Film

After Hours

Name: After Hours
Genre: Comedy, Thriller, Drama
Released: 1985
Cast: Griffin Dunne, Rosanna Arquette, Verna Bloom, Tommy Chong, Linda Fiorentino

Comedy

After Hours is Scorsese's tightest, funniest fever dream — one Manhattan office drone's disastrous quest to get home from SoHo spirals into farce, paranoia and near-catastrophe. It's tense and hilarious in equal measure, shot with the same nervy dread as his crime pictures despite the punchlines. For anyone who's had one bad night snowball absurdly out of control, or wants Scorsese at his most nimble and least self-serious.

TMDb rating

3.7

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you enjoy a single long night that spirals through escalating small humiliations, where the comedy grows darker and more anxious the further the hero drifts from home.

Skip it if you want a plot that moves briskly toward clear answers; this one loops and wanders on purpose, and its logic is that of a bad dream rather than a tidy puzzle.

What it asks of you: It runs about ninety-seven minutes and stays in one city night, so it rewards steady attention to a run of mounting mishaps rather than big set pieces or quick cuts.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

Good Time2017

Same big-city, single-night unraveling of a man whose every attempt to fix things makes them worse, wired with electronic dread and Robert Pattinson at his most feral.

But The nervous-system-jangling score and constant crisis mode make it exhausting rather than funny — laughs are scarce.

Uncut Gems2019

Same downtown-Manhattan claustrophobia and mounting catastrophe, but swap Paul's mild-mannered dread for Adam Sandler's compulsive, self-sabotaging hustle.

But Nearly two hours of unbroken tension with barely a comic release valve; it's a stress test more than a caper.

Miracle Mile1989

A stranger's one night in LA spirals from a wrong phone call into apocalyptic panic, mixing deadpan comedy with real dread exactly like After Hours does with its own city.

But Obscure enough that its tonal swings — rom-com to disaster movie — can feel like two different films stitched together.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from After Hours

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

In Fabric2018

Same structural engine as After Hours: a mundane object drags an ordinary person into an escalating, illogical nightmare they can't wake from — just reskinned as arch horror instead of comedy.

Peter Strickland's giallo-soaked, deadpan horror about a haunted red dress turns consumerism itself into a surreal trap, with the same the-world-has-turned-against-me comic dread as Scorsese's film, just colder and stranger.

But Its glacial pacing and heavy stylisation — ritualistic dialogue, endless repetition — will read as pretentious rather than eerie to some.

Something Wild1986

A buttoned-up man is dragged out of his routine by an unpredictable woman into a wild, dangerous day — the sunlit flip side of Paul's nocturnal ordeal.

But Starts as breezy screwball before curdling into genuine menace; the tonal U-turn isn't for everyone.

Into the Night1985

An insomniac office drone gets pulled into a chaotic overnight odyssey through a city's underworld — practically the West Coast cousin of Paul's SoHo nightmare, from the same year.

But Less disciplined than Scorsese's film; it sprawls into star-cameo indulgence rather than tightening the screws.

Bringing Out the Dead1999

Scorsese returns to New York at night, this time through a burned-out paramedic, for the same jittery, hallucinatory, can't-escape-the-city feeling with higher stakes.

But Grimmer and more exhausted in spirit — the humor here is pitch-black, not farcical.

Collateral2004

One long, increasingly dangerous night behind the wheel of someone else's plans, with a city — LA this time — rendered as a neon-lit trap you can't drive out of.

But Plays it as a taut thriller rather than a comedy — you'll be gripping the armrest, not laughing.

Adventures in Babysitting1987

The PG-rated cousin — a suburban night out goes sideways downtown in a chain of escalating misadventures, keeping the farce but losing the menace.

But Aimed squarely at teenagers; the stakes are cartoonish where After Hours keeps real dread humming underneath.

Cheap Thrills2013

Strangers, a bar, and a series of dares that spiral past the point of no return — a nastier, lower-budget descendant of the same how-did-my-night-get-this-bad comic dread.

But Trades Scorsese's control and craft for grindhouse shock value; it's meaner and much rougher around the edges.

Céline and Julie Go Boating1974

Another film about people tumbling through a labyrinthine, rule-bending version of their own city at night, where reality keeps glitching — the same dream logic, played as delighted play instead of panic.

A three-hour French New Wave fever dream where two women swap identities and slip in and out of a haunted house's looping story — playful, funny, and unlike anything else.

But Long, shaggy, and deliberately confusing about what's real; patience is required and rewarded slowly.

The Trial1962

Adapts Kafka directly: the same ordinary man caught in a nonsensical, hostile system punishing him for reasons he can never grasp, stripped of every joke.

Welles's shadow-drenched vision of Kafka's novel is the dead-serious ancestor of Paul Hackett's night — bureaucratic dread rendered as gothic nightmare, decades before Scorsese made it funny.

But Cold, alienating, and genuinely bleak by design — there's no comic release, just mounting dread until the end.