Midnight Madness returns to the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival to satiate late night audiences’ appetites for wild sensory stimulation. The program will present the best in action, horror, shock and fantasy films from the rabble-rousers of cinema, opening with Jeremy Saulnier’s tense siege shocker Green Room.
“Midnight Madness winds up Festival audiences as the days are winding down and they are hungry for more,” says Colin Geddes, International Programmer for the Festival. “From adrenaline-filled action and untamed horror to twisted comedy and darkly blurred lines of reality, this year’s lineup welcomes back celebrated masters and fresh visionaries of renegade genre cinema.”
Among this year’s returning Midnight Madness directors are Joe Begos and Sean Byrne, who both debuted in the program and are back with their much anticipated follow-up features, and Japanese bad boy auteur Takashi Miike with his high-octane Yakuza Apocalypse. Closing out the selection is the raucously reverent homage to classic slasher movies The Final Girls.
Films screening as part of the Midnight Madness program include:
Baskin
Can Evrenol, Turkey World Premiere
A squad of unsuspecting cops goes through a trapdoor to Hell when they stumble upon a Black Mass in an abandoned building. The nightmarish feature debut Baskin is the first-ever Midnight Madness film from Turkey.
The Devil’s Candy
Sean Byrne, USA World Premiere
The director of the 2009 Midnight Madness People’s Choice Award winner The Loved Ones is back with an equally fresh twist on the supernatural genre. A struggling artist (Ethan Embry) and his family buy the house of their dreams only to discover the property’s mysterious dark past and a former tenant who wants more than to simply come back home. From the producers of Midnight Madness hits You’re Next and The Guest.
Midnight Madness Closing Night Film.
The Final Girls
Todd Strauss-Schulson, USA International Premiere
Max (American Horror Story’s Taissa Farmiga) is a high school senior whose mom (Malin Akerman) was a celebrated ’80s scream queen. At a screening, Max and her friends are mysteriously transported inside her mom’s most infamous movie, where they must fend off the camp counselors’ raging hormones, battle a deranged machete-wielding killer and find a way to escape the movie and get back home.
The Girl in the Photographs
Nick Simon, USA World Premiere
Big-city glamour clashes with small-town values and a killer’s knife, in this bloody cocktail of terror from director Nick Simon and executive producer Wes Craven. Colleen’s life in the sleepy town of Spearfish is disrupted when she starts receiving photographs of brutally murdered women. Things get even crazier for Colleen when L.A. based celeb-photographer Peter Hemmings (Kal Penn) returns to his hometown of Spearfish to investigate.
Midnight Madness Opening Night Film.
Green Room (pictured above)
Jeremy Saulnier, USA North American Premiere
Broke, tired and at each other’s throats after a cancelled gig, a young punk rock band accepts a sketchy matinee show to get themselves home. When they stumble upon something they weren’t supposed to witness, the quartet is trapped in a terrifying siege.
Directed by Jeremy Saulnier (of 2013 Cannes Film Festival FIPRESCI Prize winner Blue Ruin), the film stars Anton Yelchin, Imogen Poots, Alia Shawkat, and Patrick Stewart. Green Room is preceded by the previously announced short film The Chickening from directors Nick DenBoer and Davy Force.
Hardcore
Ilya Naishuller, Russia/USA World Premiere
Resurrected with no recollection of his past, a cyborg named Henry (the audience’s POV) and his ally, Jimmy (Sharlto Copley, District 9) must fight through the streets of Moscow in pursuit of Henry’s kidnapped wife in the world’s first action-adventure film to be entirely shot from the first person perspective.
The Mind’s Eye
Joe Begos, USA World Premiere
Joe Begos returns with a psychokinetic thriller about Zack Connors (Graham Skipper), whose abilities have kept him off the grid for years until he’s recruited by the mysterious Dr. Slovak. The snowy New England landscape turns into a whirlwind of psychic rage, flying axes, and brutal revenge as Zack does everything in his power to stop Dr. Slovak’s deadly descent into synthetically engineered telekinetic madness.
Southbound
Roxanne Benjamin, David Bruckner, Patrick Horvath and Radio Silence, USA World Premiere
Five intertwining tales of terror unfold along an endless desert highway. On a desolate stretch of road, weary travelers — two men on the run from their past, a band on their way to the next gig, a man struggling to get home, a brother in search of his long-lost sister and a family on vacation — are forced to confront their worst fears and darkest secrets in these interwoven tales of terror and remorse on the open road.
SPL 2 – A Time For Consequences
Soi Cheang, Hong Kong International Premiere
The anticipated follow-up to the bone-cracking martial arts brawler SPL (also known as Sha Po Lung and Kill Zone) that debuted in the program in 2005 stars Midnight Madness discovery Tony Jaa (Ong Bak). When an undercover cop (Wu Jing) has his cover blown and is thrown into a prison in Thailand run by a crime syndicate, he must team up with a prison guard (Jaa) to bust out and get revenge on those who wronged him. Filled with gun battles, prison riots and frenetic fight choreography, SPL 2 might knock the wind out of you — and possibly a few teeth.
Yakuza Apocalypse (Gokudo Daisenso)
Takashi Miike, Japan North American Premiere
Japanese cinematic extremist Takashi Miike returns to his gonzo roots with this mind-melter that finds room for vampires, gangsters, monsters, martial arts and even a yakuza knitting circle. A true master and MVP of the program, Miike wowed previous Midnight Madness audiences with such hits as Fudoh: The New Generation, Audition, The City of Lost Souls, Ichi the Killer, Zebraman, The Great Yokai War and Sukiyaki Western Django. He returns with a film too wild to be described and too fun to be missed!
The 40th Toronto International Film Festival runs September 10 to 20, 2015.
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The 2015 Stockholm Film Festival reveals the titles in the film section Twilight Zone. Twilight Zone is the film section that offers the most adrenaline-filled and nerve wrecking cinema experiences. “This year’s Twilight Zone presents more realistic and present dangers without being detached from the dark and the fantastic. Neo-nazis and punks clash in Green Room, a virus outbreak in Denmark triggers military action against middle class suburbia and a giant tsunami hits Norway,” says George Ivanov, program director at Stockholm Film Festival.
A selection of titles:
Baskin (2015) Can Evrenol, Turkey. Nordic premiere.
Crumbs (2015), Miguel Llansó, Ethiopia, Spain. Scandinavian premiere.
Demon (2015), Marcin Wrona, Poland, Israel. Nordic premiere.
Green Room (2015), Jeremy Saulnier, USA. Scandinavian premiere.
I am a Hero (2015) Shinsuke Sato, Japan. Nordic premiere.
Island City (2015) Ruchika Oberoi, India. Nordic premiere.
Office (2015) Won-Chan Hong, South Korea. Nordic premiere.
The Devil’s Candy (2015) Sean Byrne, USA. Swedish premiere.
The Invitation (2015), Karyn Kusama, USA. Nordic premiere.
The Wave (2015) Roar Uthaug, Norway. Swedish premiere.
Violator (2014) Dodo Dayao, Philippines. Nordic premiere.
What We Become (2015) Bo Mikkelsen, Denmark. Nordic premiere.
With The Lips Closed (2015) Carlos Osuna, Colombia. World premiere.
Yakuza Apocalypse: The Great War of the Underworld (2015), Takashi Miike, Japan. Nordic premiere.
Samuel Goldwyn Films will release legendary Japanese director Takashi Miike’s comedic vampire action thriller YAKUZA APOCALYPSE in the US. The martial arts extravaganza and end-of-the-world spectacle premiered as part of the Directors’ Fortnight program at the 2015 Cannes International Film Festival. The film will screen in the Midnight Madness program at the upcoming Toronto International Film Festival running September 10–20, 2015. Samuel Goldwyn Films is planning an October 9, 2015 release.
In YAKUZA APOCALYPSE, fearsome Yakuza boss Kamiura is also a bloodsucking vampire. One day, men arrive from a competing clan and deliver him an ultimatum: Play nice or die. Kamiura refuses and, during a fierce battle, is torn limb from limb. With his dying breath, he passes on his vampire powers to his loyal lieutenant, Kageyama. His first order of business is to avenge his mentor, setting him on a collision course with the seemingly unstoppable foreign syndicate, and take his place as the new Yakuza boss.
One of Japan’s most prolific, adventurous and successful filmmakers, Takashi Miike has directed nearly 100 films. He has been thrilling audiences worldwide with movies such as “Audition” (1999), “Ichi the Killer” (2001) and “13 Assassins” (2010). Now, Miike returns to the hard-driven style of his early filmmaking career with YAKUZA APOCALYPSE.
According to Peter Goldwyn of Samuel Goldwyn Films: “Taskashi Miike is a master of this genre and we are excited to bring his latest film, a sort of return to his origins, out to North American audiences. The film is an exciting mix of gangster-vampire action that only Miike can deliver.”
Filmmaker Takashi Miike stated: “I wonder if it’s really okay to let this film loose outside of Japan. As it’s not anything anyone can deal with on their own, it’s best to watch with friends.”
YAKUZA APOCALYPSE is directed by Takashi Miike from a screenplay by Yoshitaka Yamaguchi. Film stars Hayato Ichihara, Yayan Ruhian (“The Raid” and “The Raid 2”) and Lily Franky. Film is produced by Yoshinori Chiba, Shinichiro Masuda, Shinjiro Nishimura and Misako Saka.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pn1fNww2XG8