The “midnight movie” was a cinemagoing phenomenon which grew up in the 70s, out of the shlocky B-movie worlds of the drive-in and the grindhouse fleapit. Shrewd cinema managers in the United States sensed that there was a market among student audiences for alternative fare they could schedule at midnight, after the straight bill – relying on word-of-mouth for publicity. The result was a sensational, black-mass feel to these showings, with clouds of ganja instead of incense.
Peter Bradshaw,
Reviewing Stuart Samuels’s documentary ‘Midnight Movies: From the Margin to the Mainstream‘
They were pot-head movies that shared a group madness at midnight, that became a cult almost like a religion.
John Waters,
‘Midnight Movies: From the Margin to the Mainstream’
This site is an archive of materials relating to midnight movies, cult and underground cinema exhibition, put together by Tim Concannon.