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.
Junk World
Final Rating: 3.5/5
Ed. note: Real the full review for Junk World HERE.
Junk World is an impressive and novel stop-motion adventure. While the background lore of director Takahide Hori’s world can be hard to follow, the film really takes off once it reveals its hand.
Approximately 150 years after a massive world war, humans live on the Earth’s ruined surface, while the underground is inhabited by artificial beings called Mulligans. The two societies maintain a fragile peace, but when an unusually high amount of radiation is discovered in the underground city of Kaapvaal at the same time as an anti-human cult is gaining power, a joint task force is dispatched to investigate.
Junk World follows a core group as they progress deeper into the Earth to find the source of the radiation. Along the way, the group – Captain Torys, her robot companion Robin, and the Mulligan defector Dante – encounter cultists, bizarre creatures born from radiation, and a group of powerful beings claiming to be their descendants. The film is initially deliberately vague, the group often simply ignoring things they can’t explain as they push forward. Once they finally reach the source of the radiation, however, Junk World takes a reality-bending turn to explore every element from a new angle.
The world of Junk World is unique, strikingly realized as grotesque mounds of metal and flesh. The character designs feel halfway between Henry Selick and Phil Tippett, slick enough to be visually appealing even in a world that’s mostly detritus. The occasional creature stands out as especially shocking even in this world: a major society of what look like long cats with flat, human-like faces; a humanoid with 4 hands and a vagina instead of a head; a mutant priest who takes off his robe to reveal shibari ties before morphing into a giant with dozens of mouths.
Junk World’s greatest strength is the seemingly boundless creativity of its director. Hori’s world is singularly strange, and his approach to the well-trodden ground of time travel is uniquely his. The main thing holding the film back is, ironically, the same. Hori bites off a little more than he can chew, but the elements he’s able to dive into are fascinating.
– Jeff Bulmer
The Napa Boys
Final Rating: 3/5
The Napa Boys are back in the Wine Wagon for another Napa Valley adventure! In the fourth film in the long-running franchise, Miles Jr. (Armen Weitzman) and Jack Jr. (Nick Corirossi) get the band together to discover the secret of the Sommelier’s Amulet, and save Mitch’s Winery.
A send-up of late ‘00s straight-to-DVD sequels like American Pie: The Book of Love, The Napa Boys is presented as the third followup to Alexander Payne’s Sideways. Like those American Pie sequels, Napa Boys features a cast of characters related to but distinct from the original film, and a plot that’s simplified to the point of being vacuous. There’s a catchphrase everyone knows – “Grape up!” – and four movies in, the characters have developed such a fervent following that one of the main characters is introduced as a Napa Boys superfan.
The Napa Boys walks a fine line between lampooning low-effort sequels and being one, but under Corirossi’s direction, the film usually works. Corirossi holds onto punchlines a little longer than you’d expect, creates a world that’s a bit more absurd than comfortable, and throws his characters into situations at once familiar and strange. Crass toilet humour exists alongside artful oners and cameos from other franchises. The film often feels like a kitchen sink comedy blending styles that shouldn’t work together, but do thanks to pitch-perfect delivery.
The Napa Boys is hilarious. A loving tribute to a type of movie that’s never gotten much respect.
– Jeff Bulmer
Dead Lover
Final Rating: 3.5/5
Dead Lover is a delightful micro-budget riff on Frankenstein. Featuring four actors playing multiple roles on minimalistic sets, Dead Lover is as intimate as a community theatre play. In the hands of director Grace Glowicki, Dead Lover transcends mere theatricality, wearing its cinematic inspirations on its sleeve.
In Dead Lover, Grace Glowicki plays a lonely gravedigger. Her stench and reclusion, both consequences of her chosen profession, have left her unlucky in love. One night, she meets the only person not only unperturbed, but in fact ferociously attracted to her. The two share a passionate night together, but soon after, her lover sets sail across the sea. The two correspond, hoping to be reunited, but the only piece of the gravedigger’s lover to return is a severed finger. Maybe, the gravedigger thinks, that’s all she needs to resurrect her lover.
Dead Lover takes the main beats from Frankenstein, but builds an original, smaller scale story around them. Much time is spent with the gravedigger alone, her experiments and daily life portrayed through fun Abbott and Costello-style slapstick scenes. Even the most famous element of Frankenstein – the monster – is interpreted in a hilarious and unexpected way that turns the film on its head in the latter half.
Visually, the film is dark, but stylish. Drawing influence from German expressionism, cinematographer Rhayne Vermette constructs a signature look that feels right out of the early 20th century. The production design certainly helps, the sets evoking low-budget monster-movies of the 50s and 60s.
The small scale, the tiny cast, and Glowicki’s unique voice make Dead Lover feel like a particularly special community theatre piece. To hear Glowicki talk about the behind the scenes… it basically was.
Dead Lover was rehearsed in full extensively beforehand in a local community theatre, with the four participating actors rotating roles. The resulting film features confident performances from all involved, with stellar delivery and loads of personality.
– Jeff Bulmer
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