Retroblog

Midnight Movies

As I watched a DVD of The Rocky Horror Picture Show yesterday, something was seriously missing. Sure, it is still a classic campy film with a thoroughly enjoyable soundtrack. Still, I couldn’t keep my mind from wandering back in time to the Saturday evenings of my youth. A gaggle of hyper friends, a nervous parent apprehensively dropping us off and wondering what sort of debauchery was in store for us, and a general electricity in the air, emanating from each of the motley crew standing in a line that wrapped around the block.

And while the RHPS was certainly our most popular choice, we had other options as well. The psychedelically-tinged Fantasia and Pink Floyd’s The Wall, the ear-numbing music of Led Zeppelin in The Song Remains the Same or The Who’s documentary, The Kids are Alright were almost always available at one location or another, sometimes in double-feature form. And then there was David Lynch’s Eraserhead, one of the strangest films I had ever encountered by the ripe old age of 14. In fact, I’m not sure that its strangeness has been diminished in the slightest over the years.

And looking back, while I own almost every one of these films on DVD and watch them regularly, it saddens me to know that I will never experience them again in quite the same way, with groggy eyes and reckless abandon. Sure, I could invite a bunch of old fogies over and we could throw rice and toast at the television screen – but then someone would have to clean up the mess. Sure, we could watch Led Zeppelin crank out “Rock and Roll” at a similar decibel level to a 747 taking off – but my neighbors would have my head on a stake.

Truth be told, the excitement of those youthful excursions is something that can never be recaptured. That overflow of exuberant energy can only be experienced with a group of like-minded souls in a darkened bunker as the clock strikes midnight. I suppose I could seek out such a place. I know they still exist. But the reality is, I would probably embarrass myself by snoring about halfway through the film. I just don’t have the reserve of nocturnal energy I once possessed. And yet, when I fire up the DVD player, I can’t help but notice how strange it is to be watching one of these films during daylight hours.

Oh, but to be a teenager again.