If you talked to me for any length of time since last Tuesday, you've probably been given an earful about Gaspar Noe's Enter The Void, which has turned out to be one of my favourite films at this year's Festival (edged out only slightly by The Road).  Since I am in a rush line for the next few hours, I decided to get my Goog on about the movie and was delighted to find out that one half of Daft Punk - Thomas Bangalter - scored the film.

Which is not entirely surprising.  Noe and Bangalter are, of course, fellow countrymen (France, if you're not keeping up) and Bangalter also provided the score to Noe's previous work, Irreversible.  Both scores evoke a strong sense of foreboding and claustrophobia, which, in Enter The Void, stands directly in opposition to the frenetic flashes of neon from the ever-menacing Tokyo skyline and the constant strobing effects which seek to hypnotize the viewer over the course of the almost-three-hour film.

Enter the Void plays for the final time at TIFF on Saturday the 19th at 7:00pm at AMC.

Directors Paco Plaza and Jaume Balaguero were in the house on Tuesday for the spine-chilling premiere of [REC]2! While I'm sure they'd agree that they're no Megan Fox, photographer Ian Goring managed to get some shots of the guys as they presented what promised to be the scariest film in this year's Midnight Madness lineup!

You can catch [REC]2 again on Saturday the 19th at 6:15 at AMC! Don't miss it! 

Wow, that was bad, even for me.  I apologize, but will fall back on the excuse that I'm still reeling from the total mindf*ck that is Enter The Void.  See this, if you haven't already.  I wasn't really sure how to absorb it right after the screening, but as I turned it over in my head in the rush line for my next film, I really found stuff in there that I hadn't noticed before.  Check it out if you can.

More to the point - ZOMBIES! Photographer Ian Goring was on the scene at the premiere of Survival Of The Dead, and we have literally SCADS of pics for your hungry eyes. Check it out!

I'm generally not one to bandy about the term 'bonanza', but how else would you describe this veritable cornucopia of pictures from the Daybreakers red carpet and Q&A last Friday? If you missed out on the midnight screening on Firday and the second screening last Sunday of the Spierig-and Spierig-penned vampire tale, you're now outta luck! You poor souls will now have to wait until January 2010 to get your blood on...And that's probably the greatest horror of all. 

Thanks to our intrepid photographer Ian Goring for these shots! 

Wondering what people are saying about tomorrow's Australian prom nightmare (see what I did there?), Loved Ones? Well your intrepid blogger's got the scoop!

Director Sean Byrne weighs in on his top ten films of all time over at IonCinema, including some of my personal favourites Lost Highway and Requiem For A Dream.  If, for some reason, you haven't seen any of the films on here, where the heck have you been??

As I've mentioned here a couple of times, Twilight isn't my thing.  But if you're at half-mast for dudes that suck blood instead of cutting themselves while listening to Death Cab For Cutie, then don'tcha dare miss Xavier Samuel of Eclipse, who will be in attendance at Loved Ones tomorrow night! Check out this article about the dude that'll be on your little sister's wall when the continuation of the Twilight saga drops next year.

It's gonna be a wild ride tomorrow, folks.  If you haven't jumped on the Fosters-fuelled Australian bandwagon after last night's screening of Daybreakers, the folks from down under have traded their fangs for corsages for the craziest prom night since your high school class got banned from the King Edward Hotel.

Loved Ones plays Sunday at midnight at the Ryerson, Tuesday Sept 13 at 3:30pm at Scotiabank Theatre, and Thursday, Sept 17 at 6:30 at the Varsity

Today's pretty much like Christmas for your faithful blogger.  See, tonight marks the premieres of the two movies that I'm anticipating more than any other in this year's festival.  The first is Isabella Rossellini's Green Porno, which, while not part of the Madness lineup per se, certainly embodies the weird, off-key sensibility of our favourite late-night programme in spades.  I mean, if you can find me another movie in which a Hollywood icon dresses up as a lobster and simulates sexual activity with anatomically-correct paper mache sea creatures (forgetting for a minute the deleted scenes from He's Just Not That Into You), then please grab me a ticket.

The other movie that's got me sprung is, of course, Daybreakers.  

Now, I'm not the type of dude that jumps in an Antichrist-length line in order to grab a ticket or a copy of the latest Stephanie Meyer-penned vampire rom-com,  but I do love me some fanged freak every now and again.  And for someone like me, this year was an all-you-can-eat buffet.

The Year of the Vampire kicked off at Midnight Madness 2008, as a DVD pilot of a little show called True Blood was thrust into our hot little hands as we stood in line for our favourite selections at the Ryerson.  Since then, to say that the HBO series has become a phenomenon would be a colossal understatement. We're two seasons in and audiences everywhere are positively foaming at the mouth for every new episode.  What will become of Sookie? And more importantly, isn't it a little weird to be, er, intimate with a dead person? 

From there, we went to the unlikely setting of Sweden for Let The Right One In,  the remarkably minimal and restrained tale of a young boy who befriends an otherworldy creature that`s capable of unspeakable brutality. Who knew that the country that designed the Ikea bookshelf that snapped clear in half during my last move could produce something of such quality!

Of course, then there was Twilight. Not exactly my cup of tea as I am both male and over 12, but you can`t deny that this tale of shimmering, hunky vampire love (one of the aforementioned hunks even appears in this year`s Midnight Madness selection Loved Ones) has has a profound cultural impact for our fanged friends.  You couldn`t escape these bloodsucking beefcakes even if you tried.  And when you thik about it, that`s pretty much all you want from a vampire.

Which brings us to Daybreakers. A film that transports us into a world where humans are rarer than a two-minute steak, and vampires are running everything from pharmaceutical companies to (presumably) the Slushee machine at your local 7-11. Early reviews are overwhelmingly positive, and the Festival`s the only place you`re gonna catch the carnage until the film drops in January of next year.   

Look for me at the front of the line.

Daybreakers screens TONIGHT at midnight, and on Sunday Sept 13 at 12:30pm at the Scotiabank Theatre. 

This time next week, expect to see me doing lunges, drinking protein shakes, and generally channeling Brock Lesnar in my pre-Festival prep routine (minus the grunting and pounding my ham hands into someone's face).  Around the internets, lots of folks are doing the same! Here`s the buzz going around on some of this year`s terrifying and titillating selections!

Harry Knowles of Ain't It Cool News had nothing but love for Solomon Kane back in May:

I'm not sure if you've heard of her, but there's this chick named Megan Fox who's been in a high-profile movie or two recently.  Something about, uh, robots? That transform or something? Anyways, the star of Midnight Madness red-carpet premiere Jennifer's Body (written by the incredible Diablo Cody of Juno and The United States of Tara fame) is going to be playing video games this weekend for those of you lucky enough to have an Xbox 360 and a copy of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.

From wired Magazine's Game/Life blog:

sex symbol Megan Fox will be jumping onto Xbox Live this Sunday at 3:00 Pacific to play Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen: The Game. Fox, who appeared in the Michael Bay summer blockbuster, will game using the Gamertag “Megan Fox 2009.” 

PS - Excluding the use of mainline drugs, is there a more singularly joyful experience than running a Google Image Search on Megan Fox?

Jennifer's Body kicks off the 2009 Midnight Madness programme with a screening at the Ryerson at midnight (when else?) on September 10th.  Encore presentations at the Ryerson on September 12 at noon, and at the Varsity on September 17th at 8:30pm.

Of course Midnight Madness isn't just about screenings, is it? It's that weird dude standing two people behind you in line, it's the glimpse of something just a little crazy on your way into the Ryerson - maybe a Japanese metal superstar, The Kurgan, or even...uh...whatever this is?

And you haven't even sat down yet.  Because when that happens, when the crowd finally starts to settle down (or tire out) and the beach ball that's been tossed around for the last 20 minutes has mercifully been allowed to drop to the ground, Colin Geddes will stroll onstage and present you with the most bizarre, surreal moment of your day. And for the next 90 minutes (give or take), you'll be taken away.  It may not be a place you want to live, or or a place where you understand a freaking thing you're seeing, or your favourite reality show...But then again, no one ever said it would be!

For those of you that are chomping at the bit for some Midnight Madness action before the Festival kicks off on Sept 10, come check us out at the Hobbystar Fan Expo this weekend!  Huge stars from horror, sci-fi and comics all in one room. Also, at least one 40-year-old dude dressed as Sailor Mars.

Oh yeah, and BILLY DEE MF'IN WILLIAMS!! LANDO!!

Actually, they restore old movies.  But how? I can't even get my VHS copy of 'Drop Dead Fred' to play without kicking the VCR halfway across the room.

Well, Gizmodo is here to tell you! Check out the article while you wait for the Criterion version of Hard Target.

'Ow does it feeeeel...TO BE HUNTEDDD???

If you're like me and saw upwards of 25 movies last week, the last thing you want to do is watch another one now.  Personally, I'm catching up on some of the TV I missed (Weeds, Mad Men, 30 Rock), and tackling the insurmountable pile of laundry that accumulated during the Festival.

But there is one other diversion of which I'm quite fond - video games.  And for those that aren't big gamers but are horror fans, there are several incredible gaming experiences out there that can be every bit as terrifying as a movie.

For me, these games are spine-tingling because they are interactive and also because their story unravells over 8-10 hours rather than 2.  They put you in the protagonist's shoes for quite a while as they run from (or more appropriately, blow the heads off) voracious packs of zombies or bloodthirsty aliens, so it personalizes the experience quite a bit. With the advent of new technology like the PS3, Xbox 360, and the Wii, developers have managed to make these games even more immersive than in the past, though there is a handful of older games that are also good for a fright.  I'll run down a few of my favourites:

Silent Hill 4: The Room (PS2)

Unlike the movies, all of the Silent Hill games have terrified me in one way or the other.  The early entries in the series featured a lone protagonist wandering through a seemingly-abandoned, mist-filled town looking for his daughter. Silent Hill 4, however, was a departure from this storyline for something much more surreal. The meat of the game takes place inside one tiny apartment in a first-person view.  As you explore the objects in the room and the pictures on the wall, dark fog envelops you and takes you into the game itself, slowly unravelling the narrative.  This is a fantastic device that really makes you feel the claustrophobia and anxiety of the situation, and is a must-try. 

Fatal Frame (PS2)

Two Japanese girls, armed only with a camera, fight off ghoulish creatures in a forest.  Using the camera as a device is really clever.  In this case, the camera's function is to exorcise the ghosts and trap them inside the camera itself. These games are every bit as scary as some of our favourite Japanese horror selections at Midnight Madness, and just as well-written, too. The imagery in some of the scenes is simply chilling. 

Resident Evil 4 (Wii)

The very fact that you have to swing your actual arm around to fight zombies in this terrifyingly surreal version of a small Eastern European village is pretty crazy. This game also features one of the most unbelievably frightening scenes I have ever experienced in a game.  You are trapped in a 2-storey cabin, armed with a shotgun and charged with protecting a young girl who is hiding in a cabinet. The scene gets eerily quiet right before zombies begin to attack every door and window of the cabin like it's a Romero flick, even going so far as pushing ladders up against the wall to climb up to the second floor.  The sequence is exhilarating as you run upstairs and downstairs, pushing furniture against the doors to stave off the onslaught, and pushing the ladders down to stop them from getting in.  Yikes!!  And that chainsaw guy on the box? Yeah, he's not happy.

Siren: Blood Curse (PS3)

This episodic horror was available in 4 chapters that were downloadable  from the Playstation Network, and is about an American news crew sent to Japan to investigate some strange happenings in a village rumored to have been the setting for some human sacrifices.  The visual style is very Ringu-esque and the fact that you had to wait each month to find out what happened next was pretty awesome. Though you can download the entire thing now, I highly recommend experiencing this game in the small doses in which it was delivered. It's pretty cool because it concurrently follows a few different characters in varous episodes, something a movie can't really do because of its limited timeframe.

So there you have it, a couple of games to scare the crap out of you while you wait for the movie hangover to subside. But as we know very well, you'll be back for more soon enough.  Oh yes.

Full Love

Ah, day 10 of the Festival. That day where you fill every possible second of your day by rushing movies you wouldn't consider seeing otherwise.

Case in point: I'm typing this from the cheap seats at the AMC where I am about to watch Sunshine Barry and the Disco Worms. The fact that I'm here without a four-year-old in tow (like everyone else apparently) is a testament to...Well, I'm not really sure what it says about me at this point, except perhaps that it's indicative of a desire to see, on film, the disco-dancing earthworms that I've been hallucinating due to lack of sleep.

Yes folks, it's been an exhausting festival. I'm nowhere close to my fellow blogger Sanjay's record of 50-something movies this week, but I think it may be time to let you in on a secret: Sanjay is a cyborg. I've spent hours in rush lines for Synecdoche, New York and Slumdog Millionaire, I jumped out of my seat and popped for Randy ?The Ram? in The Wrestler, I admittedly slept through a good bit of Plastic City, and most importantly, I rode the Red Bull like it was the Calgary Stampede and attended almost every Midnight Madness screening on offer ? throwing beachballs, corralling zombies and the Japanese media, and being completely and utterly disturbed by Martyrs.

Does this sound like a cry for help from a desperate film junkie yet? Well maybe it is but for most of us, Monday means that we go back to work or school, leaving behind this week of pure escapsim for the real world. To everyone involved with the Festival, from the programmers to the filmmakers to the wonderful staff to the horde of my fellow volunteers, I thank you, and I'll see you all next year.

Anyone in attendance at last night's screening of Sexykiller was privy to, in my opinon, the most unbelievably fun movie (with the possible exception of last Friday's Detroit Metal City) of this year's Midnight Madness programme. In true Midnight Madness fashion, the beach balls were busted out and there was no shortage of zombies on hand to liven up the red carpet!

Sexykiller was truly an overture of love from director Miguel Marti to his favourite horror films. Macarena Gomez's Barbara rips through an unsuspecting campus while extolling her love for The Silence of The Lambs, Evil Dead, Friday the 13^th, and several others.

In this way (and really, in only this way), Sexykiller reminded me a lot of Martyrs, which also contained references ? albeit subtle ones ? to many other classic horror films. Martyrs' last scenes were quite reminiscent of both Hellraiser and Rosemary's Baby. Visually, it would be difficult not to think of Saw during some of the 'dungeon' sequences as well. Similarly, the chase sequences during the first half of the film were somewhat evocative of Japanese horror films like The Grudge or Ringu.

Last night was nothing less than a celebration of the genre and, for me, was one of the highlights of this year's festival. Don't miss the second screening of Sexykiller at 1:30pm today at the Varsity!

The problem with the Midnight Madness programme at TIFF is that there is only one movie per day, and there are only ten days of the Festival. Now, let's see...carry the six, add four, minus seven....That's only ten films!

Which means that from the truckload of off-the-wall cinema that programmer Colin Geddes has to sift through every year, certainly the vast majority don't make the cut for midnight.

That's, of course, not to say that the ones that don't make it aren't good or even great films. So sometimes Colin will put some of the ones that didn't make the cut into other programmes, ready to be unleashed onto an audience that is sometimes completely unprepared for them! Here are three such selections:

VINYAN ? Did you see Calvaire? The batshit, off-the-wall nightmare set in rural France that screened at Midnight Madness in 2004? Well director Fabrice Du Welz is back with an even more surreal thriller set in the dense, menacing jungles of Burma. When Paul (Dark City's Rufus Sewell) and Jeanne (Mission Impossible's Emanuelle Beart) glimpse what they think is their lost son Joshua in a video, they travel to Burma in a desperate search for him. What ensues is one of the most gripping, horrifying cinematic experiences of this year's Festival. The last images will stay with you for a long, long time. I can sum it up in 7 words: someone puked during the screening at Scotia.

SAUNA ? This movie jumps out at me as being  the only ultraviolent Eli Roth-esque period piece at the Festival this year (if you don't count The Duchess, of course). Director Antti-Jussi Annila creates a dark, foreboding  atmostphere around the Finnish/Russian setting. Expect lots of demons and even more decapitation in this one!

I think I am with the majority of the audience in attendance at JCVD last night in saying that I was shocked. Not in your normal Midnight Madness sense, of course, where you may be shocked at the sheer amount of corn syrup being sprayed around or the number of fingers severed from someone's hand before you have to look away, but by an actual emotional performance. An emotional  performance by Jean-Claude Van Damme, no less.

What we saw last night was probably one of the most honest performances we're likely to see at this Festival. Van Damme leaves every bit of himself onscreen. His entire life - every problem, every breakdown. You are privy to his confessional, and it all feels very surreal. Director   Mabrouk El Mechri described Van Damme's input into the film as having "his own music". Almost poetic, huh?

See, JCVD isn't a documentary and it isn't fiction. It's somewhere in between. People are comparing it to Being John Malkovitch, but I think it's much closer to Charlie Kaufman's Adaptation than anything else. Here, Van Damme plays - and is very aware of ? himself. He is placed in a highly surreal (and fictional) situation that hinges on his own celebrity. During all of this, we are privy to Van Damme's scenes that depict his innermost thoughts on his real life ? drug abuse, his custody battle, and the culture of celebrity and the way it can build you up only to tear you down.

Now on the surface, the oh-so-hard world of being a celebrity isn't exactly treading new ground - what with the Britneys, Lindsays, and Sarah Palins of the world harping on it at every opportunity. But unlike these (especially the latter), Van Damme is a sympathetic character. Easily the most striking moment of the film comes when these thoughts are communicated directly to the camera in a powerful soliloquy. This speech rocked me to my foundations. and I can already tell that it will earn a place in my top Midnight Madness moments of all time.  Who knew that the star of Lionheart and The Quest could actually ACT? Is it because it is easier to emote in one's native tongue? Is it genuine catharsis?  Seeing the man who jumpkicked Chong Li square in the face in Bloodsport reduced to tears is, in a way, like watching your father cry. This person that you thought to be invincible shows a vulnerability that makes you question your own strength.

What doubles the impact (pun COMPLETELY intended) of this and his other scenes is the fact that many of Van Damme's lines (including the soliloquy),  according to El Mechri, are ad-libbed. This is Van Damme speaking from the heart, as though he has been waiting for years to get these thoughts out (kinda hard to do in Universal Soldier 12). It was made very clear during the Q&A that Van Damme is completely genuine here, and the El Mechri allows him to go where he wants to. This is the mark of a great director. To allow one's actors to hear, and play, their own music.

photos by Ian Goring