Sono, Smith And Balaguero Anchor Toronto's Midnight Madness Lineup

Looking for the latest doses of cinematic insanity from Sono Sion, Kevin Smith and Jaume Balaguero? Anxious for the return of Rare Exports director Jalmari Helander? Lusting after Not Quite Hollywood director Mark Hartley's return to documentary? Well, get yourself to Toronto in September where all of those and more will be part of a sterling Midnight Madness lineup at the Toronto International Film Festival. It's surprising to see a pair of titles repeat from the midnight program in Sundance nine months previous, yes, but hey - when those two titles are the raved about The Guest from Adam Wingard and What We Do In The Shadows from Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi it's awfully hard to complain. Check the full announcement below!


MIDNIGHT MADNESS PACKS A POWERFUL PUNCH OF THE WILD, WACKY AND WEIRD AT THE 2014 TORONTO INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL 

The Toronto International Film Festival's Midnight Madness programme brings thrills, chills and all sorts of kills to Festival audiences once again. Get your passports stamped and experience an international cinematic rollercoaster which includes: a Yakuza street gang hip -hop musical epic; spine - chilling Spanish zombies with insatiable appetites; a Finnish boy hunter rescuing the
President of the United States from terrorists; and Flemish cub scouts trapped in the woods with sinister companions.

"Midnight Madness has been entertaining connoisseurs of the exquisitely explicit for over 25 years, and is now an essential destination for cinematic masters of outrageous expression," says
Colin Geddes, International Programmer for the Festival. "After the sun sets on the Festival days, fearless audiences will converge at the Ryerson Theatre to be served a visual feast
of the bizarre, the horrifying and the wonderfully wacky."

Along with the triumphant return of last year's People's Choice Award - winner Sion Sono, Midnight Madness will also welcome back renowned alumni Adam Wingard, Mark Hartley and
Jaume Balagueró. The Festival is also set to proudly celebrate indie legend Kevin Smith's homecoming after 20 years.

[REC] 4: Apocalypse  Jaume Balagueró, Spain           World Premiere
Angela Vidal wakes up in a high-security quarantine facility, sole survivor and witness to the horrific events inside the building. But does she remember what happened to her? Is she carrying a virus? Distrust spreads through the isolated facility while new, even more deadly forms of evil spread even faster.

Big Game   Jalmari Heleander, Finland/United Kingdom/Germany     World Premiere
The fate of the most powerful man in the world lies in the hands of a 13-year-old boy. Plunged into a deadly game ofcat and mouse, Oskari and the president must team up to survive the most extraordinary night of their lives.

Cub     Jonas Govaerts, Belgium                       World Premiere
Young, imaginative 12-year-old Sam heads off to camp with his Cub Scouts pack. In the woods, he stumbles upon a strange tree house and a masked, feral child. When his leaders ignore his warnings about the mysterious boy, Sam starts to feel increasingly isolated from the pack, and convinced a terrible fate awaits them all.

Electric Boogaloo: The Wild, Untold Story of Cannon Films   Mark Hartley, Australia     International Premiere
Director Mark Hartley (Not Quite Hollywood, Machete Maidens Unleashed!) continues his delightful documentary disinterment of down-market movie detritus with this chronicle of the rise and fall of 1980s action-exploitation juggernaut Cannon Films, whose contributions to the cinematic canon include American Ninja, The Delta Force, Death Wish II and Masters of the Universe.

The Guest    Adam Wingard, USA        Canadian Premiere
The follow-up to Adam Wingard and Simon Barrett's wildly popular You're Next, The Guest
tells the story of a mysterious and devastatingly charming visitor, David (Dan Stevens of
Downton Abbey) who arrives on the doorstep of a bereaved family claiming to be the best friend of their dead son, a young soldier who died in action. The Petersons welcome David into their home and into their lives, but when people start mysteriously dying in town, their teenage daughter Anna (Maika Monroe of It Follows) starts wondering if David is responsible.

It Follows    David Robert Mitchell, USA          North American Premiere
For 19-year-old Jay (Maika Monroe), the fall should be about school, boys and weekends at the lake. Yet after a seemingly innocent sexual encounter she suddenly finds herself plagued by nightmarish visions; she can't shake the sensation that someone, or something, is following her. As the threat closes in, Jay and her friends must somehow escape the horrors that are only a few steps behind. With a riveting central performance from Monroe and a strikingly ominous electronic score by Disasterpeace, It Follows is an artful psychosexual thriller from David Robert Mitchell (whose The Myth of the American Sleepover premiered at Critics' Week in 2010). The film also stars Keir Gilchrist, Daniel Zovatto, Jake Weary, Olivia Luccardi, and Lili Sepe.

Tokyo Tribe    Sion Sono, Japan        International Premiere
Set in an alternate Tokyo of the near future, director Sion Sono continues his run of sensational films with the explosive street gang tale Tokyo Tribe. Tokyo Tribe is the first live-action adaptation of the best-selling manga series Tokyo Tribe 2, by Santa Inoue, which has sold two million copies and has been published in Asia and the west to great popularity.

Tusk   Kevin Smith,  USA          World Premiere
Wallace (Justin Long) is a podcaster on a mission who thinks he has found the story of a lifetime in Howard Howe (Michael Parks), an adventurer with amazing stories and a curious penchant for walruses. When Mr. Howe's true desires unfold, things take a dark turn and Wallace faces a terrifying transformation at the hands of his captor. As his friends Alison and Teddy (Genesis Rodriguez and Haley Joel Osment) search the backwoods of Canada to rescue him, they
discover a nightmare from which there is no escape. Conceived from one of indie legend Kevin Smith's own Smodcast's, Tusk is an unprecedented tale that is equal parts hilarious and horrifying.

What We Do in the Shadows  Taika Waititi and Jemaine Clement, New Zealand/USA     Canadian Premiere
Vladislav (Jemaine Clement), Viago (Taika Waititi), and Deacon (Jonathan Brugh) are three flatmates who are just trying to get by and overcome life's obstacles -- like being immortal vampires who must feast on human blood. Hundreds of years old, the vampires are finding
that beyond sunlight catastrophes, hitting the main artery, and not being able to get a sense of their wardrobe without a reflection, modern society has them struggling with the mundane like paying rent, keeping up with the chore wheel, trying to get into nightclubs, and overcoming flatmate conflicts.