The Late Show

What kind of film attracts an audience, frequently the same crowd over and over, that seeks refuge in a movie theater in the middle of the night?

“The Rocky Horror Show” has had cult status for years. “Eraserhead” has a loyal following. And for the past six months, “Reservoir Dogs,” Quentin Tarantino’s first directing effort, has been playing midnight Saturdays at the New Beverly Cinema.

“The only thing we’ve had recently that’s done better,” theater owner Sherman Torgan says, “is the Three Stooges.”

The 40 customers who come out on a recent night when aftershocks are still making the city nervous are predominantly men in their 20s. Most say they’ve seen the violent heist film on video. One explains it “deserves the respect” of being watched on a big screen.

A group of four friends say they’ve come because they got tired of driving around looking for something to do. Another customer says “Dogs” has been “one of those films that’s been nagging at me.” Now he has to see it in a theater.

“I’m not a cultist,” says Michael Aushemker, 24. “I don’t dress up. I don’t throw rice at the screen. But once in a while, if a movie hits me, midnight is a nice time to go.”

The theater they’ve come to is pretty much L.A.’s last revival house. Or “continuous repertory programming,” as the management calls the schedule of old, classic and cult films. A decade ago, there were eight full-time theaters showing a similar film mix. “I lived in those theaters,” film critic Andy Klein says. “Video and cable killed them all off.”

The New Beverly was a porn theater before Torgan took it over in the late ‘70s. Although it’s seen better days, it’s still clean and functional. A local critic once wrote that the New Beverly “revels in its own funk.” As Torgan describes it, his place is “a little rough around the edges, but we don’t have any Milk Duds stuck to the floor.”

Somehow, the theater’s well-worn feeling goes over well at midnight. It gives the experience a warmth that a mall multiplex screening room could never impart.

Tarantino says he had always hoped to make a film that would play at midnight. Now that “Dogs” is doing just that, he occasionally drives out of his way simply to revel in seeing the title up on the marquee. “The fact that people have responded that way to ‘Dogs’ is the greatest compliment of all,” he says. “This is better than getting an Oscar.”

But even though the New Beverly might be a great place for a midnight show and “Reservoir Dogs” is going strong, there’s always the chance that as a midnight show it could be topped.

“I hear there’s a midnight ‘Saturday Night Fever’ somewhere in town,” says Peter Underwood, 24, a student at Long Beach City College, “and the doorman actually owns the suit John Travolta wears.”

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Name: “Reservoir Dogs” at the New Beverly Cinema.

Where: 7165 Beverly Blvd., Los Angeles; (213) 938-4038.

When: The film will play indefinitely at midnight.

Cost: $5.

Parking: Ample on-street parking.