Another Year of Madness: TIFF's Midnight Madness Lineup

One of the things I've yet to experience at Toronto International Film Festival is Midnight Madness. As one might know, Midnight Madness are special midnight screenings showcasing the best of the "wild side" of cinema. There's something thrilling about gathering with a bunch of strangers, in the middle of the night, in the streets of Toronto, and bond over our madness for mad cinema.

It's a new year, and TIFF has just announced their new lineup for the best in action, horror, shock, and fantasy.

Afflicted 
Directed by Derek Lee and Clif Prowse, the film follows two friends who, on a trip around the world, undergo a strange and sickly transformation after a mysterious meeting with a woman. Shot in a documentary style narrative, Afflicted is the filmmaker duo's feature debut.

Almost Human
Also with a feature debut, US filmmaker Joe Begos' horror sci-fi indie flick follows a quiet rural town in Maine, which becomes a raging inferno of axe murders and alien abductions. Blood and gore galore.
Watch the trailer here.

Oculus
This horror, directed by Mike Flanagan tells the story of a woman who tries to absolve her murder-convicted brother, by proving that the crime was committed by a supernatural phenomenon: a 300-year old cursed mirror who has left a trail of bloody tragedy on their family's history.

Rigor Mortis
Director Juno Mak pays homage to the Hong Kong cult classic horror-comedy series of the 1980's. Reuniting some of the original cast members, the films is set in a creepy and moody Hong Kong housing unit, who's halls are occupied by the supernatural.

Why Don't You Play In Hell?
Described to have similarities to Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill, Japanese director Sion Sono' action flick follows a renegade film crew who becomes entangled with a yakuza clan feud.
Watch the trailer here.

All Cheerleaders Die
In this fresh horror comedy from directors Lucky McKee and Chris Sivertson, a rebel high school outsider signs up a group of cheerleaders to help her take down the captain of their school football team, but a supernatural turn of events plunges the girls in a different, and bloodier, battle.

The Green Inferno
Wizard of the horror genre, Eli Roth returns to the director chair for this gruesome homage to the Italian cannibal films of the 70's-80's. The Green Inferno follows a group of New York City student activists who, on an expedition to save a dying tribe in the Amazon, crash in the jungle and are taken hostage by the very tribe they came to protect.

R100
In this bizarre and humorous take on sex comedy, Japanese director Hitoshi Matsumoto brings us the story of a mild-mannered family man who's secret taste for S&M finds him pursued by a ruthless gang of butt-kicking dominatrixes.





The Station
Marking the first time an Austrian film makes the mix, this horror thriller by Marvin Kren follows the crew of a remote weather research station in the German Alps who soon discover that a retreating glacier is genetically mutating the local wildlife into biological monstrosities.
Watch the trailer here.