The Editor Midnight Madness A loving homage to lesser, shoddier made giallo films of the 70s and 80s, The Editor finds its greatest strength in pulling together a lot of small details together that film nerds will love, but that others might not find as amusing. Once one of the world’s greatest film editors, Rey […]
Electric Boogaloo: The Wild, Untold Story of Cannon Films Midnight Madness Genre buffs need no explanation as to what Cannon Films is. The biggest action, horror, skin, and exploitation outlet from the 70s through the early 90s has become synonymous with some of the strangest, goofiest, most exciting, action packed, and sometimes strangely artful films […]
Tusk Midnight Madness A melding of Kevin Smith’s comedic sensibilities with the dark weirdness that permeated his last effort, Red State, Tusk might be the oft hockey jersey clad auteur’s most ambitious and thoughtful project yet. It’s not without its flaws, but Smith has clearly reached the “I just don’t give a fuck” portion of […]
What We Do In The Shadows Midnight Madness It’s been a while since Christopher Guest made one of his patented mockumentaries about fringe figures fumbling through fringe culture, so there’s plenty of room for someone to fill the gap. Given that Guest and his gang never would have possibly gotten around to pointing their lens […]
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It Follows Midnight Madness A suitably atmospheric, but direly serious teen thriller, It Follows takes a somewhat goofy premise and cranks it to eleven but never manages to follow through on a lot of promise at the outset. After making love to her new boyfriend for the first time, nineteen year old Jay (Maika Monroe, […]
It’s a sweltering late July afternoon, but I’m still sitting down over a cup of warm tea at Canteen in the lobby of the TIFF Bell Lightbox and talking to Colin Geddes the day after most of his choices for the heavily watched and buzzed about Midnight Madness and Vanguard sections had been announced. (Really […]
[REC] 4: Apocalypse Midnight Madness Picking up where [REC] 2 left off, no one is safe as the authorities struggle to contain a viral zombie outbreak of now demonic proportions. It won’t set the world on fire in terms of originality or craft, but if this is the final entry in the franchise, it could […]
We take a look at some of the best goings on in Toronto this Halloween from movies, to TV, to theatre, and one really kick ass party. And we might have some surprises in store... if you dare.
We talk to The Raid: Redemption director Gareth Evans about his knowledge of martial arts, his close working relationship with his stars, and what it's like trying to get an action film made in Indonesia.
This morning, the Toronto International Film Festival announced the full slate of Midnight Madness titles, and it's an extremely exciting line-up featuring films from newcomers and returning vets alike. Midnight Madness is where you'll find world premieres of some of the best genre flicks of the year. This programme is for your inner dork; the place to be if you don't feel up for the stuffiness and pretension found elsewhere in the festival. Crime, action, horror, sci-fi - it's all here.
Director Wuershan’s feature debut, The Butcher, the Chef, and the Swordsman is pretty much the epitome of a Midnight Madness film. A combination of period film, slapstick comedy, food film, love story, martial arts film and revenge thriller, with objects, images, and a contemporary soundtrack constantly being thrown at the audience, this is a film that should not work, but somehow it does.
A recent trend in horror and science fiction films is examining the world not in the midst of disaster, but once it has begun to adjust to the aftermath of a disaster. This can lead to some very interesting examinations of contemporary issues. Winner of the Cadillac People’s Choice Midnight Madness Award, Jim Mickle’s Stake Land is set in a future that includes vampires. But these are not sparkly vampires, nor ones that have souls. These are vampires are little more than animals, and like George A. Romero’s zombie film series, society must adapt to the new world order.
It must be hard to be a director like John Carpenter. When you create such classics as Halloween, The Thing and Escape from New York within four years, any subsequent films will never apparently measure up. And his new film The Ward, does not, but it is still a solid old-school horror film with plenty of scares and a twist that is only obvious after the fact.
Probably more than any other program at TIFF, the Midnight Madness section is set apart by films that are heavy on style. As many of them are genre films, the style weighs heavily in conveying the themes and subject matter to the audience. Unfortunately, often films that rely upon or engage too much of their […]
