10 Great Midnight Movies You Need To Watch

Dark comedies are few and far between these days. The 70s however, was the decade the sub-genre really started to take off. It was the time of M.A.S.H, Woody Allen and where Sylvester Stallone crashed onto the scene with Death Race 2000. It was also the decade that Harold and Maude was released, a comedy that helped redefine the genre after an initial tricky spell.

At the heart of the story is an age inappropriate (to some) story of a teen, Harold, obsessed with death and his developing relationship with Maude, who is more than six decades older than him. Its jet black humour, which is now why it is held in high regard, was at one point its downfall. It was the unconventional love story that caused most of the controversy when it was first released in 1971. Not only did it fail with both critics and moviegoers, it was also ignored by many award ceremonies, deemed to be too offensive.

It wasn’t until a decade later, when the film was re-released in the mid-80s that it finally made a profit. What was once a film deemed offensive had now become a cult classic, and a staple for midnight screenings.