Film Society of Lincoln Center Announces Midnight Movies Series

The Film Society of Lincoln Center has introduced the addition of a Summer Midnight Movies series to their weekly programming.

Led by a screening of Casey Pugh’s STAR WARS UNCUT, a fan-generated shot-by-shot remake of STAR WARS: EPISODE IV—A NEW HOPE on Friday, June 1, the series’ first announced offerings will include such late-night classics as Tobe Hooper’s THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE, Sam Raimi’s THE EVIL DEAD and EVIL DEAD II, and Ralph Bakshi’s FRITZ THE CAT.

As a fan-generated project and true product of the public’s love for a film and world created by that film, presenting Pugh’s STAR WARS UNCUT on the big screen was an appropriate choice for Film Society to begin their Summer Midnight Movies series. New York City was the spawning ground for what is known today as “Midnight Movies” with the late night success of Alejandro Jodorowsky’s EL TOPO in 1970 (which recently enjoyed a sold-out screening at Film Society with the director in attendance) inspiring the phenomenon of screening offbeat and non-mainstream movies in theaters across the country.

Among the midnight presentations announced are the 70s futuristic anti-aging and stretch polyester cautionary tale, LOGAN’S RUN, David Lynch’s mindbending nightmare LOST HIGHWAY, big screen stand-up comedy staple Richard Pryor: LIVE IN CONCERT, Hooper’s near-operatic space vampire thriller, LIFEFORCE, the original uncut version of Italian horror legend Lucio Fulci’s THE HOUSE BY THE CEMETERY, James Gunn’s horror/comedy/gross-out fest SLITHER, and Menahem Golan’s bizarre music spectacle THE APPLE, which will represent an encore screening of a sort – following the film’s popularity last year as part of a Golan-Globus salute at the Walter Reade.

Film Comment Editor-in-Chief and Midnight Movie co-Programmer Gavin Smith said, “Sometimes I sit in my office and wonder why Béla Tarr couldn’t have filmed a live-action version of the game Sodoku. Because if he had, we would program it in a second. But since he hasn't (at least so far, anything's possible), we might as well throw TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE and FRITZ THE CAT on the screen and see what happens."