Midnight movie

In the United States, a midnight movie is a B movie or cult film shown at midnight, either at a cinema or on television.

The practice started in the 1950s with local television stations around the United States airing low-budget genre films as late-night programming, often with a host delivering sardonic asides. As a cinematic phenomenon, the midnight screening of offbeat movies began in the early 1970s in a few urban centers, particularly New York City, eventually spreading across the country. The screening of nonmainstream pictures at midnight was aimed at building a cult film audience, encouraging repeat viewing and social interaction in what was originally a countercultural setting.

The national success of The Rocky Horror Picture Show and the changing economics of the film exhibition industry altered the nature of the midnight movie phenomenon; as its association with broader trends of cultural and political opposition dwindled in the 1980s, the midnight movie became a more purely camp experience—in effect, bringing it closer to the television form that shares its name. The term midnight movie is now often used in two different, though related, ways: as a synonym for B movie, reflecting the relative cheapness characteristic of late-night movies both theatrically and on TV, and as a synonym for cult film.

Midnight Movie (film)

Midnight Movie is a 2008 United States horror film from Bigfoot Entertainment in the horror/slasher genre directed by Jack Messitt and produced by Kacy Andrews.

Plot

Forty years after directing and starring in a slasher movie, entitled The Dark Beneath, centred on a group of friends being killed by a masked killer, Ted Radford (Arthur Roberts) suffers a mental breakdown and is admitted to a psychiatric ward. In an attempt to cure Radford, his doctor (Richard Magarey) shows him the movie, despite the warnings of Dr. Wayne (Michael Swan). When Dr. Wayne arrives at the ward the following morning, he discovers evidence of a mass slaughter, however no bodies are to be found.

Five years later, a local theater is showing The Dark Beneath for the first time since the murders. The theater's staff, Bridget (Rebekah Brandes), Rachael (Brea Grant), and Kenny (Shaun Ausmus) welcome a small group of customers, including a biker couple, Harley (Stan Ellsworth) and Babe (Melissa Steach), Dr. Wayne and Detective Barrons (Jon Briddell), who both believe Radford will appear, and Bridget's boyfriend Josh (Daniel Bonjour), who is accompanied by his friend Mario (Greg Cirulnick), Mario's girlfriend Samantha (Mandell Maughan) and their awkward friend Sully (Michael Schwartz). Bridget's younger brother Timmy (Justin Baric) also arrives, but is sent home due to his age. As the movie is about to begin, Josh convinces Bridget to allow Kenny to be in charge so she can watch the movie with him.