A 2012 Midnight Madness Audience. Photo by Ian Goring.
TIFF’s Midnight Madness programme, now in its 25th year and billed as “the best in action, horror, shock and fantasy cinema,” represents the leading edge of cult cinema from around the world. Its programmer, Colin Geddes, is a conduit between a notoriously passionate Toronto audience and insanely talented moviemakers working well beyond the mainstream. As other festival filmgoers are schmoozing at parties or turning in for the night, Midnight Madness devotees are lining up and comparing notes on feminist slasher films, obscure sci-fi musicals, extreme French thrillers, and the burgeoning Nollywood horror scene.
Yet you don’t have to be a cult-film insider to enjoy the film programme. Midnight Madness films are known for their creativity, their showmanship, their take-no-prisoners attitude, and their immediate visceral impact. The series has played an integral role in the development of some of our most popular directors and actors, and has anticipated mainstream movie trends and influences.
Here, below, are our reviews of eight of the ten films screening as part of 2013’s Midnight Madness series. Many of them will be shown once more (albeit not at midnight) before TIFF wraps for the year.
