|Devin Warner|
Trylon’s yearly Horrorthon, this time as “Horrothon IX: Dead by Dawn,” happens in two iterations–day and night–at the Trylon Cinema on October 25. For information, visit trylon.org.
The Horrorthon is back in just a few short weeks at the Trylon, and once again, my body is ready to experience watching film after film after film. Movie marathons are something that you just can’t really get anywhere else than in a theater setting. This is where the die-hards come out, the ones for whom being in a theater for an entire day is a thrill and provides such a different energy that you really don’t get anywhere else.
Growing up in Bexley, Ohio, I was lucky to attend the independent movie theater the Drexel. Home to mostly arthouse screenings, it later began to host bi-annual movie marathons. The Annual 24-Hour Science Fiction Marathon and the more fun-named Shock Around the Clock, the 24-Hour Horror Marathon were instrumental in my discovery and appreciation of film. With the exception of some kids’ summer movie series, movie marathons were my introduction to older films on the big screen. Sitting in the dark with a film on the big screen and no distractions really let me engage with the classics in a new way. Unlike the Trylon’s marathon, the film schedule was shown to us well in advance, so we knew what we were getting. Films ranged from old classics like The Wolf Man, newer fare like The Strange Color of Your Body’s Tears, to premieres like Time Crimes. I was impressed to learn the marathon was the Midwest premiere of Guillermo del Toro’s Cronos, many years before I began to attend. For those who could survive the full day of films, they’d be presented with a lovely certificate for braving the ordeal.
The first movie marathon I attended in high school was the Halfathon of 2009, which went from midnight to noon. I attended this event alone, but one of the great things about film is that it can bring people together. I met two people with whom I remained friends for years, and not because of any film that we wanted to see in particular in our theater, but because all 3 of us snuck into the main full 24-hour marathon theater that was showing the Midwest premiere of Tokyo Gore Police from renowned splatterpunk auteur Yoshihiro Nishimura. This was a truly transformative experience for my film knowledge, as I had never seen anything like this on screen before. Nothing was off limits; everything was pushed as far as it could into the absurd. Witnessing Eihi Shiina hack the limbs off people only for them to regrow as weapons opened up many doors for me in terms of exploring international cinema and especially foreign horror. Every other country was doing horror completely differently from how directors in the US were.
The theatrical experience also has a different energy from the home experience. Though we are in the theater to watch individually, it’s a communal experience. The dead silence in a room full of people during particularly tense scenes heightens the suspense we all feel in a way that being alone doesn’t. We are all sharing in that dread. In 2013, Shock Around the Clock screened a recently discovered pristine-looking copy of Suspiria on 35mm. The colors popped better than any other DVD version I had seen up to that point, but the score on this particular version was probably about double the volume that it should have been. It caused everyone to experience the colors and sounds of Goblin’s perfect score, almost more like a concert, as it was hard to hear any dialogue. Despite our programmer’s apologies, we thought this was one of the highlights of the night. That group energy is also important when you’re still going strong at 6 a.m.; you need a crowded theater to have strong energy to power through to the end. Many marathons would drop something fun and over-the-top like the horror musical Trick or Treat (1986), something that just exudes higher energy rather than a slow burn. Bexley Marathoids will never forget that a post-midnight screening of Park Chan-Wook’s Thirst put the entire room to sleep at one point or another. Not that it’s a bad film, as Park Chan-Wook and Kang Ho Song are a perfect match, but a quiet, slow-burning, subtitled vampire film is better for that earlier in the day slot.
One thing I miss about the past 24-hour marathons I’ve attended that would be fun to have here at the Trylon is an annual costume contest. It allowed all of us film fans to get creative and express our love for cinema. We’d have costumes ranging from Father Karras from The Exorcist with a puppet Regan to the floating head from Zardoz. My friend and I got 3rd place one year for our Bill and Ted costumes. The Horrorthon is a very passionate and niche event. Something that I think would inspire the Trylon faithful to express themselves creatively and create an even more fun atmosphere. So many horror movies like Popcorn, Scream 2, and Fade to Black have scenes of horror fans dressed up in the theater. It would be fun to replicate that in the Trylon itself.
Moving to the Twin Cities post-college, I was thrilled to see that Trylon was doing a horror marathon. Even if it wasn’t 24 hours, it still gave me the chance to join a community of film lovers all locked in for horror delights. The mystery aspect gave it a different feel, too. No longer can I plan to take a nap during a 2 a.m. showing of Luc Besson’s Lucy because now I have no idea what the next film might be. The lack of knowing what’s next can give real-life horror to the audience. After downing a THC drink, from when the Trylon still carried them, the words “A film by David Cronenberg” hit the screen, and all I could think was, “Oh boy, I made a huge mistake.” The mystery is nice because it allows me to go into every film with a completely open mind, especially for the films I have never heard of before, like 1991’s Popcorn. A weird satanic murder mystery/slasher film, all set in a movie theater, Popcorn was wild and a film I still think about to this day. I had never heard of it before, and I’m not sure whether I would have ever seen anything that would have led me to seek it out, but it’s still one of my favorite films that has been screened at the Trylon. The mystery also allows me to revisit and reappraise a film that I have seen previously, which I may not have liked. Years ago, I watched the movie Blue Sunshine, and I did not care for it at all. It was later shown during a Trylon Marathon, and seeing it in a crowded theater, with everyone’s reactions, gave me a new perspective on it. If this had been shown as part of the standard October horror lineup, I never would have gone, but being forced to rewatch it allowed me to have a better appreciation for the film.
A big highlight of Trylon’s Horrorthon is the choice of food, something my stomach appreciates too. The Trylon programmer John’s annual reminder of “no donuts” to prevent us from having sugar crashes is smart. The Trylon also sells pizza to nourish us. The Drexel 24-hour marathon allowed us to drink unlimited coffee for $15 and would bring in White Castle at 4 a.m. Nothing brings a group closer together than when you’re all sealed in a room that permeates with the smell of 20+ Crave Cases while 17 hours worth of coffee is destroying your insides.
As we approach the 2025 Horrorthon, we start to question what will be shown. What treats do John and the Cult Film Collective team have in store for us?
We usually get one international film, most often an Italian film, and though they are quite good, I would love to jump continents to Asia. We had a great slate of Korean horror films last year, and it would be amazing to see either a Japanese or Hong Kong horror film. Any of the horror titles by director Kuei Chih-Hung would be incredible. Hex or Boxer’s Omen would have wide appeal, and it would be incredible to get to see Corpse Mania on the big screen. If John really wanted to push the envelope, he could screen a CAT III film like Herman Yau’s The Untold Story.
The film that would delight me more than anything else in the world is if we got a theatrical screening of Scooby Doo on Zombie Island. The film was supposed to receive a theatrical run in 1998 before it became a direct-to-video release, which I think was a major shame. John has afforded us the opportunity to see some modern films that didn’t get a wide initial theatrical release so I am just going to go for the big reach and that maybe this could get the same treatment. It’s fun, it’s spooky, the monsters are real, and hearing Skycycles’ Terror Time Again through theater speakers would be a blast.
Whatever the Trylon crew has in store for us at the end of the month, I’m sure it’s going to be great. I’m looking forward to being locked in with you all in just a few weeks.
Edited by Finn Odum