A S&A 24 HOUR HORROR MOVIE MARATHON

    I was getting frusted with writers block.  So I decided to play a game I love to play on Twitter.  Plan a 24 hour movie marathon.  I work in a bookstore, and I generally like recomending books to people and curation as a whole.  I loving planning what movie would play well at what time.  A movie that would fit at 8pm would bomb at 4am.  Some of the best theatre experiences I have had has been at 3am, being bleary eyed in the stage of sleep and awake watching something that becomes transcendant.  The first time I saw Hellraiser was at such a time slot, and the dreamy imagination of Clive Barker's Master Piece blew me away even more than it would have if it was jut me alone my couch on a Wednesday night.  And I would like still loved it on that Wednesday night watch, it just wouldn't have been a that transcendant viewing.

    When creating a 24 Hour line up there are certain guidelines I like to follow.  A Movie Marathon is a party atmosphere, things don't exactly have to be light, but you have to keep things moving.  Movies should be around 90 minutes.  The more tired and loopey you get the harder it is to concentrate on one thing.  I remember at a Jeff Goldblum all nighter and the programmer put in Thor: Ragnarok.  Marvel does not play at 12am, it's long, bloated and often too many thing things is happening.  So my line up is purely experimental to see how movies bump up against each other.  It's an indulgence, but it's one I am seriously considering actually doing.

    So you've arrived the threatre coffee hand, anticaption is high as you look back at the blue sky one last time.  You wont be seeing it for awhile.

12PM - THE CREATURE OF THE BLACK LAGOON, DIR JACK ARNOLD, 1952

Preshow -  Frankenstein 1931, Jaws, The Shape of Water

    It's the beginning of the day, hopefully you've had a sleep in and a big breakfast.  Not like me who is usually running into the theatre still sweaty from work.  I am a lunatic.  I wanted to start the day with something classic, fun and iconic.  And you cannot get more classic, fun and iconic that The Creature From the Black Lagoon.  One of the most beautiful scenes put to film is The Creature swimming under Julie Adams as she swims blissfully unaware in the Lagoon.  I love Universal Monster Movies, and I think they are a great way to start off any marathon.  In my own at home marathons, I start with a Universal.  The Creature of the Black Lagoon is one of the great Monters movies of all time.  More fun especially if it's a 3D print.

2PM - THE FINAL GIRLS, DIR TODD STRAUSS-SCHULSON, 2015

Preshow -  Bette Davis Eyes Music Video, Friday teh 13th Part 2

    So we have gone from a sincere classic Universal Monster Movie, to something with a wink and twinkle in it's eye.  2015's The Final Girls is in on the joke, it's laughing with you.  Final Girls feels like a great movie to get the energy up.  It's funny and sweet, it's a pop song of a movie.  A great fantasy to watch on the big screen because Final Girls is about disappearing into the screen and being able to play around in your favorite movie.  Todd Strauss-Schulson delightfully pokes fun at the troupes of the Eighties Slasher.  Plus thanks to Malin Akerman Final Girls has the best use of Bette Davis Eyes, I love that song and I love that moment.  It is going to put everyone in a good mood as you dig into your first round of popcorn.

4PM - THE VAMPIRE DOLL, DIR MICHIO YAMAMOTO, 1970

Preshow - Hereditary, The Horror of Dracula, Whatever Happened to Baby Jane

    I have everyone relaxed and in a good mood.   I can now throw some Japanese Gothic at you.  I am a huge fan of the Bloodthirsty Trilogy.  The are Vampiric tales from the early 1970s and they feel like they are infused with Hammer and Bava.  They feel like a mixture of Vampire and Ghost Story.  It's a perfect combination.  Vampire Dolls feels like that awkward family reunion where your not sure how you arrived.  But there are so many antiques and rare books all over the place you stay for the drama and the texture.

6PM - TALES OF TERROR, DIR ROGER CORMAN, 1962

Preshow - Dead of Night, Masque of the Red Death,  Tales from the Darkside: The Movie

    I feel it's time for a pallet cleanser before the night really kicks into high gear.  What better way to do that is with an Anthology.  I love Roger Corman's Poe Cycle Anthology Tales of Terror.  It gives every flavour you want in Gothic Horror: cobwebbed mansions, black cats, ghosts trapped between two worlds, Vincent Price's Wine Tasting Face.  It varies from the generally spooky to the hilariously sublime.  Tales of Terror has a great cast, Peter Lorre, Basil Rathbone, Vincent Price and his afore mentioned, wine tasting face.  What is not to love.

8PM - ALONE IN THE DARK, DIR JACK SHOULDER, 1982

Preshow - Halloween, Shutter Island, Wish Master 2

    We are hitting 8pm and we need to start ramping it up because we still have a long way to go.  Alone in the Dark is one of those movies that when you watch you wonder why there is no Blu Ray.  So of course I'm showing it in a gorgeous crackly and warm 35mm print.  This is a glorious early 80s Slasher, Donald Pleasence is on brand as a questionable mental health professional who lets his dangerous patients (Jack Palance and Martin Landou) escape to a small town and general havoc ensues.  Alone in the Dark  one of the great knives through the bed scenes.  Jack Shoulder is one of those really solid Journey Men Directors.  And this is the perfect ramp up for what is to come.

10PM - US, DIR JORDAN PEELE, 2019

Preshow - Night of the Living Dead. Dead Ringers, Lost Boys

    For me the 10pm slot is the Blockbuster slot.  I want to go big, and  I wanted to chose something recent.  And I know I pushing my rules with Jordan Peele's US it's one minute over two hours and it's adding time to what is already a long day.  But hear me out.  I think US is a great party movie - especially for those starting to turn up for the second half of the marathon.  Yes, Get Out is the better made movie, but for me I love US.  It's bloated messy and so much fun.  Lupita Nyongo and Winston Duke are phominal in their duel roles.  US is filled with so much humour, scares and filled with on the nose points while others can get lost in the shuffle.  And you can not beat that score by Michael Abels is so infections.  You'll have a good time.

12AM - CITY OF THE LIVING DEAD, DIR LUCIO FULCI, 1980

Preshow - Burial Ground, Pet Sematary Two, The Evil Dead

    We are now hitting the twelve hour mark and people are getting loopy.  So, yes, I'm playing Lucio Fucli.  No other director was made for the Midnight Show.  Personally I'm more of a House by the Cemetery gal and The Beyond is Fulci's better movie, but I think for this marathon it's City of the Living Dead.  I can almost hear Fulci yelling *in Italian* MORE MAGGOTS. MORE!  It's an insanely, disturbing, gross and gooey movie, and the uninitiated will have no idea what they are in for.  It's a bleakly beautiful movie, in that special way Fulci could move between the sublime and the silly depending on the shot.  The City of the Living Dead feels like a best of Lucio Fulci, it has got all the head squicing and Christopher George you could want at 12am.  

2AM - BAD DREAMS, DIR ANDREW FLEMMING, 1988

Preshow - 976 Evil, Dream Warriors, The Lodge

    After the last three movies I feel we need a slight come down.  But also with everyone starting to get a little loopy from sitting in the dark, drinking beer and energy drinks.   So yes, I'm reeling up Andrew Flemming's Dream Warriors riff Bad Dreams.  It's so close to the Elm Street threequel you will be constantly expecting Jennifer Rubens' to say I'm Beautiful and Bad.  However, Bad Dreams is a darker and dirtier movie that feels perfect for the what is happening 2AM.  There's raining blood and really plays around with what is actually happening.  I generally like Bad Dreams, even more than Dream Warriors.  Plus the closing credits Sweet Child of Mine plays really loudly, and I love it.   I also wrote about this movie in Freddy Krueger Riffs .

4AM - AMITYVILLE 2: THE POSSESSION, DIR DAMIANO DAMIANI, 1981

Preshow - Beyond the Door, SleepWalkers, The Conjuring

    4am is usually considered the Nightmare Slot, that time where you are dozing between waking and snoring.  It has been a while since I have seen Amityville 2: The Possession, I need to watch it again.  But what I remember is that The Possession is a wall to wall werid ass movie.  Body horror, possession, excorsim, a too close sibling relationship and a batshit sweaty Burt Young Performance.  The Possession is perfect for the  Nightmare Slot Movie.  If you're finally having a sugar crash from the sour worms and chocolate pretzels, you will open an eye, look up at screen and say What the Fuck - is this a dream?  If you are still with us, you're incredibly hazy and you don't want to concentrate too much, and with The Possession you don't have to the insanity speaks for itself.

6AM - I STILL KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER, DIR DANNY CANNON, 1998

Preshow - The Serpent and the Rainbow, Happy Death Day, A Perfect Getaway

    So here is my defense of I Still Know What You Did Last Summer.  It's actually kind of fun.  I want to take advantage of the second wind of the marathon survivors, wake you up into a new faze, give you another lot of suger and start another high.  So I give you something dopey but light and with extra Jennifer Love Hewitt screaming come and get me, but this time soaking wet in and in a white shirt.  I think there is a lot of weirdness to enjoy in ISKWYDLS, especially if you are a bit dizzy from no sleep.  Jeffery Combs as an over it Hotel Manager, Jack Black inappropriate in dreads, John Hawkes for a hot minute.  ISKWYDLS is a silly movie with an even sillier title, but I love how serious Love Hewett and Prinze Jr are taking it.  But I like it.  Shhhhh don't tell anyone.

8AM - CABIN IN THE WOODS, DIR DREW GODDARD, 2011

Preshow - Firefly, Office Space, Cabin Fever

    When most people on the weekend are only just stretching awake and thinking about brunch.  You've sat through ten movies and there is more to go.  Your brain is mush, all you want at this stage is fun pop.  And you cannot get more fun than Cabin in the Woods.  I love this movie - and no one is surprised.  It's the perfect 90 minute movie feast after what you've just sat through.  It's all the horror in one.  Cabin in the Woods is a smart as a whip, it's not a satre like Final Girls but more of a homage to why the horror traditions and troupes are important.  In a time when horror was looking for a direction.  So much so that Lionsgate didn't know what to do with it and shelved it, or someone went bankrupt, I can't remember.  Anyway, it's almost the perfect modern cult movie, and I can watch Richard Jenkins swear at little girls for days 

10AM - THE BLOB, DIR CHUCK RUSSELL, 1988

Preshow - Ghostbusters 2, Galaxy of Terror, Slither

    If you're still here, you've made it!  And now we can celebrate with a movie.  Maybe one of the other great creature features, and also one of the great movies of the 1980s:  The Blob (blub).  I would love to see The Blob (Blub) in a theatre with other people.  I bet The Blob (blub) would play.  The effects are still astounding, I am still not sure how they dragged that guy through the sink hole or how they created Kevin Dillion's mullet.  Best of all is this is a great Movie Theatre Movie.  Way back when we started we had to escape into the screen in Final Girls, here in the Blob (blub) have to run away unless we want to be digested slowly by the genlantis Blob (Blub).  The Blob (Blub) is a one crazy night movie that does not hold back, you'll be screaming in terror and celebration.  It's the perfect movie to end on and stumble out in the sun light bleary eye like a new born foul, born again. Blub.

    Every single time you live through a marathon, your hung over.  Never again.  Though as soon as you wake up from a well earned nap your  already planning another movie marathon.  You cannot help yourself.