‘KISS Meets the Phantom of the Park’ Is a Rare Midnight Movie

On Friday nights, IndieWire After Dark takes a feature-length beat to honor fringe cinema in the streaming age. 

First, the spoiler-free pitch for one editor’s midnight movie pick — something weird and wonderful from any age of film that deserves our memorializing. 

Then, the spoiler-filled aftermath as experienced by the unwitting editor attacked by this week’s recommendation. 

The Pitch: Let Me Own This Blu-Ray Before I’m Buried in My Official KISS-Branded Coffin

Few musical acts in American history have done more with less than KISS. Despite boasting some of the simplest and most uninspired (if occasionally very catchy) songs of the 1970s, the shock rock act built a loyal following and merchandising empire around the novel idea of wearing makeup while singing. Their onstage theatrics and commitment to rock and rolling all night and partying every day — tons of people can do one or the other, but a rarified few have the time for both — have turned the KISS Army into one of the most passionate fanbases in American music. Their unfailing marketing department has milked that passion for every cent it’s worth, selling those militaristic fans everything from themed coffins and cruises to about a dozen farewell tours. One of the ironclad laws of the music business is that if you slap KISS on something, there will always be a market for it. The one exception to that rule might be “KISS Meets the Phantom of the Park.”

Even by…