If you go to the Case Western-Reserve University Film Society’s 37th Annual Science-Fiction Marathon January 20-21, 2012, you will behold the nightmare of the walking dead. Once-normal humans, now shambling zombies, their eyes glazed and empty, their mouths open in hungry travesty of slurred speech, lurching into your path with clutching hands... 

And that's just the audience. Imagine what the movies are like.  

Each year, at the icy beginning of the spring semester, an estimated 250 people pack in Strosacker Auditorium, on the CWRU Campus in the University Circle area of Cleveland, for the campus film society's annual science-fiction marathon. It's been a campus tradition at CWRU even before “Star Wars” came out - since 1975, in fact. In the movie-fanatic world, the CWRU Sci-Fi Marathon has a national reputation as an endurance test for fans of SF and fantasy.  

The 2012 CWRU Sci-Fi Marathon starts at 8 p.m. on Friday, January 20 in Strosacker, although ticket-bracelets go on sale at 6 p.m. for $25. Lucky attendees who get one can keep it on and enter and leave at will throughout the marathon – 30-some hours of nonstop science-fiction, horror and fantasy features, trailers, cartoons, TV episodes, short subjects and trivia contests, with the cinematic attractions ranging from brand-new releases to moldy-oldy classics, “cult” pictures and long-forgotten (or best-forgotten) gems.  

The movies are projected on genuine drive-in-ready 35mm or 16mm film, and in the past the titles have run the gamut, from “Grindhouse” to “Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein” to “Iron Man” to “Naked Lunch” to “Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure” to “Close Encounters” to Japanese anime. The most repeatedly revived titles year after year? It seems to be a tie between 1951’s original “The Day the Earth Stood Still” and “Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.”  

The Marathon continues right up to the early morning hours of Sunday, January 22, when the final stragglers head home to recover. Believe it or not, a number of people do indeed last through the entire marathon, and a handful repeat the endurance test year after year. A few years ago there was a tally of four heavy-duty super-fans (possibly aliens) who had withstood every single marathon since the inception. 

How did they – or anybody – survive? Sleeping bags are permitted, with the early arrivals permitted the choices spots to camp out, in the auditorium or in the lobby areas on two floors. Refreshments are sold on site, and while snack foods can be brought into the venue, glass bottles and alcohol spirits are taboo. And no campfires. Moviegoers are able, in a breach of movie etiquette, to bring their own personal computers or devices. The technical campus is, of course, wifi-enabled, and one can blog or Tweet to one’s heart’s content while slowly losing one’s mind. 

Then there are the customary videogame tournaments in the lobby to stay awake, if someone thinks ahead to bring a popular console and a video projector. 

Not up for the whole thing, but curious? The charge to attend an individual feature is $3. But really, where is the sport in that? An auditorium-full of mind-blasted college kids at 4 a.m., some of them Trekkies in full uniform, is a sight (and smell) not soon forgotten.  

While a certain amount of “Mystery Science Theater 3000”-type heckling and call-and-response stuff is expected, there was, just like in the “Terminator” movies, a high-tech nightmare that developed about a decade and a half ago. As hand-held laser pointers came into vogue, affordable to the average technical-college student, marathon-goers started bringing those little gadgets to the show with them. At first it was funny; those viewers still conscious did amusing light-patterns and ballets with the red pinpoints on the screen during boring intervals. But more and more laser dots started showing up, to the point that the screen at any given moment was a veritable asteroid-field of distracting ruby-laser dots – even during good flicks (“Khaaaaaaaan!”). Finally the CWRU Film Society outlawed laser pointers altogether (and it’s a safe bet in 2012 that there will be no jetpacks, probably for the same reason). 

Want to know something truly frightening, though? Many years ago a similar science-fiction marathon in Columbus would take place in late January, sometimes exactly a week later. Hardcore devotees would undergo the CWRU marathon, spend a few days in recovery - then drive downstate and do it all again! But the Columbus marathon has since moved to later in the year (details online at www.scifimarathon.com), so doing double-dose of sci-fi marathons is no longer possible in Ohio. Sort of like those Guinness world’s-record categories that got retired because they got too dangerous. 

Even though child-friendly movies like “Spy Kids” have been known, families should know that R-rated material often gets the green light as well. As such, anyone 17 and under who attends the CWRU Sci-Fi Marathon must be accompanied by a parent or guardian. 

The official schedule of the CWRU Sci-Fi Marathon is not announced until a week or so before showtime – and even there, expect two or three mystery features that could be anything. For full rules, regulations, parking directions, photos of past Marathons and other and inside tips, log onto the website of the CWRU Film Society, at http://films.cwru.edu/marathon.html.