October 11, 2009: While thousands of physically capable athletic types limbered up in preparation for the 32nd Annual Chicago Marathon, a slightly more pallid but no less courageous crowd was easing into their Snuggies and fluffing their pillows inside the Music Box Theater for an altogether different kind of endurance test. The Music Box Massacre V was getting underway, and a gorgeous historical theater was packed to the rafters with excited horror fans eager to binge on genre classics and meet a few very special guests.

Whatever it was those health nuts outside were running from, we horror fans were more than willing to take it on in a darkened theater, with a flat of Monster energy drinks and a hearty supply of pizza and breakfast burritos to fuel our fanaticism.

As usual, host Rusty Nails and the fine folks at Movieside started things off nice and slow, delivering Lon Chaney at his best in The Hunchback of Notre Dame before presenting a gorgeous, extremely rare print of Val Lewton’s Isle of the Dead and lightening up the atmosphere with the campy fun of Roger Corman’s A Bucket of Blood. Pacing out a 24-hour film marathon can be a tricky endeavor, and by kicking things off with the classics, the Movieside folks created just the right mood for the chaos to come.

Before seeing Stuart Gordon pay tribute to Edgar Allan Poe with his Masters of Horror episode “The Black Cat,” the amiable director took the stage to talk a little about Poe, and introduce readings by Chicago natives Tim Kazurinsky (SNL and the Police Academy films) and Greg Hollimon (Strangers with Candy). It was genuinely inspiring to hear a modern horror icon reflect on the work of the beloved author who so clearly influenced his career. In addition to discussing some of the more macabre facts about Poe’s life and death, Gordon painted the author as an American Van Gogh – an artist whose work would tragically never be appreciated in his lifetime, but gained a greater importance following his death. The readings were a rousing success, with Kazurinsky presenting passionate interpretations of “The Conqueror Worm” and “Annabelle Lee,” and Hollimon delivering “Spirits of the Dead” and “The Haunted Palace” in a shiver-inducing baritone. Reading light on the stage was somewhat sparse, but thankfully a well-prepared fan was ready with a flashlight so the readings went on without a hitch.

As if that wasn’t enough star power to get horror hounds foaming at the mouth, David Cronenberg’s The Brood burrowed its way deep into our psyches before handsome Art Hindle delivered a few fun anecdotes about remakes (specifically Invasion of the Body Snatchers), working with Oliver Reed, having dinner with Leonard Nimoy, and maintaining levity on the set with a good-humored Cronenberg.

What better way than to follow the darkness of The Brood than with a savory Stuart Gordon sandwich? With Re-Animator and From Beyond as the bread, and the man himself in the middle, it was a perfect way of celebrating the career of a filmmaker who’s been frightening us for years. The crowd laughed heartily as Gordon recalled a morbid visit to the Cook County morgue in preparation for filming Re-Animator, and it was a real treat to hear details about his legendary experimental stage adaptation of “Peter Pan” at the University of Wisconsin. Produced in 1968, right around the time of the Democratic Convention in Chicago, the stage play served as an allegory about the ominous events unfolding in the USA at the time, with Peter Pan and the Lost Boys being “the hippies and the yippies,” the Chicago police filling in for the pirates, and (the original) Mayor Daley standing in for Captain Hook. For the flying sequences, psychedelic lights were projected onto the bodies of nude dancers in order to give the impression of dropping LSD. Unfortunately it was that aspect of the production that got Gordon and his wife arrested, although they were spared jail time when their defense attorney realized that the man who brought charges against them was a convicted child molester. Later, Gordon admitted that one of his dream projects was a documentary concerning that particular stage production, and in closing stated that the Massacre crowd was one of the very first to experience the completely uncut version of From Beyond in a movie theater. Sitting shoulder to shoulder with fans for the screening, it must have been a memorable moment for Gordon to see his film presented as he originally envisioned it, and watch the crowd go wild at all the right moments.

Gordon remained firmly planted in his seat for the Midwest premiere of Pontypool shortly after midnight, the psychically disorienting frightener working its malignant charm on the wearying crowd before screenwriter J.D. Feigelson appeared to field a few questions and introduce his creepy made-for-television chiller Dark Night of the Scarecrow.

After that the momentum never let up, with Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 and Blood Feast serving well to pin our drooping eyelids open just before dawn, breakfast burritos from the bar across the street helping to soothe our churning stomachs, and a sweet and sour Stephen King mix of Maximum Overdrive and Carrie to send us on our merry way. The sunlight never looks quite the same after spending 24 hours in a darkened movie theater, so with my perspective properly warped and “They’re all gonna laugh at you!” still ringing in my head, I hopped the Megabus and drifted off to sleep for the first time in nearly two days. Fortunately I managed to wake up in time for my stop in Ann Arbor, because realizing you’re stuck in downtown Detroit on a chilly fall night is a different kind of horror entirely.