[Susan Foreman]

BFI recommends 50 late-night classics

What to watch at witching hour? These 50 cult recommendations offer flesh, fear, violence and subversion.

For a number of reasons, many films just seem suited to being watched late at night. Whether they are gory horror flicks, cult B-movies, sexually explicit dramas or documentaries with adult themes, there’s no hard and fast rule as to what makes a great late-night movie. It’s a safe bet to assume, though, that naked flesh, graphic violence and coarse language are likely to be on the cards in one form or another. Add to that bold shooting styles, unsettling themes and/or brutally frank depictions of confrontational subjects and you’re all set. Here are 50 to watch when the clock has struck midnight.

• Antiviral (2012)
• Bad Timing (1980)
• Bang Gang (A Modern Love Story) (2015)
• The Beast (1975)
• Berberian Sound Studio (2012)
• The Beyond (1981)
• The Black Panther (1977)
• Blood on Satan’s Claw (1971)
• Blue Collar (1978)
• The Brood (1979)
• Chemsex (2015)
• City of the Living Dead (1980)
• Dogtooth (2009)
• Double Indemnity (1944)
• Electric Boogaloo: The Wild, Untold Story of Cannon Films (2014)
• Fascination (1979)
• The Greasy Strangler (2016)
• Gridlock’d (1997)
• Herostratus (1967)
• I Am Divine (2013)
• Inferno (1980)
• It Came from Outer Space (1953)
• Kill List (2011)
• London in the Raw (1965)
• M (1931)
• The Man Who Fell to Earth (1976)
• Mapplethorpe: Look at the Pictures (2016)
• The Mask of Satan (1960)
• More (1969)
• Nighthawks (1978)
• Night of the Living Dead (1968)
• Peter De Rome: Grandfather of Gay Porn (2014)
• Scanners (1981)
• Sebastiane (1976)
• The Shout (1978)
• Sid & Nancy (1986)
• Sightseers (2012)
• Stray Dog (1949)
• Suspiria (1977)
• The 10th Victim (1965)
• The Thing (1982)
• Totally F***ed Up (1993)
• Trans-Europ-Express (1966)
• Under the Skin (2013)
• Videodrome (1983)
• What We Do in the Shadows (2014)
• Witchfinder General (1968)
• X the Unknown (1956)
• Yojimbo (1961)
• Young Soul Rebels (1991)

50 late-night classics | BFI