Does anyone here miss going to the midnight movies?

[LeeVanCleef]

A recent story in the LA Times got me rethinking Sleepy's great thread on drive-ins (Does Anyone Here Miss Going to The Drive-In Movie? - Pinball Nirvana Forums). As much as I enjoyed drive-ins, there were a few years in my late teens in which I lived for the weekend midnight movies! There was a slightly run-down theater in Wichita that showed a decently eclectic (for Kansas, anyway) collection of films. The movies were, not surprisingly, heavy on rock films like the fantastic Who documentary The Kids are Alright, a Pink Floyd concert movie, and Gimme Shelter, the documentary on the Altamont disaster (I'm sure I saw that one at least five times). Oh, and how could I forget The Song Remains the Same? If there is anyone who stayed awake at a midnight screening of that Led Zeppelin opus, I'd sure like to hear how many No-Doz you had to take to do it!
And in the spirit of full disclosure, I should admit that I did go through a rather brief Rocky Horror phase ("LIPS! LIIIIIPS!" I guess you had to be there). Anyway, here's the original LA Times story. Although most of it talks about generic blockbusters showing at midnight, there is a mention of the wide variety of viewing choices available throughout LA (hope you've taken the time to catch Faces of Death on the big screen, Arne). And feel free to share your favorite midnight movie stories. You don't even have to mention whether you were sober or not!
http://www.latimes.com/entertainmen...-new-midnight-movies-20130505,0,7501850.story

 

[Coil_Smoke]

Glad you mentioned "The Rocky Horror Picture Show". It was the first thing I thought of when is saw this post. I went about 40 times and still shout at the screen when I see the DVD. Sober? ...Well maybe once. Yes I do miss those heady times. I had so many friends back then. This also reminds me of seeing the film "Dark Star"several times 'at the late night, double feature, picture show'.

 

[LeeVanCleef]

Wow! Dark Star! I haven't thought of that movie in years! My John Carpenter midnight movie was Assault on Precinct 13. Pretty terrifying in its own right. Of course, there were plenty of horror staples in my midnight moviegoing experience. One of my favorites was a double bill of Dawn of the Dead with this Italian zombie flick... that may have just been called Zombie! It contains one of the most cover-my-eyes scenes in any horror movie. A zombie smashes through a door, grabs a lithesome young beauty by the neck and then shows a sideview closeup of her eyeball moving closer and closer to a needle-sharp piece of splinter from the door. Then again, maybe it's just me. I've got a real thing about things jabbing me in the eyeball.

 

[sleepy]

I say... Luchio Fulci's "Zombi 2". That is the one that everyone who's seen it talks about.

A couple of Midnight Movies that I remember are Robert Downey Sr.'s "Putney Swope"
and Andy Warhol's Frankenstein 3D, aka "Flesh for Frankenstein".
Warhol produced this film, directed by Paul Morrissey.
I did not see it at midnight, though after suffering a sudden severe series of violent chills and fevers within the space of a half an hour while on the way to the theater that night, which was caused by the onset of Hepatitis B, well, it might as well have been Midnight.

 

[faralos]

ya' know I made a Rocky Horror picture show pin
it's posted at vpf it has about seven songs in it
I kind of screwed it though as I put too many areas in it
but the songs kick!
but back to the drive in question, I was young around 13 when
they plowed our local one under for the Willowbrook Mall in Wayne NJ
so I only got to go three times I think.
Course the last one was Blazing Saddles in a station wagon packed with 11 of us!
I will never forget that night and of course anything Mel Brooks does
is always fantastic and those two together made for a hell of an evening!

 

[faralos]

try to watch without laughing
Lesbian Zombies from Outer Space!
Ah hell of a flick and for another zombie one
watch Dead Snow! gotta' love squishy,
frozen (supposedly) Zombies!
this one is rather gory but for a funny one
watch AAAh Zombies! Yes that is its name the AAAh included

 

[sleepy]

I was always more partial to Arne Sultan.

 

[LeeVanCleef]

I say... Luchio Fulci's "Zombi 2". That is the one that everyone who's seen it talks about.

Ah, but the question is... have you seen it? I'm dying to know (pun intended) if that's the zombie movie I saw with that eye-gouging scene. I was nowhere near sober enough to remember the exact title when I saw it, and have never been sure of the actual name. And I'd love to see it again, just to see if it holds up to the high cinematic standards I set for myself as a drunk 17-year-old.
I never got to see Frankenstein in 3D, but I saw it in the first two dimensions. There was a period of about two years that whoever was running the Campus Activity Center at my old alma mater Wichita State (you know, this year's Final Four Cinderella story) ran some seriously cool movies including the Warhol one. It definitely lived up to Andy's reputation!
I think one important component of midnight movies I forgot to mention, and one I'm betting that there are a lot of nerds like me here who can appreciate, is the Monty Python oeuvre. Holy Grail, Life of Brian, And Now for Something Completely Different... all personal favorites from the midnight hour!

 

[Coil_Smoke]

Looks Like A Good One ?

try to watch without laughing
Lesbian Zombies from Outer Space!
Ah hell of a flick and for another zombie one
watch Dead Snow! gotta' love squishy,
frozen (supposedly) Zombies!
this one is rather gory but for a funny one
watch AAAh Zombies! Yes that is its name the AAAh included

A teazer/trailer from "Lesbian Zombies From Outer Space"
Lesbian Zombies from Outer Space - YouTube

 

[RockWizard]

Boy oh boy, I MISS the midnight features. Getting in line early to hold your "spot", and meeting with friends to watch the flick. There was a grocery store next to the theater and we would get drinks to have while waiting in line. WELL....by the time they let us in, we were well lubed.

I remember on viewing of Zeppelin's Song Remains The Same. The lights are barely off and screams of "crank it up" are starting. It keeps up..... Well, the print the theater had was a little on the worn side. Little by little, we're seeing more light in the feature. Then....it happened. The print bubbled up and burst. The damn thing looked like an acid dream that went bad. The theater went dark, then they brought up the lights. A few rows back, I hear, oh no man! I looked up and there was a 2 inch thick cloud of green smoke.... Ah, the days of being young........

 

[faralos]

course the best recent zombie flick has gotta' be
Shaun of the Dead a hilarious zombie film

 

[sleepy]

Yeah Bud! That "Bubble Experience" happened one night at The Fox Venice in the middle of "The PBS Commentary" segment of "The Groove Tube".

But the lights didn't come on. Instead, the projection booth cut to a rock interlude in 4 channel sound while the projectionist advanced the film stock past the burn cycle.
It was amazing to see Real Fire actually projected onto the silver screen out of the bubbling black and brown which appeared in the center of a mid shot of the round table discussion just after the sprocket lurched and the picture froze.

Hey! It's The Fox Venice Calendar from 1974. These were freely available all over Los Angeles and were usually found at Tower Records on The Strip, open 'til Midnight Seven Days a Week.

Or, you could have them delivered by mail to your home once a month. $2 per year.

 

[LeeVanCleef]

Hey! It's The Fox Venice Calendar from 1974. These were freely available all over Los Angeles and were usually found at Tower Records on The Strip, open 'til Midnight Seven Days a Week.

Or, you could have them delivered by mail to your home once a month. $2 per year.

Man! Now that's a list of Midnight Movies! I think I made my love of Beyond the Valley of the Dolls clear in the obit thread for its screenwriter, Roger Ebert. That, Clockwork, The Long Goodbye, Blazing Saddles... point me to the time machine!

 

[sleepy]

And don't forget to wear your long Mac and tote your Tokay
or smoke.

 

[sleepy]

I think the first time I went there, in '76, the double bill that night was The Grande Bouffe with Ken Russell's The Devils.

 

[sleepy]

And Yes. Rocky Horror was popular in L.A. running Midnight Shows at both The Nuart Theater in Santa Monica and The Fox Venice. Same with The Zep.

The other Big Midnight Movies here were John Waters' Pink Flamingos and, to a lesser extent, "Female Trouble" with Divine, but The Fox Venice ran those at 8 P.M.

And there was use of "Pink Floyd: Live at Pompeii "

 

[sleepy]

And...looking around, Zombie is also known as Zombi 2 (1979) and, no, I'm still waiting to see it myself with the comparisons to Dawn of the Dead (1979), but yes, it has a woman with "an extended eye problem", and a woman jumping from a boat after having lost her clothes.

 

[sleepy]

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[Shockman]

No. I don't miss it. I only did it a couple of times though, and it was only at a porn theater.

I better explain.

When I was young and sent to Portland Or to do work I would spend or pocket my motel expense allowance and spend the night there. It only costed about $3 and you could stay there as long as you wanted. Certain sounds would wake me up from time to time, but I slept.

 

[LeeVanCleef]

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Oh, screw you, Arne! You think I'm gonna watch that? i know what's waiting for me!

 

[LeeVanCleef]

Boy oh boy, I MISS the midnight features. Getting in line early to hold your "spot", and meeting with friends to watch the flick. There was a grocery store next to the theater and we would get drinks to have while waiting in line. WELL....by the time they let us in, we were well lubed.

I remember on viewing of Zeppelin's Song Remains The Same. The lights are barely off and screams of "crank it up" are starting. It keeps up..... Well, the print the theater had was a little on the worn side. Little by little, we're seeing more light in the feature. Then....it happened. The print bubbled up and burst. The damn thing looked like an acid dream that went bad. The theater went dark, then they brought up the lights. A few rows back, I hear, oh no man! I looked up and there was a 2 inch thick cloud of green smoke.... Ah, the days of being young........

Ah, but you've gotta answer the burning question, RockWizard... did you get to see all of TSRTS at a midnight movie, and did you stay awake through the entire film? I was a Zep fan, but the guy I went with was a Zep fanatic. Despite that, substances imbibed and the length of the movie caused us both to doze off at one point or another.

 

[Isaac Sauvage]

course the best recent zombie flick has gotta' be
Shaun of the Dead a hilarious zombie film

godammit, i need to watch that yesterday. a month ago i promised a buddy that i'd watch that if he watched some selection of mine.

speaking of parodies, i need to watch the kung fu hustle, too.

speaking of kung fu, that's prolly the only kind of midnight movie i watched, and only a few times at that, with a taiwanese buddy a long time ago. "the five deadly venoms" et al. yea, i'm sure i spent more midnight time playing miniature golf and pinball than i did going to theaters.

 

[JonPurpleHaze]

Oh, the memories....
I was initiated into the midnight movies in California by my older brother and then he was eventually replaced as the driver as we grew older. Where I lived, initially, the midnight movies almost always contained nudity and grew into serious parties when we knew the last tits were shown.

Kinda surprises me that no one mentioned Catch 22, that movie was a staple until more music and psychedelic peyote type films evolved, Rocky Horror came later. I fell in love with sweet chicks and Jimi Hendrix at the midnight movies!

 

[sleepy]

Jon, I'll bet you're talking about "Rainbow Bridge" though I haven't seen it yet.

One experience that I remember was in '71. My older brother "Al" and me went to a special Halloween Midnight showing. The last song on the radio before we exited the car was Hendrix' "Dolly Dagger".

This was my first experience with H. Gordon Lewis' and "Gruesome Twosome".
There were absolutely No Concessions sold that night. The hot dogs were still in the box when we left that theater gray-faced. There was one guy who sat behind us in the darkness and he laughed like a madman at every gore scene.

I could feel the bump of his bootheels in the back of my seat.