Horror on the Big Screen

For those in the Chicago area, the Music Box Theatre will be showing twenty six horror flicks for the Halloween season. First off is the Music Box Massacre 7, a 24 hour film festival of horror movie madness with special guest Herschell Gordon Lewis and dealer tables in the lobby!

The massacre begins at Noon on Saturday, October 15th and runs until Noon on Sunday, October 16th. 

Schedule:
12:00pm – Waxworks (Silent with live organ music)

1:30pm – Burn Witch Burn

3:05pm – Hour of the Wolf

4:45pm – The Abominable Dr. Phibes 

6:30pm – Wizard of Gore (with Herschell Gordon Lewis in Person)
8:45pm – Halloween 

10:30pm – Poltergeist 

12:45am – Pumpkinhead

2:30am – Gates of Hell

4:15am – The Vampire Lovers
6:00am – Children Shouldn’t Play With Dead Things

7:45am – The Sentinel

9:20am – From Dusk ‘Til Dawn

Ticket Info: 

$34 from 9/16 – 10/14 only 200 available at this price

$38 day of show only 100 available at this price

 

Next up we have Universal Horror, thirteen classics from Universal Studios running from October 22nd through the 27th. Although the showtimes have not been published yet, the films and dates will be:

10/22 Murders in the Rue Morgue

10/22 Creature from the Black Lagoon in 3D

10/23 It Came From Outer Space

10/23 The Invisible Man

10/23 The Invisible Man Returns

10/24 The Wolf Man

10/24 Captive Wild Women

10/25 Dracula

10/25 The Mummy

10/26 Frankenstein

10/26 The Bride of Frankenstein

10/27 The Black Cat

10/27 Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein

All films in the Universal Horror and Music Box Massacre will be actual film prints, not DVD projections like the Monster Fests at the Portage Theater. Admission is $9.25 per showing, but you can save a little cash by purchasing the Music Box Discount Card of five admissions for $35.00.

The Music Box Theatre is located at 3733 North Southport Avenue in Chicago, Illinois. For those who are interested, the theatre was opened in 1929 as a counterpart to the movie palaces downtown. The main auditorium seats 800 and is the only one you want to watch movies in. The second screen was built in 1991 which converted a vacant storefront that was adjacent to the lobby. Some television sets aren't much smaller than the screen in there. The Music Box may also be haunted...

From the Music Box Theatre Website

Old theaters have ghosts and The Music Box is no exception. “Whitey”, as was his neighborhood nick-name, was the manager of The Music Box from opening night 1929 to November 24, 1977. His wife was the cashier and they raised their family two blocks away from the theater. According to one of Whitey’s daughters and his daughter-in-law, he spent most of his time at the theater. Young people who grew up in the neighborhood tell tales of working for Whitey, being tossed out by Whitey and accidentally-on-purpose skinning their knee to get a free piece of candy from Whitey. Parents speak of the embarrassment of having their child’s instamatic photo in the cashier’s station “rogues gallery” of children not allowed back in the theater for any of a myriad of offenses. On Thanksgiving eve, 1977, Whitey returned to close the theater. He fell asleep on the couch in the lobby and never woke up.

 

Whitey is a tireless protector of The Music Box Theatre. He helps solve problems and has been known to express his opinion of a bad organist by causing the drapery to drop in both organ chambers simultaneously. He is a positive contributor to the audience’s comfort and enjoyment of his theater. He is sometimes felt to be pacing Aisle 4 (protecting the alley doors where kids used to sneak in). If you see him, be sure to say hello and thank him for his 48 years of care and operation of The Music Box and his continued service to the patrons. He is the Manager Emeritus.