midnight movies
After-hours film showings
Midnight movies are films screened late at night, typically starting around midnight, often in repertory or independent theaters.
The term evokes cult classics, horror films, and offbeat fare that attract devoted audiences: Rocky Horror Picture Show became the quintessential midnight movie.
The format peaked in the 1970s and 80s but persists in art-house venues.
By extension, any film with cult appeal or transgressive content might be called a midnight movie regardless of when it screens.
- grindhouseLow-budget film theater
- horrorsDeeply disturbing things
- slasher flickHorror featuring serial killer
- cult classicsNiche works with passionate devotees
- cult followingPassionate niche audience
blaxploitation · exploitation film · Ed Wood · schlock · counterculture · John Waters · camp · double feature · drive-in · popcorn bucket · late-night · underground movement · cult · phantasmagoria · DIY ethos · arthouse · screening · thrillers
- entertainment historyvaudeville, silent films, talkies, Hollywood, radio drama
- film culturefilm festivals, retrospectives, premieres, film archives, drive-ins
- arthouse cinemaarthouse, arthouse cinema, art films, art house films, indie films
- B-moviesexploitation film, exploitation films, cult film, cult classic, cult classics
- Cult FilmsEraserhead, The Room, Donnie Darko, Napoleon Dynamite, Army of Darkness
- horrorhorror, terror, fear, dread, haunted