A key component of programming at the Toronto International Film Festival is the Midnight Madness section. The section was created for the 1988 festival and plays the best genre films specifically highlighting horror and science fiction. Previous winners of the People’s Choice Midnight Madness award include the likes of The Substance, Titane and What We Do in the Shadows with plenty other iconic films that have played. In 2025 Dakota and Jeff saw almost every film that played in the Midnight Madness bracket and over three parts you can read capsule reviews of them.
Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie
Final Rating: 4.5/5
Utilizing a mix of scripted skits, staged stunts, and candid camera antics, Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie is gonzo filmmaking at its finest. Matt Johnson and Jay McCarroll craft a hilarious story about being an aging millennial in Toronto, exploring pasts that could have been, and something that will be familiar to fans of the duo’s Viceland show: trying to get a gig at the Rivoli.
Nirvanna takes place in 2025, with the titular band having been together for 17 years without having played a single gig. After yet another of Matt’s schemes to get booked at the Rivoli fails, Jay begins to wonder if he would be better off just playing open mic nights. Matt, undeterred and always ready with a new scheme, instead decides to try and build a time machine a la Back to the Future.
Nirvanna explores the duo’s past both literally and figuratively. As Matt and Jay look back on their old schemes, they’re forced to wrestle with how they’ve changed or stagnated over time. They’re still the fresh-faced kids getting up to shenanigans on Queen St, but after 17 years, maybe they shouldn’t be anymore.
But far from just reflecting on their past, Nirvanna gives the duo the chance to literally relive it. The movie features a stunning recreation of downtown Toronto in 2008, along with authentic-feeling candid camera gags. Shot on old cameras – enabling the filmmakers to sneak in footage actually from 2008 – the 2008 segments of the film are jaw-dropping.
Nirvanna is a love-letter to downtown Toronto in all its incarnations. The CN Tower is the most important building; local radio hosts Roz and Mocha feature prominently; a pivotal scene takes place at Drake’s house.
There’s a moment where Matt cheekily addresses the camera: “we are in 2008, but if we weren’t this would be really expensive to fake.”
The effort clearly paid off: nothing about Nirvana feels fake.
– Jeff Bulmer
Obsession
Final Rating: 4.5/5
In Obsession, directed by Curry Barker, Bear (Michael Johnston), a hopeless romantic, has a crush on Nikki (Inde Navarette), except she doesn’t reciprocate the feelings. Bear, Nikki, and their friends Ian and Sarah all work at a music store owned by Ian’s father. Nikki is planning on leaving, thus removing the ability for Bear to see her almost every day. In one last attempt to summon the courage to ask her out, Bear decides to get her a gift. He stops at a local occult shop and plans on replacing her missing crystal necklace, he ends up buying a vintage wishing birch stick. It’s very simple, you can make one wish, when you snap the stick in half it *should* come true.
The shopkeeper lets Bear know that it doesn’t really work but there are more than a handful of customers who return back to the shop to complain about its effectiveness. After failing in his last ditch effort to tell Nikki how he really feels after she point blank asks, she walks away. Bear remembering the stick in his bag, pulls it out and wishes that she will love him more than anyone else in the world.
This is a horror movie, so without spoiling anything else, suffice to say your imagination can lead you in the direction you think this movie probably goes and you’d be right.
What sets the film apart from other films that utilize a monkey’s paw or genie in a lamp plot device is the infusion of comedy playing off relationship stereotypes and the uncomfortable situations the characters find them in, genuine terror as the magic warps the world Bear and Nikki live in and the sublime direction and voice Curry Barker has infused into every frame of this masterpiece.
Instead of relying on cheap jump scares, overly edited scenes or generally just messing with viewers’ sense of reality, he instead commands the world. Barker utilizes long shots, sometimes a single setup for a whole scene. The longer the camera holds on the action, the more uncomfortable viewers will get, begging for us to look away. Along with the longer than average shots, he will sometimes just slowly push in, emphasising what is on screen, even if it is in darkness. Nikki often stands just behind the light not illuminated, we can hear her voice clearly, but not quite see her expressions.
Navarette is a revelation, turning in one of the finest horror performances ever. She is able to maintain utter stillness and make it unnerving to no end. She also has the uncanny ability to turn her performance on or off like a light switch. Nikki will be the “most in love person in the world” in one moment willing to do or say anything, then like a circuit that is interrupted, the curse momentarily gets lifted and we see the real Nikki. Navaratte also has the power to hold an uncomfortably long and awkward smile in a way that will burrow its way into your very soul.
What she does is nothing short of stunning. There are a few moments in Obsession that will likely live rent free in your mind for a very long time. There is a scene where Bear wakes up to realize he is alone in bed and the reveal from Barker will make you double check the corners of your room anytime you wake up from a nightmare. Another memorable moment is a phone call where Bear calls the help line of the wishing stick and does not get what he needs from it. But instead of something we see that terrifies us, it instead is a conversation and a noise that will make the hairs on the back of your neck stand on end.
Obsession should go down as a modern horror masterpiece, one that will be best seen in a crowded theater where laughs and screams will co-mingle to make one hell of a roller coaster.
– Dakota Arsenault
The Furious
Final Rating: 2.5/5
The Furious is the latest pan-Asian action film from Japanese stunt performer turned director Kenji Tanigaki. The film follows a pretty simple revenge plot: Navin’s (Joe Taslim) journalist wife has gone missing after uncovering a child tracking ring as he looks to finish her work and learn the truth about what may have happened to her. Wang Wei (Miao Xie) is a handyman for hire that is mute due to a head injury. Despite training himself and his daughter in kung-fu, she gets abducted by the tracking ring, and Wang Wei chases after her. From there the two men on the hunt meet and eventually team up to find their loved ones and take down the syndicate.
The film takes place in an undisclosed Asian country (a title card literally says “somewhere in Asia”), with what appears to be actors hailing from Japan, Korea, China, Vietnam, Philippines, the Indian subcontinent and more. The movie goes in and out of English and Japanese, with most of the performers seemingly being dubbed into English.
The two talented leads put on a showstopping effort of martial arts. Due to the many different regions represented on camera, they seemingly use many different fighting styles making everything look much more impressive. The movie falls apart with the performances from just about everyone but the two leads, likely due to them being cast for their stunt prowess over their acting abilities. It doesn’t help that the dialogue is cheesy, the plot is predictable, and some of the dubbing is done quite shoddily. Add in that the CGI is sub-par and the runtime is a bit too long with the climactic fights being too drawn out.
None of that matters though.
This film exists to have the most insane balls to the wall action sequences and Kenji Tanigaki delivers it in spades. The fights are brutally visceral, with both men taking a beating as hard as they give it out. Fists, feet and various weapons (including a motorcycle) are all sent flying into willing combatants. The action will leave audiences equal parts in awe and in fits of laughter as there are moments of Jackie Chan level choreography. This type of film is best enjoyed in a packed audience who just want some fun.
– Dakota Arsenault
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