This morning saw the announcement of this year’s Midnight Madness line-up and the Toronto International Film Festival. This year’s line-up not only features the return of some notable alumni, but also a few films that aim to relaunch horror franchises of the past. Without further ado, I will go through some of the highlights of this year’s Midnight Madness line-up.
Opening and Closing Films
Sadako vs. Kayako, Kōji Shiraishi, Japan (International Premiere) – Closing Film
I’m actually listing this one first, since it is one of the films in this year’s Midnight Madness line-up that quite intrigues me. Sadako vs. Kayako brings together the villains of Ringu and Ju-On together in a J-Horror monster brawl. It is quite ironic that this film is arriving around the same time as Rings, a new North American reboot of The Ring. I do have to say that this film interests me a lot more than that one.
Free Fire, Ben Wheatley, United Kingdom (World Premiere) – Opening Film
Ben Wheatley is no stranger to Midnight Madness, having had played Kill List as part of the programme a number of years ago. Free Fire is probably most notable for its star-studded cast, which includes Brie Larson, Cillian Murphy, and Sharlto Copley.
For the last few months, it has being hyped that director Adam Wingard (You’re Next, The Guest) was coming out with a found footage film named The Woods. It was just a few weeks ago at the San Diego ComicCon when the cat was let out of the bag that The Woods was actually a secret sequel to The Blair Witch Project. With the franchise seemingly dead in the water after 2000’s Blair Witch 2: Book of Shadows, it will be interesting to see if Blair Witch can breathe new life into the found footage genre it created.
Dog Eat Dog, Paul Schrader, USA (North American Premiere)
If you told me yesterday that the director of Super Size Me would have a film as part of Midnight Madness, I would probably laugh. Indeed Morgan Spurlock’s latest documentary will play at part of the late-night line-up, which is enough to make me intrigued.
Raw (Grave), Julia Ducournau, France/Belgium (International Premiere)
The plot description of this film makes it sound a bit like vegan propaganda.
Sean Patrick Kelly
Sean Patrick Kelly is a Toronto-based freelance film critic and blogger with a Bachelor of Arts in Cinema and Media Studies from York University. Since founding his site in 2004, Sean has shared his passion for cinema through insightful reviews and commentary. His work has also been featured in prominent outlets, including Toronto Film Scene, HuffPost Canada, Screen Anarchy, ScreenRant, and Rue Morgue Magazine.
Some big Canadian movie news this week is that Cineplex Galaxy has purchased, main competitor, Famous Players. As a result, Cineplex would control 63% of all Canadian theatres. This is definitely the end of the era for me. For my whole life, it was always Cineplex Odeon and Famous Players. In fact there used to…
This weekend marks the 30th anniversary of Ivan Reitman’s Ghostbusters. The film had its premiere on June 7, 1984, before going into general release the following day. The film was the brainchild of actor Dan Aykroyd, who’s known for his real life interest in the paranormal (I saw a talk with him and his father…
After that little bit of fun I had this morning, it is time for me to run down the entire line-up of this year’s Toronto After Dark film festival. This year will feature Toronto After Dark’s biggest line-up, consisting of 20 films over nine days. The first half of the line-up was announced in late…
I’ve been meaning for a while to follow the lead of other film blogs and begin a column all about examining a single frame from a film. It is a no brainer that I would make the topic of my first such column my favourite film Donnie Darko. There are many stills from Donnie Darko that have…
There is a eclectic line-up of films making up the TIFF Docs programme this year. Probably the biggest surprise of the bunch would be the World Premiere of Super Size Me 2: Holy Chicken!, the follow-up to the documentary that introduced us all to Morgan Spurlock. The opening documentary film this year will be Sophie…
As you may know, in celebration of me turning 30 this year (just celebrated my birthday last week), I have been discussing a different classic 1982 film every month in my Revisiting 1982 series. However, I’m not the only one celebrating the great movie year that was 1982. This summer, the Alamo Drafthouse in Austin,…
