TIFF 2010: Full Midnight Madness Program Announced!

I'm a little late to the Midnight Madness party this year, but with the film titles announced just last week and the festival only a few weeks ahead of us, there is still a lot of time to get excited about the 10 films that play at the latest time slot, to the loudest crowds at the Toronto International Film Festival.

I'm thrilled to see the multitude of paranormal, thrilling and just down right creepy looking films are included in this years festival. First off, it's so exciting to see that new work from Jim Mickle & Nick Damici who brought us Mulberry Street have teamed up again as writer/director and writer/actor in the post-apocalyptic Stake Land that is set after a vampire epidemic. Bring it on! More tragic world views with Brad Anderson's Vanishing on 7th Street which looks totally creepy from the trailer, and the film stars Hayden Christensen, Thandie Newton and John Leguizamo is a survivalist themed thriller set in a world where very suddenly very few people kicking around. Legendary director John Carpenter returns with a new film The Ward, set in 1960's in a mental institution with "unseen forces" - that's got to be scary! More scares to terrorize in Insidious, starring Rose Byrne and Patrick Wilson as parents who move into an old house with uninvited guests in the form of vengeful spirits, or perhaps they are the uninvited guests! We also have the Hong Kong set urban thriller Red Nights starring Carrie Ng as a seductress and killer. Wow.

For the action fans the program has some very interesting choices this year and my interest was piqued when the first line of the Bunraku description read as "In a world with no guns", that's enough to get me interested! But add young samurai, assassins and a bartender (?!) it just gets better and better. Oh, and better still as it starts Josh Hartnett, Woody Harrelson, Ron Perlman and Demi Moore. On the other end of the gun spectrum, there is no 'no gun' clause in Fire of Conscience which from the trailer over at the official website is explosive and fierce, and looks like it might set a freaking record for explosions.

A film that sounds like it defies broad categorizations is The Butcher, The Chef and the Swordsman / Dao Jian Xiao a kitchen-centric action comedy starring Masanobu Ando (SUKIYAKI WESTERN DJANGO, Nightmare Detective / Akumu Tantei). You had me at "the struggle to own a deadly kitchen cleaver". More films in the program that have unique comedic flair are SUPER featuring Rainn Wilson as a costumed vigilante and Fubar II that is sure to be filled with hoser goodness.

So, that's the good news. The sad news it looks like this will be my last post regarding the Toronto International Film Festival this year. I applied for but did not receive press accreditation, here's hoping that 2011 will be the year that I get a yes. I hope everyone has a great time at the festival, I know I'll certainly miss it this year.

2010 Midnight Madness program at the Toronto International Film Festival:

Bunraku
It had me at "In a world with no guns"
Dir: Guy Moshe
Cast: Josh Hartnett, Woody Harrelson, Ron Perlman, Demi Moore
USA
TIFF Page, Film Facebook Page, IMDB Page

The Butcher, The Chef and the Swordsman / Dao Jian Xiao
Dir: Wuershan
Cast: Masanobu Ando, Kitty Zhang, You Benchang, Liu Xiaoye, Ashton Xu
Hong Kong, China/USA
World Premiere
TIFF Page, No IMDb Page

Fire of Conscience / Huo Long
It had me at "an orchestra of exploding grenades and machine gun rounds"
Dir: Dante Lam
Cast: Leon Lai, Richie Jen, Wan Baoqiang, Vivian Hsu
Hong Kong/China
North American Premiere
TIFF Page, Official Film Site & Trailer, IMDB Page

Insidious
It had me at "vengeful spirits from another realm"
Dir: James Wan
Cast: Rose Byrne, Barbara Hershey, Patrick Wilson
USA
World Premiere
TIFF Page, IMDB Page

Red Nights / Les Nuits Rouges du Bourreau de Jade
It had me at "seductive cat-and-mouse thriller set in Hong Kong"
Dir: Julien Carbon & Laurent Courtiaud
Cast: Frédérique Bel, Carrie Ng, Carole Brana, Stephen Wong
Hong Kong/ China/France
World Premiere
TIFF Page, IMDB Page

Stake Land
It had me at "In the aftermath of a vampire epidemic"
Dir: Jim Mickle (Mulberry Street)
Cast: Nick Damici, Connor Paolo, Danielle Harris, Kelly McGillis, Michael Cerveris
USA
World Premiere
TIFF Page, Official Film Site, IMDB Page

SUPER
It had me at "costumed vigilante armed with a monkey wrench"
Dir: James Gunn
Cast: Rainn Wilson, Liv Tyler, Kevin Bacon, Ellen Page
USA
World Premiere
TIFF Page, IMDB Page

Vanishing on 7th Street
It had me at "blackout causes the population to inexplicably vanish"
Dir: Brad Anderson (The Machinest, Transsiberian)
Cast: Hayden Christensen, Thandie Newton, John Leguizamo
USA
World Premiere
TIFF Page, Official Film Site & Trailer, IMDB Page

The Ward, John Carpenter's
It had me at "John Carpenter"
Dir: John Carpenter (The Thing, They Live, Big Trouble in Little China, Halloween)
Cast: Amber Heard, Mamie Gummer, Danielle Panabaker, Jared Harris, Lyndsy Fonseca
USA
World Premiere
TIFF Page, Official Film Site, IMDB Page

Plus Previously announced:

Fubar II **Midnight Madness Opening Night**
It had me at "hosers"
Dir: Michael Dowse
Cast: Dave Lawrence, Paul J. Spence, Andy Sparacino, Terra Hazelton, Tracy Lawrence
Canada
World Premiere
TIFF Page, Official Film Site & Trailer, IMDB Page

Source: When The Sun Goes Down, The Stars Come Out Festival’s Midnight Madness Line-Up Packed With Big Names, Big Action And Big Thrills

The Toronto International Film Festival 2010 runs from September 9 - 19, 2010 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

TIFF'09: Midnight Madness Program

It's time to take a look at the craziest program at TIFF: Midnight Madness. Last week I shared the announcement while I was over in Nova Scotia but now it's time to take a real look at what's coming to Toronto for the late night fanatics this year at TIFF.

First off, we have to take a moment to squeal over sequels. First is [REC] 2, sequel to the powerhouse Spanish horror film [REC] which is one of the scariest horror films in recent years. Next we have Ong Bak 2: The Beginning which promises a lot Muay Thai goodness just like the original Ong-Bak: The Thai Warrior.

We have some excellent monsterlicious selections with year including vampires and zombies! Daybreakers is vampire film that takes a new spin on the idea of vampires facing self extinction and stars Ethan Hawke and Willem Dafoe. Although Daybreakers has an upcoming release set for early 2010 I sure as heck going to check it out this September at the festival. Moving along to more monsters with George A. Romero's Survival of the Dead for you've guessed: zombie goodness. Word is that it follows a character from George A. Romero's Diary of the Dead which was at the festival 2 years ago in 2007.

Can the ladies in the house say hell ya? Hell ya. The program kicks off Opening Night with Jennifer's Body, directed by Karyn Kusama (Girlfight) and written by Diablo Cody (Juno) and starring Megan Fox and Amanda Seyfried in a high school trouncing blood and madness. We also have Bitch Slap with a Faster Pussycat, Kill Kill like caper feel that looks pulls a few cards from the heist film deck. I'm not super keen on the introduction to characters cleavage first, but at least it is up front about it!

Trekking round the planet we have Aussie creepiness of The Loved Ones which leads us into a prom of nightmares. Japanese Symbol / Shinboru looks so bizarre you need to make up new words to describe it, but what else would be expect from director Hitoshi Matsumoto who brought us the mammothly crazy DAINIPPONJIN. Soloman Kane stars James Purefoy in the titular role, and there isn't much infomation out yet about the film however with heavy hitters Pete Postlethwaite and Max von Sydow among the cast it sounds very well worth checking out.

No documentary in the set this year but we do have the stop-motion animated film A Town Called Panic / Panique au village based on the Belgian TV series from 2000-2003. Does anyone else keep hearing the song "Town Called Malice" when hear this title?

Great line up this year, I'm really looking forward to checking out the films especially the sequels, monster films and the bizarreness of Symbol which is certainly going to freak me out. It's shaping up to be yet another great year at TIFF!

Here are the details on each of the films with corresponding links to info on the TIFF site, IMDb, Trailers and Official Websites if available. Schedule is still to be announced other than Jennifer's Body opens the program on Thursday September 10, 2009.

[REC] 2
Dirs: Jaume Balagueró & Paco Plaza ([REC])
Spain
TIFF Page, Official Website & Trailer, IMDb Page

Bitch Slap
Dir: Rick Jacobson
Cast: Julia Voth, Erin Cummings, America Olvio, Minae Noji, Kevin Sorbo
USA
TIFF Page, Official Website & Trailer, IMDb Page

Daybreakers
Dir: Michael Spierig & Peter Spierig (Undead <2003>)
Cast: Ethan Hawk, Willem Dafoe, Isabel Lucas, Claudia Karvan, Sam Neill
Australia/USA
TIFF Page, Trailer, IMDb Page

Jennifer's Body **Opening Night Selection**
Dir: Karyn Kusama (Girlfight, Æon Flux)
Cast: Megan Fox, Amanda Seyfried, Johnny Simmons, Adam Brody, J.K. Simmons, Amy Sedaris, Kyle Gallner
USA
No TIFF Page Yet, Official Website & Trailer, IMDb Page

The Loved Ones
Dir: Sean Byrne
Cast: Victoria Thaine, Jessica McNamee, Xavier Samuel, Richard Wilson, John Brumpton, Robin McLeavy
Australia
TIFF Page, IMDb Page

Ong Bak 2: The Beginning
Dir: Tony Jaa
Cast: Tony Jaa, Sorapong Chatree, Sarunya Wongkrachang, Nirut Sirichanya, Primorata Dejudom, Santisuk Promsiri
Thailand
TIFF Page, Official Website, Trailer, IMDb Page

Soloman Kane
Dir: Michael J. Bassett (Wilderness, Deathwatch)
Cast: James Purefoy, Pete Postlethwaite, Max von Sydow
France/Czech Republic/UK
No TIFF Page Yet, IMDb Page

George A. Romero's Survival of the Dead
Writer/Dir: George A. Romero (Night of the Living Dead <1968>, George A. Romero's Diary of the Dead)
Cast: Alan Van Sprang, Kenneth Welsh, Kathleen Munroe, Joris Jarsky
Canada
TIFF Page, IMDb Page

Symbol / Shinboru
Writer/Dir: Hitoshi Matsumoto (DAINIPPONJIN)
Cast: Hitoshi Matsumoto
Japan
TIFF Page, Teaser Trailer, IMDb Page

A Town Called Panic / Panique au village
Dirs: Stéphane Aubier & Vincent Patar
Animated
Belgium/France/Luxembourg
TIFF Page, Trailer, IMDb Page

Source: TIFF Midnight Madness, here and here

The Toronto International Film Festival runs from September 10 - 19, 2009 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

TIFF'09: Midnight Madness Films Announced!

TIFF'09 Midnight Madness Program has been announced! Check out the info over at the TIFF site here.

I'm looking forward to tucking in and looking into all of the films in detail once I'm back in the T-dot later this week. There is a great play by play on the film announced over at Midnight Madness on Twitter.