ABSTRACT
Following the success of El Topo, the midnight movie circuit exploded into a vibrant and lucrative model of alternate cinema exhibition. Scholars have taken two major approaches when researching the midnight movie phenomenon. The first, “midnight movies,” approaches midnight movies as a set of cult films and emphasizes the aesthetics, narratives, themes, genres, and production and distribution histories of these “successful” midnight texts. In addition to midnight blockbuster premieres, midnight cinemagoing continues primarily in two other forms: a “meta-midnight” circuit and “experiential cinema”. The first, a “meta-midnight” circuit, which flows through college towns and independent cinemas around the world, continues the regular screening of cult films at midnight. Midnight movies bring with them a “sense of a truly unique, forbidden experience” set apart from the rest of the world. Undoubtedly the most-studied midnight movie, Rocky Horror points to another form of exclusivity which emerges through social and participatory activity.
