Cinema after dark: 20 movies best enjoyed late at night

Die Hard is at the the top of the skyscraper when it comes to late-night action. When Bruce Willis saves his wife from a group of terrorists who've taken over his work party, audiences watch through clenched fingers at the sight of him taking out villains. It's a simple plot that offers maximum thrills.

Although we have no scientific evidence to prove this, we think watching Cary Grant run around the country with shadowy agents on his tail will make your night a lot better. Alfred Hitchcock's film is thrilling, terrifying, funny and charming — a mix he was able to pull off better than just about anyone. 

We suggest you watch John Carpenter's classic late at night, with the lights off and your brain turned on. This is about as atmospheric as horror films get: a trip to an Antarctic research station where a monster wreaks havoc in the shadows. The Thing is filled with Carpenter's usual scares, prosthetics and tension.

Maybe it's the foggy setting or the fact that it plays like a mystery, but Le Cercle Rouge (French for "The Red Circle") was made for nighttime viewing. It's a heist flick that keeps you in the dark for most of its runtime as Alain Delon's convict puts together a crew. It's the opposite of Ocean's Eleven — no one is coming out of this ruse with cool suits and cool tans. If anything, they are coming out of this ruse with deathly pale skin.

Do you trust our government? Not with these gas prices. Warren Beatty doesn't trust the government either, which sends him down a rabbit hole that leads to a conspiracy that leads to the top. Alan Pakula's thiller is an incredible example of how paranoia can build through filmmaking techniques including pacing, lighting, framing and editing.

Late night movies don't have to be dark. They can be light too, especially if there's a little raunch involved. Step Brothers isn't something you'd watch with the kids around, but the story of grown men acting like kids will bring out the child in you.

There's a darkness to All the President's Men that makes it perfect for late-night viewing. Shady meetups, empty newsrooms and late-night detectives set the stage for Alan Pakula's biopic about the reporters who broke the Watergate story. Played by Dustin Hoffman and Robert Redford, they feel more like detectives than newsmen.

A horror movie for kids? Try a touching movie for all ages. Monsters Inc. may be about monsters scaring kids, but it's really about friends facing their fears.

Fantastic Planet plays late at night in theaters every year. Why? Cause the film looks even cooler on acid. I don't know this for a fact, but the futuristic world where tiny humans rebel against giant aliens already feels like a drug trip. Venture to the far-out reaches of this world to find some incredibly trippy visuals.

The hazy mystery of this film — plus the cold hazy setting — will fit right into your late-night viewing. Blowup follows a photographer who captures a murder in the background of his photograph, but can't make out the details. As Michelangelo Antonioni unspools the yarn, you'll try to knit the threads together to form an image that might not exist.

What's a slapstick comedy doing on our list? I'm glad you asked. Buster Keaton's films are more than just comedies. They are action-comedy adventures with some of the coolest stunts ever committed to film. Tom Cruise has strapped himself to a plane, but has he ever stood on a moving train dodging 1,000-pound logs? No, no he hasn't.

The Third Man just wouldn't feel the same during the day. The alleys of Vienna wouldn't be as dark, the foggy lamps as mysterious, the mystery as muddled or the finale as magnificent. Carol Reed's thriller about a writer trying to suss out the fate of his mysterious childhood friend unfolds under the comforting spell of night.

Even the daytime scenes in The Shining feel ominously dark. Stanley Kubrick's horror classic is what most horror movies wish they could be. A blend of tension, terror, atmosphere and relevance, The Shining sees a father lose his mind in an abandoned hotel.

Is there a better noir to watch at night? Forget about it, it's Chinatown. It's the most textured example of the genre. As Jack Nicholson uncovers the secrets of this case, you can practically feel the dread pulse around him. It's in the air, the smoke, and definitely the water.

Combining the scares of a haunted house with the wonkiness of an acid trip, House is the kind of movie that makes you audibly ask, "What am I watching?" Bananas that talk? Heads that float? Girls that drive on clouds? House opens the door to a world you've never seen before.

Disney is cool and all, but sometimes you want a princess who doesn't care about her hair. Mononoke only cares about her forest, which she is willing to protect even if it means getting her hands dirty and her face bloody. In Hayao Miyazaki's violent, visceral spectacle, we watch a princess who is willing to massacre without mascara. 

A thriller. A mystery. A fairytale and a horror flick. The Night of the Hunter is an outlier that grows increasingly unique with age. The fact that there still hasn't been anything that looks or feels like this movie just goes to show how original it is. Two kids go on the run from a murderous "priest" in the countryside, where genres flow into each other like trickling streams. 

Like North by Northwest, this is a Hitchcock thriller about man on the run. This time he's being chased through the countryside in some of the most influential scenes in thriller history. Many have noted that Hitchcock laid the groundwork for future espionage and conspiracy thrillers here, which would seem unlikely if you couldn't follow the steps back to his original plan.

There's been a number of conspiracy thrillers on our list, mainly because they unfold in the dark and center on protagonists in the dark of their cases. In Francis Ford Coppola's follow up to The Godfather, we watch one man unravel to the floorboards of his mind trying to solve a case he can't crack.

The Naked Gun may have more hilarious moments than any other film, ever. The police spoof is loaded with comedic ammo and ready to fire, which it does on a near-constant basis. It's a truly great comedy.