Maybe it’s the fantastic selection of films, or maybe it’s the somewhat rebellious sensation of attending a movie at midnight: whatever the source of the intrigue, the State Theater’s Midnight Movies series has people of all ages talking.

It doesn’t hurt that each movie being shown is, in its own right, a cult classic. The films range from ‘The Breakfast Club’ to ‘Blair Witch Project’ to, of course, ‘Rocky Horror Picture Show.’ Brian Hunter, the Programming Manager at both the State and Michigan Theaters, and Christine Tremblay, the General Manager at the State Theater, decide which movies to show together. Hunter said “We think, what are some films that we could bring back that people haven’t necessarily been thinking of recently? Like ‘The Goonies’ or ‘Pee-wee’s Big Adventure.’ Sometimes it’s just a matter of trying things out and seeing what sticks.”

Upon attending “The Fifth Element,” a sci-fi flick that the State Theater screened as a part of the series in August, it was no surprise to see that the crowd was made up of a passionate array of devoted and rowdy fans. One can safely assume that many of the other movies will attract fans who are just as devout, if not more so.

Community teacher, Robbie Stapleton, attended Midnight Movies at the State Theater about twenty years ago, and the atmosphere doesn’t seem to have changed much since. She describes the showings as “Fun, a little crazy… Just going at midnight makes it an event.”

The midnights movies will wrap up with “Rocky Horror Picture Show,” which has attained such a wide following that it was deemed by the Library of Congress as a film that is “culturally, historically or aesthetically significant.” At showings, rituals include dressing up like the characters (which often involves cross-dressing), shooting water guns, throwing rice and toast and occasionally even hot dogs and prunes. Imaginably, the Midnight Movies series of 2012 will end with a bang.