight movies

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	Movies - Midnight movies

Midnight movies were popular in the 1970s and early 1980s, before VCRs became readily available; showings typically began at midnight, hence the name. Movie musicals and cult movies were especially popular fare.

The first midnight movie is said to be El Topo
, which premiered in the United States in New York City during 1970. The Jamaican film The Harder They Come
had midnight showings regularly for six years, and helped spur the popularity of reggae in the US. Other popular midnight movies included David Lynch's Eraserhead
, John Waters's Pink Flamingos
, Monty Python and the Holy Grail
, Barbarella
, the Monkees's movie Head
, Led Zeppelin's The Song Remains the Same, and the Beatles's Magical Mystery Tour (a failed TV movie, which still had cult appeal).

One of the best-known, longest-running, and subsequently highest-grossing midnight movies is The Rocky Horror Picture Show
, which took on a life of its own when audience members began talking back to the screen, dressing up as characters in the film, and acting out scenes (with props) at repertory theater showings. Rocky Horror continues to play around the United States.

Among the most famous midnight-movie venues were the Orson Welles Theatre in Boston and the Elgin Theater in New York. With the advent of movie rentals and expanded channels on cable television, the appeal and popularity of midnight showings declined; few American cinemas still show movies at midnight, and these mostly in large cities.

Stuart Samuels wrote and directed a critically successful documentary entitled Midnight Movies: From the Margin to the Mainstream
based on his book of the same name. Jeffrey Hoberman and Jonathan Rosenbaum also wrote a book about the phenomenon, entitled Midnight Movies (1983).

Trivia

Midnight Movies is the name of a Los Angeles-based band.

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Midnight movies ]

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