By Matt Mueller Culture Editor Published Mar 16, 2018 at 3:01 PM

Get ready to lose sleep but win at life. The Downer Theater has announced the lineup for its first ever Almost Midnight retro movie series, a collection of late-night legends, cinematic classics, horror icons and cult films coming to the East Side theater on Friday and Saturday nights at – you guessed it – midnight (or at least around it; any midnight movie veteran knows it can take a bit to load all those caffeinated cinephiles into the theater).

The film festivities will start with the Coen Brothers' ultimate cult classic "The Big Lebowski" on Friday, April 20 (well played, Downer) and Saturday, April 21, before bouncing around from Hitchcock to "Here's Johnny!" to Harrison Ford and an impressive deep cut horror pick of Dario Argento's "Deep Red." (Impressive work, People In Charge Of Organizing This.) The series will then come to a close in the middle of summer blockbuster season with one of the best blockbusters ever made, "Back to the Future," on June 8-9.

And hopefully the future will hold more Almost Midnight showings at the Downer afterward. In the meantime, though, here's the lineup for its inaugural run:

  • April 20-21: "The Big Lebowski"
  • April 27-28: "The Shining"
  • May 4-5: "Bottle Rocket"
  • May 11-12: "Psycho"
  • May 18-19: "The Room"
  • May 25-26: "Raiders of the Lost Ark"
  • June 1-2: "Deep Red"
  • June 8-9: "Back to the Future"

For tickets, visit the Downer's website

Matt Mueller Culture Editor

As much as it is a gigantic cliché to say that one has always had a passion for film, Matt Mueller has always had a passion for film. Whether it was bringing in the latest movie reviews for his first grade show-and-tell or writing film reviews for the St. Norbert College Times as a high school student, Matt is way too obsessed with movies for his own good.

When he's not writing about the latest blockbuster or talking much too glowingly about "Piranha 3D," Matt can probably be found watching literally any sport (minus cricket) or working at - get this - a local movie theater. Or watching a movie. Yeah, he's probably watching a movie.