The five greatest movies to watch after hours
There are just some movies that you can’t watch in the bright light of day. Even if you’re sitting in a pitch-black cinema, the simple knowledge that you’re going to leave the theatre and go out into the daytime just doesn’t cut it sometimes.
Rather, there are some movies best watched when it’s really late and nothing is off the table. Perhaps it’s something charged with erotics or fear, or maybe it’s something so visually intoxicating that the impact of watching it once you’ve come home from the pub a bit tipsy is thus heightened. In that case, it’s often better to find movies that don’t have incredibly complicated plotlines to follow; whether you’re drunk or not, no one needs to be trying to figure out something like Shane Carruth’s Primer if they’re watching it for the first time at 11 at night.
There certainly are some complicated movies that make for great late-night viewing, like Mulholland Drive or 2001: A Space Odyssey, but they benefit from being watched when you’re at full alert, at least the first time around, so that you can actually make heads or tails of them. Therefore, the ideal late-night movie is one that can still keep your attention when you’re getting a bit sleepy, with the plot perhaps taking a slight backseat in favour of mesmerising imagery and bright colours.
That’s not a strict requirement for this list, but almost all of the films selected here can be enjoyed for their visual strengths alone, their descents into sleaziness, darkness, and perhaps violence, making the ideal accompaniment for casual late-night viewing when you’re not fully with it.
The five greatest movies to watch in the dark:
‘Crash’ (David Cronenberg, 1996)
There’s something so wrong about ever watching David Cronenberg’s Crash in the daytime. His sexy thriller follows a group of people who find themselves most aroused in life-threatening situations, where the smell of petrol and the glinting sheen of metal becomes something dangerously seductive. The film was incredibly controversial when it was released, with cries for it being banned coming from various countries, including the United Kingdom.
Yet, the film, which stars James Spader and Holly Hunter, is a fascinating deliberation on that ultimate quest for fulfilment, and the lengths some people will go to get what they desire, no matter how perverse. With many scenes taking place in the dark, where the distant lights of the city illuminate reckless car rides, Crash is best watched late at night when you can bask in the taboo erotics of Cronenberg’s masterpiece.
‘Faster Pussycat, Kill! Kill!’ (Russ Meyer, 1965)
Exploitation films and late-night viewing go hand-in-hand, so it’s only fair to talk about one of the greatest: Faster Pussycat, Kill! Kill!. Directed by Russ Meyer, the film sees Tura Satana play a cold-hearted, busty woman who isn’t afraid to commit a murder or two if she needs to. Alongside her are several other women with a penchant for violence, go-go dancing, and car racing, but soon they come into contact with several men who test their limits.
Shot in black-and-white, the film is a marvel of ‘60s fashion and good old-fashioned exploitation film campiness, and it’s perfect for throwing on late at night when you want to watch something that’s going to keep you engaged, slightly outraged, and totally entertained. Satana is brilliant here, and the film was once even in talks to be remade by one of its biggest fans, Quentin Tarantino, who paid tribute to it with his 2007 movie Death Proof.
‘Werewolves on Wheels’ (Michel Levesque, 1971)
After a recent trip to the pub, I returned to my friend’s house, where she put her copy of Werewolves on Wheels on, turned off the sound, and played music over the top, instead. I gazed at the TV every so often between conversation (and drunken headstand practice, no less), and in that moment, the movie captivated me more than when I watched it the first time around.
The low-budget ‘70s biker horror movie features the perfect imagery for such an evening; it’s a sleaze-filled, occult-themed slice of exploitation that works best when the sun goes down. You can tune in as little or as much as you want as images of hooded cult members, naked women holding skulls and snakes, and bikers morphing into werewolves dance across the screen in a haze of vintage brilliance, and sometimes that’s all you need from a film.
‘Climax’ (Gaspar Noé, 2018)
A late-night film needs strong visuals, so it was inevitable that cinematic provocateur Gaspar Noé, whose movies specialise in bright Dario Argento-esque visuals, was going to make it onto this list. Climax is probably his greatest after-hours watch, but be warned, watching it under the influence might cause you to have a reaction similar to that of the characters, who fall apart after consuming spiked punch.
With long, uninterrupted takes that float from character to character as they break down among the chaos, where paranoia is heightened, and everyone seems on the brink of self-immolation, Noé’s movie is a dizzying nightmare. The dance scene at the beginning of the film is mesmerising, and even that alone is the perfect thing to watch late at night when you want to be immersed in a world of colour and movement; it’s absolutely hallucinatory.
‘Suspiria’ (Dario Argento, 1977)
Suspiria is a horror classic too good not to put on this list. With its lucid colour palette of striking reds and blues, Dario Argento’s supernatural ballet-themed magnum opus is perfectly suited for late-night viewing. From the very beginning, the movie shocks us with mysterious murders painted with bright red fake blood, and Argento doesn’t let up.
As the horrors unfold in front of Suzy Bannion’s eyes, she realises that the dance academy she is attending is actually a witches’ coven, and Argento conveys this with as much visual flair as you can possibly imagine. I can only assume that falling asleep on the sofa with Suspiria playing in the background (not that it would necessarily send you to sleep) might yield some crazy dreams almost as enthralling as watching the film itself.
