It's Not You, It's Us

By Scott Smith in Arts & Entertainment on Sep 23, 2005 2:20PM

Dear Chicago International Film Festival:

Hey, baby. It’s Chicagoist. Look, we know this is going to come as a shock but you deserve to hear it from us first. We’re not going to be able to spend every weekend with you when you visit here in October from the 6th to the 20th.

It’s not that we don’t still care about you, we do. We’ve had some good times over the last 41 years, haven’t we? Look at that book you put out. There’s a lot of memories there and we wouldn’t trade them for anything.

And it’s not like we can’t see each other when you come into town. When we found out this week about everything you’ve got planned for us, we were really touched. We’ve always loved how you’ve tried to challenge our mind with Cannes Film Fest winners and even introduced us to some of your famous friends like Susan Sarandon and Terence Howard.

But here’s the thing: you can’t expect us to just sit around all year waiting for you to return. So we’ve been seeing other fests and it’s been really good for us. We’ve even been experimenting a little with the vampire scene. We know you’ve never really been into that but we’ve got needs, OK?

So on the weekend of October 15th and 16th we’re going to be spending the weekend at the Music Box Theatre for the Music Box Massacre – a 24-hour movie marathon. They’re showing 12 new and classic horror movies like The Howling, Near Dark, Nosferatu, Aftermath (a film that’s been banned in 20 countries) and even some locally produced shorts by Chicago filmmakers. Tickets are only $20.

After 41 years, we need to spice things up. It’s obvious you’re trying with movies like I Am A Sex Addict and Night of the Living Dorks but it’s just not enough. We need the thrills that 24 hours of horror movies can provide. We hope you’ll understand.

Love, Chicagoist