MM '08!

As I’ve stated before, the end of July has become something of a second Christmas for me. It’s around this time (the last few years anyway) that the Toronto International Film Festival Midnight Madness line-up is announced. Madness programmer Colin Geddes rarely disappoints in giving us eager cinephiles the latest and greatest delights from around the globe. This year is no exception as the just unveiled line-up is chock full of highly anticipated titles.

Eden Log looks like a crazy slice of dark sci-fi that can only reinforce France’s dominance of the cutting edge of cinema. I can’t wait to see the visual styles on display here.

The genre mixing of J.T. Petty’s The Burrowers has me intrigued. I’m also very interested to see what Petty has been up to because his 2006 film S&MAN really left an impression on me.

Prachya Pinkaew’s Chocolate is not a horror title I know, but I’m mentioning it because it seems like I’ve been waiting forever for this martial arts flick to hit our shores. As you can see from this footage set loose on us several months ago, spitfire Jija Yanin seems poised to become Tony Jaa's female equivalent. The fact that it is also the festival closer must mean that Chocolate is quite a spectacle indeed.

And then there is French filmmaker Pascal Laugier’s new film Martyrs. Controversy surrounds this title as it was the first horror film in France to ever get an 18+ rating - and this is from a country that has given us such extreme titles as High Tension, Frontiers and last year’s Inside! I remember Colin telling me a few months back that he wasn’t sure whether he would show Martyrs here at Madness because it was just THAT punishing. I await it with equal parts curiosity and dread.

As always, Colin slipped in a few titles that even the people with their finger on the pulse of the festival circuit likely haven’t caught wind of yet.

Not Quite Hollywood is a documentary about Australian exploitation films. The first Midnight Madness screening I ever attended was Adam Simon’s American Nightmare, so I’m always eager to absorb another after-hours doc.

The “too shocking to produce” Deadgirl also looks completely sick and twisted. Though I should expect nothing less by now.

After seeing this year’s list of titles, September seems like a very long way off. To see the full line-up, check out today's press release here.