Half a century of film festivals and still going strong, the Toronto International Film Festival has been a mainstay of the industry since 1975. For 36 of those years, the Midnight Madness programme has featured the weirdest and wildest films from around the world, all presented at midnight on each night of the Festival, to what is in my biased eyes the best audience that the film world has to offer. The programme has moved homes a few times since its inception, currently landing at the Royal Alexandra Theatre (affectionately known as “The RAT”) but the energy remains the same.
This year, from September 4-14, intrepid programmer Peter Kuplowsky presents another ten films to the Midnight audience. Replete with World Premieres, a grip of Canadian content, and some of the most extreme filmmakers and concepts to hit the screen for the upcoming year, this lineup looks like a tribute to the programme’s underground and subversive ethos and a mix of genre favourites like Ben Wheatley and Bryan Fuller to a raft of new talent waiting to take over.
Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie (Matt Johnson, Canada)
“They were never in time to book a gig at The Rivoli, then one day… they weren’t in their time at all. From Matt Johnson (BlackBerry) and Jay McCarrol’s cult comedy series comes an adventure 17 years in the making.” The pair behind the hugely popular Viceland series that garnered a cult following are back with a time travel caper that earned them a standing ovation at South by Southwest this year as well as a Midnighter Audience Award at that festival.
Dust Bunny (Bryan Fuller, USA)
“A 10-year-old girl (Sophie Sloan) procures the services of a hit man (Mads Mikkelsen) to kill the monster under her bed in this whimsically macabre feature debut from acclaimed television showrunner Bryan Fuller (Pushing Daisies, Hannibal).” The film co-stars Sigourney Weaver and David Dastmalchian and, as a certified Fullermaniac, Dust Bunny is one of my most anticipated picks of the lineup.
Fuck My Son! (Todd Rohal, Canada)
“Todd Rohal (The Catechism Cataclysm, Uncle Kent 2) violates all boundaries of good taste in this gleefully profane adaptation of Johnny Ryan’s underground comic about a decrepit mother (Robert Longstreet) who will stop at nothing to get her mutant son (Steve Little) laid.” It wouldn’t be Midnight without a movie that makes you wonder exactly a) how this thing got made and b) how I ended up in a theatre watching it. Fuck My Son! looks to be precisely the selection to fill that requirement.
JUNK WORLD (Takahide Hori, Japan)
“A surprise attack on a joint expedition between humans and their emancipated clones becomes the freaky fulcrum for a dimension-hopping, time-travel fable set over a millennia before Takahide Hori’s original subterranean stop-motion animated opus, [2017’s] Junk Head.” The stunning animated style of Takahide Hori’s Junk Head returns to the big screen with this prequel, and I expect the Midnight audience to lap it up with glee.
Karmadonna (Aleksandar Radivojević, Serbia)
“Aleksandar Radivojević (co-writer of A Serbian Film) makes his directorial debut with an audacious satirical thriller about an expectant mother (Jelena Djokić) who receives a phone call from a deity that demands she obey a list of murderous instructions.” If you know A Serbian Film, you’ll recognize it as one of the most extreme and boundary-pushing films that horror has to offer, and that’s really saying something. From the co-writer of that film, Karmadonna may well be the most extreme film of the Midnight offerings this year.
Normal (Ben Wheatley, USA/Canada)
“Director Ben Wheatley and John Wick creator Derek Kolstad pit a provisional sheriff (Bob Odenkirk) against his constituents when the exposure of a small town’s sordid secret sparks a rip-roaring firefight.” Wheatley returns to Midnight for the first time since picking up a Midnight People’s Choice audience award back in 2016 for the heist film Free Fire with Brie Larson. This time, he assembles some of the team behind Nobody for a new actioner with deep stakes for a small town sheriff. Lena Headey and Henry Winkler co-star in what should be the most high-profile pick of this lineup.
Obsession (Curry Barker, USA)
The perils of wish fulfillment are on full display in this World Premiere from Curry Barker of Milk & Serial fame. “When a hopeless romantic makes a wish that his long-time crush falls in love with him, a sinister enchantment ensues in writer-director Curry Barker’s latest.” Andy Richter co-stars in what should be one of the biggest surprises of the Midnight lineup.
The Furious (Kenji Tanigaki, Hong Kong/China)
In this World Premiere from Hong Kong, “[a]cclaimed action choreographer-turned-director Kenji Tanigaki (SPL, Flash Point, Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In) propels a desperate father (Xie Miao) into a knock-down, drag-out war to rescue his daughter from a nefarious array of cutthroat kidnappers.” If there’s a movie that’s tailor-made for Midnight, it’s this cavalcade of kicks that co-stars some of the best action stars, including Joe Taslim and Yayan Ruhian of The Raid, to titillate the audience at the RAT. If there’s anything better than a rabid Midnight audience cheering for an action film like this in the manner of pro wrestling, well I have yet to find it.
The Napa Boys (Nick Corirossi, USA)
The World Premiere of the raucous comedy “[i]n the tradition of American Pie, Lord of the Rings, and Wet Hot American Summer comes a new instalment in a beloved IP franchise: The Napa Boys are back! In search of wine. In search of women. In search of themselves.” This one stars Armen Weitzman, Chloe Cherry, Corirossi, Paul Rust and Beth Dover in this viticulture-focused comedy that’s sure to keep the Midnight audience in tears of laughter.
Dead Lover (Grace Glowicki, Canada )
Midnight’s closing film for 2025 is a Canadian Premiere from Grace Glowicki (2019’s Tito) in which “[a] wily gravedigger (Glowicki) falls for the one man who is attracted to her fetid funk (Ben Petrie), but when fate doth conspire, she takes drastic measures to preserve their love in this camp phantasmagoria.” This is the kind of crowd-pleasing horror comedy that I love from Midnight Madness, and is the perfect way to send this audience home happy after a long festival. And it’s Canadian too!
Stay tuned to Biff Bam Pop for coverage of both the Midnight lineup and all our faves from the Festival at large!
Tickets go on sale to TIFF Members by level beginning on Friday, August 15. For more details, visit tiff.net/join. The full Festival schedule will be released on Tuesday, August 12. The 50th edition of the Toronto International Film Festival, presented by Rogers, runs September 4–14, 2025.
