Top 10 Midnight Horror Movies
The showing of “midnight movies,” a term and practice that originated in the 1950s but came to fruition in the 1970s, is a fond tradition celebrating bizarro genre film. Typically, films shown during the late-night timeslot were not for mainstream sensibilities and thus veered in whatever direction the filmmakers wanted or accidentally stumbled in, playing with genre, taste, sexual or violent content, technical approach, whatever. Sometimes, midnight movies had nowhere else to play because no one wanted to see them, or a variety of factors had prevented them from establishing a wide audience. But of course, other times, these sorts of flicks were exactly what people were looking for. It’s not surprising that midnight movies became popular in their own right, especially because the term is so widely encompassing, and has since basically become a synonym for a B movie or cult film. This list is focused on horror movies that fall under this umbrella. All these films are weird in their own way and, in the estimation of some, badly made. But there’s a common quality among them: a sense of passion or earnestness, that the filmmakers believed in what they were doing even if they weren’t doing it especially competently. Honorable mentions include Slumber Party Massacre II, Elves, Mausoleum, Zombi 3, and Night Train to Terror.
10. The Suckling (1990; dir: Francis Teri)
This is the heartwarming story of a prostitute who aborts her fetus and flushes it down the toilet. Once in the sewers, it encounters toxic waste that mutates it into a bloodthirsty beast that returns to the brothel for vengeance. This is real low-grade, bananas filmmaking. The monster looks pretty awesome and the special effects in general are swell. This, combined with a bunch of bonkers storytelling choices, makes The Suckling a very amusing foray into trash cinema.
9. Nightbeast (1982; dir: Don Dohler)
Don Dohler’s exploitation masterpiece is notable for a couple of things: (1) The filmmaking debut of J.J. Abrams, who wrote the score, and (2) perhaps the least-erotic sex scene ever filmed. Other than those milestones, Nightbeast also offers a nasty beastie in a silver tracksuit, some fun gore, and a really, really extended broad-daylight shootout. It’s also a “higher budget” (that phrase is doing a lot of work here) remake of Dohler’s debut, The Alien Factor (1978).
8. Burial Ground (1981; dir: Andrea Bianchi)
The Italians typically do zombies well, as evidenced by the brilliance of Lucio Fulci. Andrea Bianchi’s entry in the oeuvre isn’t quite on that level, but it gets a million points for unorthodoxy. This flick is cemented in history by adult actor Peter Bark’s absolutely peculiar performance as a bowl-cutted little boy with significant oedipal issues, as well as a cringe-inducing zombie breast-feeding scene. The movie as a whole is a little slow, but the unusual performances, striking zombie makeup, and gothic setting make it very watchable.
7. Demon Wind (1990; dir: Charles Philip Moore)
Though Demon Wind is primarily a less-competent riff on Evil Dead — a group of college-aged kids stuck in a house, stalked by demons — it’s no less enjoyable. From zany characters (a martial artist magician playing a solo game of soda can hacky sack) to gruesome creatures to a pretty killer score, there’s a lot to like about this movie, even if much of it seems concocted by folks who were not top of their classes at film school. Like many of the films on this list, a lot of passion helps overcome a lot of technical inexperience.
6. Blood Rage (1987; dir: John Grissmer)
This is one of the few Thanksgiving-focused horror movies, and it’s definitely the best. Mark Soper is having the time of his life playing dual roles as twins, one of who is a gleefully bloodthirsty serial killer, and Louise Lasser is absolutely deranged as the twins’ mom. The movie has a ton of over-the-top gore, the aforementioned mesmerizing performances, and wonderful music from Richard Einhorn. On top of all that, Blood Rage spawned the immortal line, “That’s not cranberry sauce!”
5. Spookies (1986; dir: Brendan Faulkner, Thomas Doran, Eugenie Joseph)
The production of this movie is the stuff of legends. It was birthed as a passion project by one group of filmmakers, who were later essentially fired by the financier, who later hired a completely different team to shoot additional scenes that were edited in without a care in the world about cohesiveness. The resulting movie is kooky and often nonsensical, but it’s filled with terrifically fun special effects, including a range of great monsters, and, like many movies on this list, a really effectively moody score. Spookies is a very atmospheric and joyful watch, despite all its flaws, and it just presses so many of the right buttons for me as a kid of the ‘80s.
4. Street Trash (1987; dir: J. Michael Muro)
This is perhaps one of the most revolting movies ever made, and a prime example of the appropriately named microgenre of “melt movies,” which features people, well, melting. As indicated by its title, this is trashiness at its apex, stuffed with crude jokes, crude characters, and crude gore, and it definitely will offend the sensibilities of most people. But, Street Trash is also the ultimate flick to watch with a group of inebriated friends. It’s unbelievably excessive in every way and doesn’t bother to stop and sense-check any of it. It’s a 100 mph drag race through skid row.
3. Xtro (1983; dir: Harry Bromley Davenport)
Harry Bromley Davenport’s best-known work is a real oddity, going for an “everything but the kitchen sink” approach that includes a creepy backwards-crawling spider alien, a woman giving violent birth to a fully grown man, human-sized toy soldiers, toy tanks with flesh-tearing firepower, an evil clown, a panther, and morphing eggs. This film has the distinction of being one of the most eccentric horror movies ever made and everything about it stands alone. Bromley Davenport’s bizarre synth score is also notable. Xtro isn’t for everyone, but for the people who dig it, it’s something special.
2. TerrorVision (1986; dir: Ted Nicolaou)
This is essentially the MTV Generation on film. Big hair, loud music, snarky teens, bright colors, goofy humor, gooey aliens, gross gore — TerrorVision is basically a feature-length parody of the music channel that actually ends up as a sort of precursor to how strange and crass MTV’s content would get by the end of the ‘80s and the early ‘90s with stuff like Liquid Television and Beavis and Butthead. Ted Nicolaou’s directorial debut is all about excess, with every element crudely embellished until it barely resembles reality. In other words, this is the perfect ‘80s horror movie.
1. Pieces (1982; dir; Juan Piquer Simón)
Pieces is the ultimate in midnight cinema. Its tagline is “It’s exactly what you think it is,” but that’s not true at all. There so many absurd tangents in this movie that no one could have ever predicted, which is why it’s so incredibly entertaining. Whether you’re talking about the piss-poor detective work, the kung fu professor, the “tennis pros” who had obviously never held a tennis racket prior to filming their scenes, Kendall’s preposterous sex appeal, Paul L. Smith’s cartoonish side eye, the ridiculous twist, or the outlandish ending, it all adds up to delightfully surreal experience. It also doesn’t hurt that the movie is filled with incredible gore effects. This is just a masterwork of bad movie-making by people who absolutely believed in their product.