Many of you will be receiving this from our Marathon Central e-hub, but I figured it should also be available here as well.
Geez, I told you we'd open the doors soon....really!The Marathons!You know ‘em! You love ‘em! You absolutely cannot live without the twice a year shot of cinematic adrenalin that they deliver to your life!
Since their inception in 1987, deep in the heart of that wonderfully musty and atmospheric celluloid palace known as the Drexel North, the Ohio 24-Hour Science Fiction and Horror Marathons have delighted thousands of loyal Marathoids with an eclectic, eccentric and adventurous slate of genre classics, cult rediscoveries, b-movie trash, vintage trailers and memorable shorts. And the memories that have been born from these gatherings! After all, it was at the 1992 24-Hour Horror Marathon that Columbus audiences first thrilled to the whimsically grotesque stylings of future Oscar winner Peter Jackson when
Braindead (a.k.a. Dead Alive) was unleashed upon them! The very next year, the Marathoid faithful cheered Kevin McCarthy as he fought the
Invasion of the Body Snatchers, packed the aisles to see a rare screening of James Cameron’s director’s cut of
The Abyss, bombarded their eyeballs with the 3D glory of
The Creature from the Black Lagoon, stayed up late to lay witness to
Plan 9 From Outer Space and dragged themselves to the very end to cheer Donald Sutherland’s mirror image war against the Pod People (hey, was that Kevin McCarthy again? Naw, I must have just been tired…or not…) at the 7th Annual Science Fiction Marathon! And who can forget where they were when, at the 1990 Horror Marathon, an unknown young director/future world-hopping benign cult dictator rose from obscurity to deliver the classic Marathon short
Night of the Living Bread!
But the films haven’t been the only highlight of these celebrations of cinematic excess! Over 24-odd years, the Marathons have hosted guests of all stripes, from horror icons
George A. Romero,
Bruce Campbell and
Stuart Gordon to Sci-Fi luminaries like Patricia Neal and Phil Tippett. Legendary horror producer
Brian Yuzna even brought his then pre-teen son Conan to the 1991 Horror Marathon, the father/son duo lugging the U.S. Premieres of
Society and
The Guyver along with them! And that’s not even mentioning lesser known, but equally memorable, guests! It was at the Marathon that Rolfe Kanefsky found the perfect audience for his cult favorite
There’s Nothing Out There! It was at the Marathon that
David Wechter,
Michael Nankin and
Michelle Stacey realized that a parodic short film that they’d orchestrated twenty years earlier, a little gem called
Gravity, was loved and revered beyond their wildest dreams! It was at the Marathon where producers
David E. Allen and
Brian O’Toole shared their passion for superhuman werewolves in a stirring 45-minute Q+A session following their cult premiere hit
Dog Soldiers!
Yes, many of you remember these highlights and others too numerous to mention. But over the years, the Marathons have transmogrified into more than just a film festival, becoming a bona fide social event and way of life. Lifelong friendships have been kindled in the lobbies of these many host theaters. Friends who have scattered to the corners of the country (and sometimes the globe) have set the Marathons as their reunion dates. A married couple has even spent part of their honeymoon (in matrimonial garb, no less) at the event! When members of this Marathoid nation give birth, we celebrate. When they pass away, even if our only knowledge of them was through a passing greeting, we mourn.
This is what the Marathons have become and what they have been. But the future always looms over the horizon.
It’s no secret that today’s Marathons are a slightly different creature than the ones that were spawned from the Clintonville earth two decades ago. We no longer have the convenience of an 800-seat theater. Home video and the internet have made many films once thought unavailable outside of a theatrical screening increasingly accessible. With each passing year, film rentals and shipping become more expensive. And, quite frankly, members of the extended Marathon family have gotten older. Many have remained regular attendees, but many have also (quite reasonably) chosen their real families and livelihoods over a rotation of the clock in a darkened theater. Such is the nature of an event of this vintage.
This is not to say that the Marathons are dying. In their own way, they’re still robust happenings. But they are facing somewhat of a crossroads. Maintaining control of these Marathons, ensuring that we can deliver to you, the faithful, the undiluted and adventuresome programming that you’ve come to love, is of paramount importance to us. To achieve these ends, we’ve chosen to continue holding the Marathons at some of Columbus’s finest independent theaters, and while these moviehouses are fantastic hosts, they’re also limited in their seating. The conundrum? We want to keep these events as affordable as possible (especially for the legions of potential first-time Marathoids), but we also need to turn a profit to keep them sustainable. Bringing in special guests to an 800-seat theater consistently packed with rabid film fans allowed for a large overhead; negotiating for those same guests (who are also getting more expensive as the years pass) in a 300-seat house that hasn’t quite reached the point of selling out in a while is a more daunting proposition.
Don’t get us wrong: we want to keep these Marathons alive and thriving as long as we stand on two feet…and maybe after. Our passion for everything we’ve described in this message remains undying, and the opportunity to bring the 24-Hour Science Fiction and Horror Marathons to all of you, year after year, is a singular thrill. But to continue this epic story of ours, we need something more. It can be easy to take these events for granted, but from time to time, they need an electric jolt to their heart.
You Can Help!How? If you have a friend or two who have always been meaning to attend, convince them to make this year’s Horror Marathon their first! That old friend who hasn’t been with us in years? Beg them to give it a try again! Visit our Official Website (
http://www.scifimarathon.com and
http://www.horrormarathon.com) and Facebook page and spread the word about what we do and what you enjoy! Ultimately, we can beat the promotional drum as much as we can, in as many venues as possible, but it’s the word of mouth from each of you that has kept us alive…and can push us forward into bigger and better Marathoid times.
In 25 years, we’ve all come this far together, creating a cinematic thing of ours that has become much bigger than we ever dreamed. Now, with your help, we can ensure that it remains a vibrant and vital part of all of our lives.
Your humble hosts,
Bruce and Joe
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