Monday, November 05, 2012

Music Box of Horrors

Chicago was fortunate to have TWO 24-hour Horrorthons this year. This was the first one.

The (Annual) 24-hour horror movie marathon at the Music Box Theatre in Chicago was held on October 13 - 14. Formerly known as the Music Box Massacre, now called Music Box of Horrors. Kicked off Saturday at noon, here was the line-up of films (in order), all of which were presented in 35mm except the newer films, Satan’s Little Helper and Eddie: The Sleepwalking Cannibal both DCP. The Golem was 16mm. Special guests included Sybil Danning and Jeff Lieberman. Roughly 600 people attended the event over the 24-hour period (around 150 were there at the end).


I arrived right before The Golem kicked off the event. I stayed (awake) for 10 films leaving around 6:30am after The Phantasm. I would have loved to stay but I needed s little sleep before the "Day of Chicago Firsts" event at Portage Theater in the afternoon. I really wanted to see Deadly Spawn and Blood Diner on the big screen. Ah well. Still managed 18 hours of film.

Best moment: meeting Sybil Danning and chatting for a bit around the midnight hour. She is an awesome person.

WTF moment: during Q&A, audience member asked Jeff Lieberman what he thought about the demise of 35mm film, expecting him to provide his lament. Instead he said, "fuck film. I love digital. I'm not looking back." (paraphrasing)

Good times.

Friday, August 24, 2012

Noir City 4: Chicago

The Noir City Film Festival has ended and I'm glad that I was able to view as many titles as I did. Total of 8 films out of the 15 presented. Some true gems too including a few not available on home video.

The films I saw were: Three Strangers (1946), Black Angel (1946), Phantom Lady (1944), The Window (1949), Shakedown (1950), Undertow (1949), This Gun for Hire (1942), and The Great Gatsby (1949). Wish I could have seen more! Maybe next year.

Thursday, July 12, 2012

Godzilla Fest 2012 Kick Off

Spent the afternoon and evening at the Pickwick Theatre for a line-up of Giant Monster movies to celebrate the 19th annual G-Fest event. The afternoon was two Godzilla influences and the evening was two Godzilla rivals films. Highlight was easily viewing Kong Kong '33 on the big screen. Still such an incredible movie.