This week, we learned about the midnight movie culture. While many of these “cult” movies exist today, there are only a few real midnight movies that everyone can agree on. Learning about them from the documentary we watched on Monday was incredible and I couldn’t quite put my finger on why. It wasn’t until we got to Jon Water’s interview about Pink Flamingos that I realized what it was. Everyone was genuinely having fun writing these movies. Nothing about them was tedious or a waste of their time, they genuinely wanted to do something weird and different. They certainly accomplished it. El Topo is considered to be the first midnight movie, and its rise in success is really interesting. The fact that it was too weird to not watch high and that it was a bit of a trip of an experience probably helped its value out a ton. I’m a little sad we didn’t watch El Topo or Pink Flamingos, but on Wednesday the class elected to watch The Rocky Horror Picture Show.
I couldn’t believe that so many people in the class hadn’t seen The Rocky Horror Picture Show, and it is undeniably the king of midnight movies, so it was definitely what we needed to watch. Personally, I’ve probably seen it a dozen or so times throughout my life, with some audience participation as well. While the audience participation is a huge part of why all of these cult movies got popular, the movies are sometimes just as good without the participation at all. There was hardly any when we watched it, yet people loved it. I know several people are still singing the songs today and it’s already been two days. The magic of the movie is in its pull and simple choruses. Everybody still wanted to see how the wacky Dr. Frankenfurter would keep up his shenanigans. The whole movie was just as weird as the first time I saw it, but it didn’t matter because that was part of the appeal.
The movie really worms its way into your heart and I totally forgot that Eddie was played by Meatloaf. That was such a nice little touch because he’s perfect for that character. I think that the only thing left that I need to do is see The Rocky Horror Picture Show as a play now. It’s the only form of the source material I haven’t see yet. This was one of my favorite weeks in the class. Learning about the midnight movies and what they meant was so exciting. I could tell that everyone else was really interested in it too, especially when we all grilled Dr. Schlegel on some of our favorite movies and whether or not they were cult movies. It was a ton of fun and I hope things stay that way as we move on. I’m personally really interested in how the industry became the way it is today and we are moving into that territory now so on to the 80’s!
History of the Motion Picture 
I got the same impression from Jon Water’s interview. He wasn’t making Pink Flamingos for a large studio or because someone is paying him. He wanted to do it because it was fun, and it was his project. He didn’t care about what people thought and made me think that these are very similar to the exploitation films we watched. He said how he wanted to make people uncomfortable and uneasy. I think he really did, especially with the way that film ended.
I wasn’t too surprised that there were a lot of people who have never seen Rocky Horror Picture Show. I know myself; I would have never to bother to watch it if it wasn’t for this class. So, I am very thankful for that and I guess I need to view a lot more films. I just think it gets hard to try and watch every movie that has a cult following because it gets to be a lot.
When I saw Meatloaf come on the screen, I was so excited and then it was crushed. As quickly as he come on, he was gone. They wasted no time to have him appear and then disappear. To see this movie in a play form would just be enjoyable. Do you think there would also be audience participation if you saw it as a play? I loved to learn more about Dr. Schlegel’s recommend movie list because who knows more on good films than your film teacher.
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