The Intro/Q&A for SMUGGLER

Here is the Introduction and Q&A for Katsuhito Ishii's latest film, Smuggler!

Katsuhito Ishii on The Red Carpet for SMUGGLER

Here is director Katsuhito Ishii on the Midnight Madness red carpet talking about his latest film, Smuggler.

The Red Carpet Interviews for THE DAY

The Midnight Madness Red Carpet was rocking Thursday Sept. 16th when Doug Aarniokoski's post-apocalyptic film The Day had it's world premiere. I had the opportunity to speak with actors, Dominic Monaghan, Michael Eklund and Ashley Bell as well as director Douglas Aarniokoski and producer Guy Danella. Here is the video:

The Kindness of Strangers--A Heartwarming Tale

While the Midnight Madness crew is usually more interested in chilling you to the bone or scaring you into unconsciousness, sometimes we come across a nice little story that reminds us that our audience is the best in the world and it warms the cockles of our long-dormant hearts.  Over on Reddit, a user named 'Etheo' has such a story and wanted to pass on a little good Karma to the TIFF volunteer that helped him into the Midnight Madness screening of Smuggler:

Here be the story to celebrate a man who was almost our hero that fateful day, but we will remain forever grateful for your action. For those of you who don't care, please do not waste your time reading this and move on with your life.

So last week during the last week of TIFF event... my girlfriend and I went down to see Smuggler at the midnight launch event. We bought these groupon coupons that are essentially 2for1 ticket, and didn't know that we had to redeem these coupons prior to seeing the film. It sucked, but we sucked it up and lined up at the rush line to see if we could get in.

After 1.5 hours of lining up, while I went to retrieve my car to park closer to the theater, my girlfriend had a rude awakening from the staff at the line and was told that our coupons would not be redeemable at the rush line as well. It was rather unimpressive to know we had lined up for so long for nothing.

Fortunately, behind her, you stood out as a shining statue of human being in the form of a Jamaican friend (which I could only assume due to the strap he was wearing). You casually gave her a voucher that was given to TIFF volunteers only, letting her know that your friends ditched you and you have no use for the voucher. My girlfriend was taken aback at your gracious offer, and hesitantly let you know that I was also in line so the voucher would be useless to her. You, being the amazing altruist that you are, casually gave her another voucher in strides.

When I returned to the line she let me know of the situation, and I believe we humbly thanked you (at least I hope we did--we're too reserved to know how to handle these situations and thank people properly). Since we had no cash with us on our persons, we offered you coffee, tea or food from Starbucks as it was the only currency we had. We were sadden that you did not take our offer as you don't like coffee and weren't hungry. There was not much else we could have offered. We stood in line awkwardly as I thought of every possible way to make it up to you for your kindness.

When we were able to get into the theater, we tried to use our coupon at the ticket booth, and fortunately they had accepted the coupons in exchange for the admission tickets. I had to survey through the entire theater, but I was successful in finding you and returning the vouchers to you. You, again, casually took the vouchers and thanked us. And then we parted ways and proceeded to wait another hour for the movie to begin.

So thank you, random TIFF volunteer, for your kind acts towards 2 total strangers at the rush line. Your friends were asses to ditch you for the movies. You're the man.

TL;DR GF and I went to line up for TIFF, after waiting for hours we were almost told to leave the line but a random TIFF volunteer behind us gave us free vouchers for the movie. We end up didn't use the vouchers and returned, but he was a pretty nice guy.

Just wanted to let people of Toronto know that chivalry and human kindness are not dead, and there are pretty awesome people in Toronto too, not just jerks.

Edit : Smuggler was awesome. Can't hide the smell of fear.

Edit² : Also I witnessed a few people in TIFF giving up their tickets to people waiting in the rushline as well--some were selling, but some were giving. You guys made TIFF pretty cool.

So next time you luck your way into an extra ticket and think about selling it, why not brighten someone's day by helping them out? You might just find yourself immortalized here on the Midnight Madness blog, with all the parted velvet ropes and champagne bubble baths it affords.

And now back to your regular hammer-shots to the face and head.

Another Midnight Madness Junkie

Over at Movies.com, Christopher Campbell writes of becoming a Midnight Madness junkie, i.e., "one of us":

The Midnight Madness section of the Toronto International Film Festival has a certain reputation among fans of midnight movies (or “genre films,” or whatever else you call them -- cultish horror and foreign actioners mostly). Basically, it’s considered one of the finest film festival programs of its kind in the world.

Heading into my first experience of TIFF, that reputation meant very little to me, as I’m not exactly of that particular audience. So for me to now wholeheartedly affirm that it is one of the finest film festival programs I’ve ever encountered, and not just of its kind, this should not only preserve the deserved reputation it holds but also hopefully encourage other typical midnight-forgoers to sever the ‘for’ prefix (remove that head like it’s a zombie) and just go.

 Read more here. And next year, if you haven't been to Midnight Madness, just sever that zombie head prefix!

The MCP Interviews Bobcat Goldthwait, Eduardo Sanchez, Julian Maury and Alexandre Bustillo

Listen in as Hitfix's MCP podcast interviews the fine Midnight Madness filmmakers Bobcat Goldthwait (God Bless America), Eduardo Sanchez (Lovely Molly), Julian Maury and Alexandre Bustillo (Livid).

As Drew McWeeny writes:

[W]e've got a preposterous amount of material to share with you, and I decided to have Scott help me introduce four separate interviews I conducted over the course of the Toronto International Film Festival that just wrapped up.

One of the reasons I'm grateful for the Midnight Madness programming at the festival is because it would be easy to get worn down by the serious fare that the festival offers all day long, and Midnight Madness is always full of the most delightful lunatics.  Where else are you going to see crazy Indonesian action, a dark killing spree comedy, creepy possession horror, and bizarre dark French fairy tales all in the same line-up?

 Stream a preposterous amount of Midnight Madness through your earholes, here.

Interviews with Eduardo Sanchez and the cast of LOVELY MOLLY

Having met and talked to director Eduardo Sanchez I can say he is a man who clearly has a passion for telling stories and a genuine love for the horror genre. Here is my interview with him at the red carpet of his world premiere for Lovely Molly:



One of the standout elements of Lovely Molly is definitely the cast lead by Gretchen Lodge in her very first role in a feature film. Her performance is a very brave and compelling portrait of a woman in the midst of horrors both very much real and not so clearly explained. Johnny Lewis and Alexandra Holden also create very strong portraits of people desperately trying to help a loved one. I had the opportunity to talk with the cast mere moments before the film screen at Midnight Madness.