When I was growing up in Wisconsin I would often times kill time at my local video store. I would roam through the aisles, looking at the VHS boxes, searching for something interesting to watch. I was fascinated with genre mash-ups and Ralph Bakshi’s films and quickly immersed myself in them. But Waukesha wasn’t exactly stationed along the cutting edge of pop culture, so I had some rather sizable gaps in both my film knowledge and exposure.

It wasn’t until college that I began meeting people who were giving enough to introduce me to German Expressionism, Italian neorealism, and Turner Classic Movies. From then on I always have had great respect for people who introduce me to new and exciting things, especially when it comes to films.

Which brings me to my girlfriend, Anna. I found my first excuse to talk to her when she was reading Watership Down, which was one of my favorite books (as well as animated films) as a child. Much to my delight she had never read it before so it afforded me the perfect opportunity to lay down some serious knowledge, and from there we soon began introducing each other to all sorts of of new experiences. One interesting thing to note is she was far more open to trying out my recommendations early on then I was with hers. This is quite simply explained. She likes Bjork, Dogville, and Ayn Rand. I like cool crap.

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Certain films excel as midnight movies. 80’s comedies are typical staples, as is anything filmed in 3-D. I myself tend to lean towards cheesy action and kung fu movies, as well as the occasional splatter film. But recently more and more studios are taking an interesting approach to midnight films, as they are now releasing smaller “cult” films or productions they would have otherwise shelved in some warehouse, allowing them at least one moment of opening night glory in the belief that a limited release in multiple markets might create enough buzz to drive DVD sales of what otherwise would have been a direct to video product.

In the past two years Firecracker, Feast, Evil Aliens, and Dynamite Warrior all were theatrically released as midnight movies. Even the much maligned Fox film Idiocracy, which was quickly pulled after a dubious limited release, was touring the midnight circuit a mere month later. All this made me quite excited when I heard about Daft Punk’s Electroma. A film festival favorite for the past year, it is receiving a limited distribution as a midnight movie before getting a wide DVD release later this year. (more…)