Latest / Indie Film Podcast / 250 Films. One Epic Horror Weekend. | IFP Reviews: Chicago Horror Film Festival

Transcript

250 Films. One Epic Horror Weekend. | IFP Reviews: Chicago Horror Film Festival · Indie Film Podcast

• 0:00
  Welcome to an indie film podcast, Film Festival review.
• 0:02
  I'm Vic. And I'm Chuck.
• 0:04
  Today we're going to be talking about our experience at the 26th
• 0:07
  Annual Chicago Horror Film Festival.
• 0:10
  The Chicago Horror Film Festival is an IMDb certified festival
• 0:13
  that played 250 films across three days at the Logan Theater
• 0:18
  in Chicago, IL September 26th through the 28th, 2025 do.
• 0:22
  You want to go over the review metrics, Vic?
• 0:25
  Absolutely. As the person submitting the
• 0:27
  film, I handled communications from the festival, which I would
• 0:30
  rate a nine out of 10. The films themselves, I'm going
• 0:32
  to rate 9 out of 10 because I thought they were exceptional.
• 0:35
  The films themselves, I agree were exceptional in it rated at
• 0:38
  a 10 out of 10. The attendance and audience I
• 0:41
  also rated at a 10 out of 10. I'm going to put that at A9
• 0:44
  Networking and Events. I rated that in nine out of 10.
• 0:48
  The networking and events I put it a 10 out of 10.
• 0:50
  The theater tech however, I put at an 8 out.
• 0:53
  Of 10, I put that at a 7 1/2 and we're going to talk about that
• 0:56
  once we're done with the metrics awards.
• 0:58
  I thought that was a nine out of 10.
• 1:00
  I put those as a 10 out of 10, and then the town area itself I
• 1:04
  put as a definitive 10 out of 10. 10 out of 10 for me.
• 1:08
  I love Chicago so the overall rating I have is a 9.1.
• 1:12
  And the rating that I have is a 9.6.
• 1:16
  Do you want to talk a little bit about the qualitative aspects of
• 1:20
  this Film Festival? Yes.
• 1:22
  So I will say the submission fee was only $16.00 for a short,
• 1:26
  which felt very reasonable, very realistic.
• 1:29
  And the biggest drawback for me throughout the whole festival,
• 1:33
  because it was amazing and wonderful, if you couldn't tell
• 1:36
  by the scores, was that there were some technical
• 1:39
  difficulties. And I understand there were 250
• 1:41
  films, so of course there's going to be some tech issues,
• 1:43
  but some of them were pretty substantial, including paint
• 1:46
  laying back at like the wrong crop for the projector it almost
• 1:48
  looked like. And when I did pay the extra
• 1:51
  $30.00 for them to create the DC for me, I was kind of hoping to
• 1:54
  not have that happen. However, they did recover pretty
• 1:58
  well. And whenever a film played,
• 2:00
  which didn't happen very often, but there were some instances
• 2:02
  where a film would play without sound, they would go back and
• 2:05
  replay the film once they had that issue corrected, Which I
• 2:08
  did appreciate them stepping up and doing the right thing there.
• 2:11
  Yes, they did a good job to try to cover this up and technical
• 2:14
  stuff does happen and the theater itself was really solid
• 2:18
  and the audio and video quality was very solid.
• 2:21
  But that's why I gave the theater slash tech score a 7 1/2
• 2:26
  was because very good quality audio and visual.
• 2:30
  However, you had an issue with your scope project essentially
• 2:34
  playing in 16 by 9, which means the left and right sides of the
• 2:39
  frame were were cut out of the picture.
• 2:41
  Substantial crowd it was about 1/3 of the full frame was
• 2:44
  scrolled down. Yeah.
• 2:45
  And so that's not ideal. And you weren't the only
• 2:48
  filmmaker to have that happen. And unfortunately, you know,
• 2:51
  stuff like that does happen, but it does.
• 2:53
  You got it. You got to take that off the
• 2:54
  score. You roll with the punches
• 2:56
  though. Though I will say that was the
• 2:57
  only downside of that theatre. The Logan Theatre is so cool.
• 3:00
  It was a gorgeous theatre. They actually had a lounge set
• 3:04
  aside and cordoned off for all the film makers to go hang out
• 3:07
  in a network throughout the entire festival, not just at
• 3:10
  designated events. It had a full bar, had some
• 3:13
  pretty good nachos, but it was, it felt like that very immersive
• 3:17
  theatre experience that I remember from my childhood.
• 3:20
  Yes, it was very nostalgic and cool.
• 3:22
  I'm going to say it's more Midwestern chips and cheese than
• 3:25
  nachos because. Good point.
• 3:27
  It was if you're, if you're from the Western States and you order
• 3:30
  those nachos, you're not going to get what you think is nachos,
• 3:33
  but they were good. And they still offered jalapenos
• 3:35
  with them, so I was very happy. Some pickled jalapenos on the
• 3:38
  side. The Logan Theater is also a
• 3:41
  block away from one of the metro stops so it was really easy to
• 3:45
  access if you are looking at attending, which I would highly
• 3:49
  recommend. If you get into this Film
• 3:51
  Festival you attend, there are areas along the metro stop that
• 3:55
  you can get fairly inexpensively in Chicago, so it wouldn't break
• 3:58
  the bank as long as you can fly in or drive into Chicago easily.
• 4:02
  Yeah, then you would. I mean, it's what, a $5 per day
• 4:05
  metro ride around and once you get to the theater, you're going
• 4:08
  to want to stay because these films are incredible and the
• 4:11
  variety of films. Yes, it is a horror genre
• 4:14
  festival, so let's just lay that clear.
• 4:18
  They're all horrors. They're all horrors, but I mean,
• 4:21
  we had micro shorts from 2 minutes all the way up to
• 4:24
  multiple features. Just astounding quality on all
• 4:29
  of these films. A lot of really niche out there,
• 4:32
  wild stories and takes, and some of them just drew you in so
• 4:36
  incredibly. And most of the film makers are
• 4:38
  there from all over the place. Yeah, we met people from
• 4:41
  obviously LA and New York, but also.
• 4:44
  And also from Chicago. Chicago shows up too, for sure.
• 4:47
  But Toronto, Phoenix, I'm trying to think of some other there.
• 4:51
  Was a surprising amount of Arizona and then quite a few in
• 4:54
  LA. Some E coasters from New York as
• 4:58
  well as from Virginia, South Carolina, Toronto.
• 5:02
  There were a lot there were. So the film makers flew in for
• 5:05
  this festival. The the creativity in the
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  programming was awesome. I was entertained.
• 5:12
  The only thing that happened was because it was playing in two
• 5:15
  different theaters, there was a lot of like, feeling of missing
• 5:17
  out. Yeah, but if you're a millennia
• 5:19
  or a Gen. Z or it's FOMO.
• 5:22
  But but they do also offer online access for the films too.
• 5:26
  So if you met some of the film makers, like what happened to
• 5:28
  us, we would meet some of the film makers, be really excited,
• 5:30
  find out we missed their block or or can't attend their block
• 5:34
  or whatever. You get an online screen or link
• 5:36
  to be able to watch the films online and go back.
• 5:38
  And I mean, the connections at this Film Festival were
• 5:41
  incredible. There are so many talented film
• 5:43
  makers there that we're still in touch with now.
• 5:45
  Yes, absolutely. And so definitely recommend
• 5:48
  attending this Film Festival and I'm sure next year after they
• 5:51
  had the tech hiccups, they will get that fixed.
• 5:54
  I would imagine they're. The initiative to already care
• 5:58
  in the moment and make it right and own it instead of just
• 6:02
  saying, well, you sent it to us wrong.
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  They never once blamed anybody else.
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  They owned all of it and they're working on it.
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  Like the communication was was really solid.
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  To be fair, I was very needy and had a lot of questions.
• 6:13
  So there was a lot of communication.
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  And while the answers weren't always as in depth as I would
• 6:18
  hope they would have been, I always heard back.
• 6:21
  I never felt ignored or dismissed by the festival, which
• 6:24
  for a festival across three days playing that many films, that's
• 6:28
  impressive. They were packed in and
• 6:31
  neighborhood was really cool. It was really easy to meet new
• 6:34
  people and just dip out for lunch with some some new
• 6:39
  filmmaker friends or get drinks after the show.
• 6:41
  And Chicago was fantastic. The metro system runs 24 or 7,
• 6:46
  and I believe we hopped on a train at probably like two or
• 6:49
  three in the morning, one of one of the mornings after we were
• 6:53
  watching films until it must have been close to midnight and
• 6:56
  then going out to get drinks with film makers did not feel
• 6:59
  unsafe for a moment in the Chicago metro.
• 7:01
  Which was great. It just makes me wish Idaho had
• 7:04
  a metro. Yeah, but that's not what this
• 7:06
  review is about. No, but I will.
• 7:08
  And the. Hot dogs are fantastic.
• 7:09
  Oh yeah, no, it's Chicago. The foods great.
• 7:14
  So All in all, I would say if you're thinking of submitting to
• 7:17
  this festival, if you have a horror film, the price isn't so
• 7:20
  high that it's going to be a deterrent, I say go for it.
• 7:24
  They are looking for a variety in their programming.
• 7:26
  Even though I wouldn't necessarily classify my film as
• 7:28
  a horror, I would call it a thriller and they still wanted
• 7:31
  that as part of the variety in the programming.
• 7:33
  So no matter what your film is, I would submit it.
• 7:36
  And if you do get in, definitely go.
• 7:38
  This festival is completely worth it.
• 7:39
  Couldn't agree more. And if you have a Film Festival
• 7:43
  or a film that you'd like us to chat at about, you can go to
• 7:46
  indiefilmpodcast.com/submit and fill out the application there
• 7:52
  and we can do that for you. Yeah, or you can make sure that
• 7:55
  you subscribe to the Indie Film Podcast newsletter, and that way
• 7:58
  you can stay up to date on absolutely everything we have
• 8:00
  going on, including upcoming new reviews or any new tutorials
• 8:03
  that we might be throwing your way for free.
• 8:05
  Excellent. Shall we succinctly say
• 8:07
  farewell? Sounds great.
• 8:08
  Bye. Bye.