Widescreen: Music Box Theatre's 31 nights of horror movies begins with all five 'Final Destination' flicks

The Freeform channel famously packs its 31 Nights of Halloween with family-friendly scares, but Chicago's premier movie theater brings the gore for its 31 Nights of Horror Films event.

The Music Box Theatre, 3733 N. Southport Ave., Chicago, begins October's "Music Box of Horrors: Scared Stupid" series at 9:30 p.m. Saturday with a marathon 35 mm screening of all five gruesomely funny "Final Destination" movies. You can watch 10 hours of teenagers dying in Rube Goldberg-style coincidences for $20, $15 for members. ("Final Destination 2," the one with the log truck causing a fiery highway accident, is my favorite.)

The rest of the month's slate is loaded with cult classics. A few notables: Joe Dante's ingenious, cartoon-inspired sequel "Gremlins 2: The New Batch" screens at 10 p.m. Oct. 8; Megan Fox gets possessed in Lemont native Diablo Cody's "Jennifer's Body" at 9:45 p.m. Oct. 13; and Rob Zombie's "House of 1,000 Corpses" closes the series at 7 p.m. on Halloween.

All single-film presentations cost $11 ($8 members), and a 10-film pass is available for $66.60 ($55.50 members).

The series also boasts a 24-hour marathon beginning at noon Oct. 22. A $30 ticket ($25 members) gets you 13 screenings that include Wesley Snipes in the original "Blade," the Robert Mitchum classic "The Night of the Hunter," and Clive Barker's gross-out sequel "Hellbound: Hellraiser II."

Presented by the Shudder streaming service, the 24-hour event also includes an in-person appearance by actor Udo Kier of "Blood for Dracula."

See the full slate and buy tickets online at musicboxtheatre.com.

• Sean Stangland is an assistant news editor who has been watching the "Hellraiser" movies with his wife over the past few weeks. Maybe some Freeform family fun is just what he needs after all that ...