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A DIFFERENT KIND OF MIDNIGHT, MASS.

I don't know what life in Boston would be like without the Coolidge Corner Theatre, but thankfully, I don't need to imagine it just yet. And with that, here is an introduction to the dis(?)harmonic convergence of midnight madness fun around town this weekend.

Midnight, Mass.: Where to find excitement after hours
By Sean L. McCarthy
The Boston Herald
Hearty partyers still looking for entertainment in the midnight hour are in luck on the outskirts of Boston.
First stop: Brookline.
Yes, Brookline. The Coolidge Corner Theatre can be counted on throughout the year for eclectic midnight offerings, ranging from the ridiculously sublime to almost indescribably lunatic.
Take this weekend, for example.
At midnight tonight, J. Cannibal hosts “Feast of Flesh,” a variety show that includes surf music by Gein and the Graverobbers, wrestling by the masked females known as La Gata Negra, and the gross-out 1979 movie “Zombie.” Prizes will be awarded for customers who show up in the best zombie outfits, and everyone gets a free gory goodie bag.
The event is produced by Black Ocean, a nonprofit publishing and production company that employs Cannibal’s alter ego, Janaka Stucky.
“I try to create events that I’d be excited to go to if I weren’t already organizing it,” Stucky said.
He tries to put on something once a month, whether it’s at the Coolidge or another venue around the Hub.
“It’s difficult to do in Boston, because the trains stop running and cabs are expensive, but people are finding a way to do it,” he said. “In my mind, there’s been a resurgence in the past year, especially with small events like this, or like Pan9.”
Most clubs already are booked with live music or dancing, which leaves only small arthouse theaters such as Coolidge Corner or the Brattle for variety shows.
“Theaters seem to be friendly to it,” Stucky said. “Or underground spaces, which manage to stay successful because they are underground. That’s kind of a Catch-22.”
The Coolidge Corner continues Stucky’s cannibal theme tomorrow night with a special midnight screening of “Cannibal! The Musical.”
You might know it better as the first feature film from Trey Parker and Matt Stone, who staged the real-life story of cannibal Alferd Packer as a musical comedy in their 1996 film - a year before Comedy Central committed to their animated series, “South Park.”
The Coolidge Corner screening is not the original movie but thefilm’s DVD commentary track, which has Parker and Stone describing the action and behind-the-scenes funny while downing a bottle of booze.
Over in Cambridge, the Brattle Theatre delves into similar late-night hijinks this weekend with multiple screenings of “Live Freaky! Die Freaky!”
The 2003 stop-motion-animation film has remained virtually underground, and a brief description might explain why: It retells the Charlie Manson saga as a musical comedy with puppets and Claymation and X-rated sex scenes.
The cast includes all three members of Green Day (Billie Joe Armstrong is the voice of “Charlie Hanson” and provided some of the movie’s score) along with Travis Barker, Jane Wiedlin, Kelly Osbourne and Asia Argento.
Ned Hinkle, the Brattle’s creative director, said he’d like to offer more midnight features this spring.
“It’s not so much about fund raising with the late-night stuff as it is programming to my taste or a younger audience’s taste,” Hinkle said. “It’s a way to do guilty-pleasure screenings.”
Just a few blocks from the Brattle, the Loews Harvard Square does just that by allowing the Full Body Cast to throw the perennial audience-participation fave “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” most Saturday nights.
The Teseracte Players of Boston also perform “Rocky Horror” at various venues and functions in the area, including a monthly show at Hollywood Hits in Danvers.

RELATED:
Coolidge Corner Theatre
290 Harvard St., Brookline
617-734-2500, www.coolidge.org

Brattle Theatre
40 Brattle St., Cambridge
617-876-6837, www.brattlefilm.org

“The Rocky Horror Picture Show”
Loews Harvard Square
10 Church St., Cambridge
617-864-4580, www.fullbodycast.org