The Prince Charles Cinema - home to FrightFest!

Favourite picks for this year's Midnight Madness are coming in from around the globe! This choice is from a dear personal friend and a strong supporter of the series - Paul McEvoy, who along with Greg Day, Ian Rattray and UK horror journalist Alan Jones, is one of the brains behind FrightFest in London which runs August 23 - 27. In the area - you must go! This year's line-up includes BLACK SHEEP, a sneak peak at DOOMSDAY by the director of THE DESCENT, HATCHET, THE SIGNAL, ALL THE BOYS LOVE MANDY LANE, and THE ORPHANAGE to name just a few. Paul always offers me an invite to attend, but sadly, the process of getting the line-up for Midnight Madness prevents that. One year... If you can't get to the Fest, but find yourself in London, be sure to visit Paul's amazing movie memorbillia shop, The Cinema Store. This place is great to hang out in not just because of all the cool stuff, but because of the die-hard films fans who make a point of stopping there. You know, folks like John Woo, Robert Rodriguez, Eli Roth and Pen-Ek Ratanaruang!

(R-L) Paul MeEvoy, Guillermo Del Toro and Ian Rattray
at the Fright Fest prem of PAN'S LABYRINTH

I remember when I first met Paul in 2000 and sure enough, the bonds of a strong friendship were struck. Since his fest is a mirror of the frights and chills that I assemble for TIFF, I often consider him a co-programmer as we swap tips and stories about what cool stuff we have seen over the course of the year. Since then, he and his partner in crime Ian have attended every year. If you see these lads in the line-ups or galavanting around town, introduce your self as they are fun blokes!

For me one of the highlights of the year is to travel to the fabulous city of Toronto straight after the madness of our own FrightFest in the UK - and the highlight for me within the marvelous TIFF itself is the Midnight Madness program. From my very first encounter with the wonderful Colin Geddes waaaay back in the year 2000 we both knew that we were soul and blood brothers fighting for the same cinematic cause. Ever since we have shared views, accommodation, tips, beers, cigs and much more...

So it is with great humbled pleasure that I put forth my three "Can't wait to see" films from this years outstanding list of international delicasies for our consumption:

MOTHER OF TEARS - The long awaited final part of the trilogy, and we are all of course hoping that Dario has pulled a big blood-stained bunny from his movie magic hat.

GEORGE A. ROMERO'S DIARY OF THE DEAD - Another of the horror godfathers weighs in with this sure-to-be-surprising semi kinda sequel hybrid thing. I haven't seen any footage and barely a photo so this is a really interesting proposition.

FRONTIER(S) - Apparently the trailer footage was jaw-dropping and after the brilliance of so much of the new french splatter wave I can't wait to see this latest gallic offering.

All of Colin's other choices sound wonderful and are of course "not to be missed" items but I have seen three of them - STUCK which is brilliant, THE DEVIL'S CHAIR which is great fun (and directed by a friend of Fright Fest, Adam Mason), and the truly astonishing INSIDE aka A L'INTERIOR - which along with THE ORPHANAGE, which is showing outside of Midnight Madness, are my favourite genres films of the year by far! This will be a mind-blowing Midnight Madness in an outstanding banner year.

See you in couple of weeks.

Paul McEvoy