Midnight Madness Blog

- 2008
- 2007
Archival footage
Chocolate Intro & Q&A;
Two Girls, One Movie
CITYNews Does Midnight Madness
J.T. Petty Holding A Large Dog!
Before the Bargin Bin There Was BloodSport

Biography
Blogging By The Numbers
Movie Theatre Memories
Geeking Out At Not Quite Hollywood (warning: Leprechaun inside)
"He has his own music"

Celebrities
JCVD's New Film - "FULL LOVE"
Sexykiller and The Horror Mashup
Who is Macarena Gómez?
Meet The Ladies Of Martyrs
JCVD, JT and the "Re-Emergence" Film

Cinematography
Orphans - The Lost Films of Midnight Madness 2008
FLASH POINT: Who is Donnie Yen?

Directors
JCVD's New Film - "FULL LOVE"
Sexykiller and The Horror Mashup
Genre Down Under: An Email Roundtable
"The Burrowers" Joins Revisionist Canon
"Ozploitation": A Model for Canada?

Distribution
"Ozploitation": A Model for Canada?
Deposit More Coins!
So THAT's How Much a Zombie Costs...
MM Flashback: ALL THE BOYS LOVE MANDY LANE

Free Speech
THE CIRCUIT - Film Festival Reviews From Space
Conversation From The Line Reaction to Deadgirl
In The Rush Line For JCVD

Humour
Love and Madness
"He has his own music"
Training like a MADMAN!!!
We Love You Too, Suzie.

Memories
Midnight Madness: Year One
Day Ten
Sexykiller and The Horror Mashup
More Conversations From The Line
Detroit Metal City and Japanese Duality

Music
Cue Theme Music
What's That Sound?

Panels
Devil's Chair video
Sukiyaki opening!

Parties
The Burrowers Intro & Q&A;
Deadgirl Intro & Q&A;
Detroit Metal City Intro & Q&A;
JCVD Intros & Q&As;
Flash Point: no longer just an overlooked Rolling Stones live album

Picks
Tear the roof off the suckah
What to doin the event a giant bouncing, squeezing baby eyeball attacks your city
And now for something completely different...
And that was the best beating I've ever seen
Catch That Rave!

Politics
"Ozploitation": A Model for Canada?
Detroit Metal City and Japanese Duality
Horror as a Political Platform

War & Conflict
Detroit Metal City and Japanese Duality

Posts by: Darryl Shaw
September 15, 2021
JT Petty to go GOTH
Posted By Darryl Shaw At 3:02 PM
JT Petty's The Burrowers had a great reception at the fest this year, and with S&Man (his notorious MM debut feature) finally getting a DVD release, things continue to look promising for the director. Currently on his plate, is the adaptation of a Japanese IP which has both been novelized and gotten the manga treatment: Goth. Goth stories the exploits of two highschool social misfits who use and abuse their detective skills, toying with a handful of serial killers. I got a line on JT, and asked him a couple questions: *** Darryl: Talk to me about Goth! JT...

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September 12, 2021
The Glob
Posted By Darryl Shaw At 3:16 PM
 So here's a true Midnight Madness experience horror story, not for the squeamish; but definately for you guys!  So it's 3am-- ish, in smog filled, Listeria ridden downtown Toronto; and I decide to tag along with some of the other bloggers for a late night bite, Early breakfast. We order our food, and I'm enjoying it, everyone is... (for legal purposes) In a sort of daze I try to keep up with the conversation, it's good times, but something is peculating on the far side of the table. Gradually, the murmurs start. Protests. The fellas and ladies start to complain about something that's left on...

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A Surreal Journey
Posted By Darryl Shaw At 2:13 PM
Eden Log isn't for everyone. I had a hard time getting into it; but I am glad I did. If you like experimental, ballsy filmmaking, then you might want to check this out. It begins very slow, very minimal. Director Franck Vestiel parallels the protagonist's journey to that of the history of film. First comes still images, dipping to darkness, all black and white-- desolate. Then the images begin to move, desaturated, and heavy with noir lighting. The sound track throbs to emphasize this. You have the coarse shadows and inky darkness, jagged subterrian landscapes, crawling with creatures; Begotten comes to mind....

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September 11, 2021
Who is Macarena Gómez?
Posted By Darryl Shaw At 3:12 PM
File under: Celebrities
Let's round up some info here: She's an exotic and beautiful actress from Spain; She's the star, and title character of Miguel Marti's new film Sexykiller. She's an award winning Spanish actress with dozens of successful projects under her belt already; including a role in Stuart Gordon's H.P. Lovecraft adaptation Dagon. She's had several roles in Spanish TV series, often playing a returning character. Macarena in Dagon No doubt she's big over there; but now we finally have the chance to discover her for ourselves. In Sexykiller, Macarena Gómez combines the...

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Martyrs for a Cause
Posted By Darryl Shaw At 5:20 AM
 Ay, Welcome to Spoiler's ville! Okay, well there will be restraint for actual story details-- but avoid this if you're like me and are not even watching the trailers for these movies. Whoa, that was ironic! One of my early posts was about how much I loved Funny Games-- which I had watched to Prepare for Martyrs. A direct comparison. Well I couldn't have picked a more topical movie to rent, incidentally. So we're at the Q&A, and an audience member challenges the director on the violence in Martyrs, and then goes on to say that Funny Games was more intelligent-- pretty much dissing...

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September 10, 2021
Movie Lag; this year the Zombies are us
Posted By Darryl Shaw At 9:59 PM
I'm attaining numbness. So it's day five? Six? I guess the truth lies in the result of my remaining MM ticket count. I'm starting to see what Sanjay was talking about. The transformation. I guess it must have happened last year, but I didn't notice. I'm not supposed to be burnt out-- not like I'm even seeing a full day's worth of films. I shouldn't even be tired by the somewhat late night, I should be totally recovered by now. I blame the movie-lag on the dog I was babysitting (we have a dog, but got a second of the same breed to baby sit for...

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September 9, 2021
Midnight Madness 08 Review Hub!
Posted By Darryl Shaw At 5:49 PM
Thanks to the wonders of modern technology, using a "search engine" I was able to scientifically formulate "links" (it's complicated stuff) to reviews and such for the feast of films we've witnessed so far. So far so good! Mostly positive stuff out there. Not all of them are happy about everything, but you can't please everyone all the time right?  What matters most, is that the reactions are all passionate. Check out the state of the programme so far! JCVD Darryl says: I dig it. For me, it had the same embrace the moment vibe as Killing Zoe. They say: http://twitchfilm.net/site/view/jcvd-review/ http://www.firstshowing.net/2008/09/05/toronto-review-mabrouk-el-mechris-jcvd/ http://www.filmjunk.com/2008/09/06/tiff-jcvd-review/ Detroit...

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September 8, 2021
Haunting south of the popcorn machine
Posted By Darryl Shaw At 4:54 PM
Every second of Not Quite Hollywood (let's call it NQH), I battled my own human condition, I tried not to blink. It was adrenaline overdrive, trying to keep up with thing. Doesn't help that Tarantino serves as one of the narrative soundtracks, his own excitement adding more liquid sugar to the rush. Define Badass: The guys responsible for this movie; Prolific Austrailian genre director Brian Trenchard-Smith (over 30 films directed), NHQ director Mark Hartley, and Anthony Ginnane mega producer (over 60 films produced). EDIT: Also note the subliminal Colin in this pic! Even...

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September 7, 2021
The Showdown Underground
Posted By Darryl Shaw At 8:48 PM
For your protection, I've been fitted with an explosive neck bracelet sensitive to Midnight Madness spoilers-- in this case The Burrowers! It's a fringe sort of concept that I would like to see more of... First consider the setting; and I'm really a fan of these hybrid concept horror films; this one a fusion of a Classic Western and the Creature Feature. RAVENOUS is the only comparison I can think of; where I have also seen horror and frontier western married so effectively. And I keep pushing this to people, but I think...

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September 6, 2021
How to have even less of a Conscience
Posted By Darryl Shaw At 8:01 PM
 Okay so this upcoming film Acolytes... Has a pretty spiffy premise. My kind of premise. Socially irresponsible! I'm going to try to keep this at a cool speculation spoiler level of about .5 milligrams per second. The premise is that these kids discover the identity of a serial killer, and twist his arm into helping them get revenge on a childhood bully-- at which point something goes wrong. Wronger, anyway. So just as a sort of dip stick measurement of the collective insanity out there, I'm inviting people to comment with their own baggage/damage on how...

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Pass the Antihistamines
Posted By Darryl Shaw At 3:48 PM
 I'd like to talk about the strange hybrid of allergy season with Midnight Madness. Now, some of you may argue, it's always allergy season, and this is true. Just like it's always day or night in different parts of the world, so too are allergens forever tormenting people of every nation and creed. Big deal, though, right? Well now it's Ragweed season, and it's hitting a lot of people hard. I've seen you shambling around, with those itchy watery eyes. Sniffles. Red noses, nostrils chaffing. Pockets overflowing with snot rags, shredded to lint from overuse. I'm one of you-- and it has been getting...

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September 5, 2021
Side Effects May Occur
Posted By Darryl Shaw At 4:38 PM
 I rate this article, as spoiler level 1/5.  That's code yellow. "Midnight madness this year is about discovery," says head honcho of all things midnight, Colin Geddes. He's sorted through gabillions of movies, year after year-- a sort of human litmus test for cinematic irritants and stimuli. (Another good friend of mine makes money taking mystery pills for medical research; and I often worry about the long term effects; but this is for the good of society-- and I suppose the bank accounts of devil worshipping corporate conglomerates that...

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September 3, 2021
Horror movies shouldn't hold your hand... unless they are dragging you to HELL
Posted By Darryl Shaw At 1:39 PM
 I should mention that this blog post is spoiler-ific! So unless you've already seen Irreversible, Martyrs (which I haven't but will speculate about)  Funny Games or (either version) or even "Inside" -- be wary treading deeper into this post! Go back and return when you are properly equipped, but by all means, continue if you just don't care.   I might even pad it with other movies you want to see, but this is all the warning you get. In preparation for Martyrs , this year's mean spirited entry , I rented and saw...

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August 28, 2021
Deposit More Coins!
Posted By Darryl Shaw At 6:00 PM
File under: Distribution
Wow it's been a year already!Incidentally, I was in Tokyo this summer, and while there witnessed a city wide marketing campaign for one of this year's selections!Guess which one?!More saturated than Naruto or Death Note, Bleach... but not Gundam... not yet anyway... was DMC! Now imagine this poster 400 times bigger, hung over a large crowd.No, not Devil May Cry for fellow gamers-- but Detroit Metal City which will explode on screen at MM in the next few days.I'm talking action figures. Not happy meal accessories either, but fully articulated boxed...

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September 19, 2021
LAZY BROWN PRODUCTIONS STRIKES BACK... WAZZAAAH!
Posted By Darryl Shaw At 9:28 PM
Yep, they came for Flashpoint, they beat each other up all over Toronto, and now they're streaming their adventures to the internet. Check out the LBP Toronto Invasion! ( In association with Toronto's own Eclipse Stunt Crew) Well guys? Are we gonna see you in the lines next year?           Above: DL Macdonald and Johnny Caine of the Eclipse Stunt Crew             Wilson Yip with Shawn Bernal and Emmanuel Manzanares @ the premiere of FLASH

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September 17, 2021
"Inside" to Improve Scissor Sales Worldwide
Posted By Darryl Shaw At 2:30 PM
 If "Dead Again" didn't sell you on the dangers of scissors , "Inside" will surely close the deal: SNIP! This film discovers more uses for scissors than a Swiss army knife! (Well, er, that's if the Swiss army knife doesn't already include scissors) In fact, it's debatable if Edward Scissor-hands himself has gotten this much scissor mileage in a lifetime usage of his scissor-hands. Unfortunately, the scissors featured in this film have fallen into worst hands possible. Yes. Shear-evil... Evil, but creative, that is! *here be spoilers, alas this is not much fun if you haven't seen the movie* Here are just SOME uses: * * * Ugly stick Peep...

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September 15, 2021
Apology -- Misunderstanding
Posted By Darryl Shaw At 5:04 PM
I'm sorry to offend any tall people with my baddie sighting. I am not racist or sizist or anything like that-- just intended to be a light hearted joke. If you had seen the movie "Dainipponjin," it deals with gigantic 50 foot tall monsters-- so this was just a hyperbole. I should have made that clearer in my post, and sincerely didn't mean to hurt any feelings, any more than I was making fun of myself for being short. Sorry to offend. The littering thing was a reference to an earlier post, as I got busted for bringing in

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New Baddie Sighted
Posted By Darryl Shaw At 3:35 PM
Attention, all Dai (great giant) Canada-jin! A new baddie has been sighted lurking around the film festival. Please help us to capture, defeat, or deport this new baddie: FAT-HEAD BADDIEThis baddie has a gi-normous head and likes to sit in front of short people at the film festival, obstructing the best possible view of the screen and blocks out key words in the subtitles! And for unknown reasons, Fat-Head Baddie likes to sit up even taller half-way through a movie. Also leaves empty Gatorade bottles on the theater floor. These are the characteristics of FAT-HEAD...

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September 14, 2021
FLASH POINT so badass it's line up has own action movie
Posted By Darryl Shaw At 3:12 PM
Parental Guidance warning: Volatile Contents! Outside the Ryerson, in the line up for Wilson Yip's new Kungfu-fusion MMA action movie, "FLASH POINT" I came across some hardcore kungfu dudes (I think they were hailing from Chicago) and we made an action movie of our own.   As actors, they were very difficult to work with (Fine! It's me that's difficult to work with. I refuse to step on set unless someone sprays an entire bottle of Old Spice into the air.) -- And seeing as how we only had a 17 million dollar budget (in monopoly money), it was difficult to meet all...

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September 13, 2021
I'm going to tell on The Devil's Chair
Posted By Darryl Shaw At 2:33 PM
MEGA SPOILERS (sorry suckas: ha, so you see now, you should have gone to the movie. Yessss, I segregate you outcasts!) * * * No seriously, go away, if you didn't watch this. That's not cool man. * *Stop it. * *OK. I fine, I will try not to to give too much away, but still, you've been warned. Well if you're gonna hang out you can't complain when you do see the movie, alright? *Alright? *Okay. *So as you may know, it's a good three quarters into the film, when it let's you know it's watching you watching it. Then CRACKOW the disses start coming. I stiffened in my chair. It's...

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September 12, 2021
Tarantino Ready to Carry a Movie
Posted By Darryl Shaw At 1:55 PM
Perhaps you've heard about Quentin Tarantino. He's an actor who's finally been getting more exposure recently-- although he's been at it for years! For years he has trained hard with the best of them. But success as an actor did not come easy. His first role was an Elvis Impersonator on Golden Girls; although it's disputable as one resume of his claimed he was in the original 1978 Dawn of the Dead. Perhaps you remember him from the opening monologue of "Reservoir Dogs", originally it had been speculated that Tarantino would play...

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September 11, 2021
Sector Secured
Posted By Darryl Shaw At 1:51 PM
BAM! The hammer of justice comes down! You break the rules baby, and they'll burn you for it. So I was adhering to my own health-imposed survival kit last night. I had a 200 ml bottle of Gatorade in one hand, and my film ticket for Stuart Gordon's "STUCK" in the other. I'm walking into the doorway to the theater, and I turn to the ticket girl. Eye contact. I nodded, offered my ticket, and then well, it just happened so fast, let's see... "You can't bring that in here." "Huh?" I take a look around, and she's talking to me. "Me?" "You're going to have to leave...

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September 10, 2021
Midnight Madness Survival Rations
Posted By Darryl Shaw At 1:47 PM
Think you've got what it takes to survive the midnight run? Well you probably do, but I don't. After falling down and cracking my head open at last year's screening of "Trapped Ashes" from what the doctors called a spell of "dehydration" I am on a strict regiment. On my part, I had been working 14 hour days and then going to the movies, and then repeating this cycle on 3 hours sleep. Also on my part, my girlfriend says I'm a wimp. Here's what you might need to bring along to the lines....

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September 9, 2021
Toronto international film festival covers up bizarre epidemic at Romero premiere
Posted By Darryl Shaw At 4:08 PM
  Don't listen to the media skewing. The slanted views you've undoubtedly come across have been designed to mislead and placate you. Numb you into being a happy hive-member. Don't be fooled!   I *was* there, last night, at the Diary of the Dead Screening-- and I have seen the truth!                 I'm just not all that sure what I've seen. It can't be real, I keep telling myself, even now, locked up in my basement stronghold. No it couldn't be. And the worst part of all of this, is I'm...

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September 7, 2021
BLLLAARG!
Posted By Darryl Shaw At 3:30 AM
It's no more than five minutes into the midnight screening of Dario Argento's new flick "The Third Mother"... The opening credits have barely wrapped up-- and sitting next to me, is my self-professed midnight madness "Line buddy" Brandon. Now, I've known Brandon for a few years. Got talking to him through volunteering for Rue Morgue, and last year we watched a couple Midnight Madness flicks together. Anyhow, tonight I discovered something worse than horror. And that's the fusion of Horror with reality, in what became a very interactive evening-- if only for me. Okay, I get it, this is hard to follow, but before...

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September 5, 2021
Big Budget Bambi remake and Mary Poppin's Double Bill to feature at next Midnight Madness!
Posted By Darryl Shaw At 11:21 AM
...Because it's gonna be so hard to top this year. Really, where can you go from here? Where would you want to? I'm hoping I'm going to see a film this year that will inspire my next script. Each year, I get this  injection of psycho-trauma, and thank God it's just from what I see up on the screen. So in the mean-spirit of things, let's get some heads rolling... This is a shout-out to all the gorehounds. The often unappreciated, deviant psycho-paths in training in the viewing audience. I mean, can we stop...

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September 3, 2021
Enjoying the low blow
Posted By Darryl Shaw At 12:39 PM
So I saw Stuart Gordon's "Edmond " -- derived from the David Mamet Play - for the first time last night. It wasn't an intentional preparation for MM but an incidental one. So I would like to start spinning the hype machine's wheels about "Stuck", which, stop me if I'm wrong-- but isn't that based on a true story? Yeah seriously, some woman ran over a guy and left him in her garage to die. Not sure how Gordon's version wraps up, but am pretty excited to see how it's going to turn out....

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