Oh my! The Chickening opened Midnight Madness before Jeremy Saulnier's Green Room. Nick DenBoer and Davy Force's cinegraffiti short film was five minutes. Was it five minutes?!?! Man that was a TRIP! Is this what drugs feels like? I'm sure someone with access to a thesaurus could arrive at a million adjectives to describe what we all witnessed -- is there a million adjectives? -- all I can say is man that was a laugh out loud, fun, crazy, amazing, mind-blowing, mind melting cinematic experience! -- Robert A. Mitchell
Here Nick and Davy talk to programmer Colin Geddes about making The Chickening!
How could you not have something to say about a remixed version of The Shining that goes in every bizarre, surreal direction possible? I can safely say that not one person in the Midnight Madness audience was prepared for The Chickening, but Twitter was afire with the audience's reactions and social media watchdog Jonny Bunning was monitoring the action all the way from the UK! See if your tweets made it into our Storify!
Check out this weird short film a first or second time tomorrow!
When you have Patrick Stewart, a batshit remix of The Shining featuring chickens, and the wildest audience in the whole Festival all together under one roof, mayhem is going to ensue. Fortunately for the sorry souls that weren't in attendance last night, or for the Midnighters too bleary-eyed to remember, our intrepid blogtographer (that's a word, right?) Ian Goring was taking shots all night for posterity.
The lovely Alia Shawkat shimmers on the red carpet!
Did you know that Alia Shawkat is in both the opening and closing night films (Green Room and Final Girls) of Midnight Madness 2015? That's c-c-c-crazy!
Anton Yelchin spies something fishy on the red carpet.
My second-favourite Nazi in Green Room, the lovely Imogen Poots!
Green Room director Jeremy Saulnier!
The stylish cast of Green Room!
Kenny! Colin! You boys quit that horseplay or I swear to god I will turn this whole theatre around!
How messed up is it that Kenny damn Hotz is the most traditionally-dressed person in this picture?
Two Weird Dudes In Four Weird Shoes: The Chickening creators Nick DenBoer and Davy Force on the red carpet at the Ryerson.
Nick DenBoer attempts to explain the inexplicable when asked to introduce The Chickening.
Possible future X-Men cast?
Jeremy Saulnier explains the influences behind Green Room as a fan of hardcore music and 70's horror and action films.
Patrick Stewart explains why his Kickstarter for 'the largest and most obtrusive earbuds ever' is not terribly successful.
Double mics! Make it so!
Jeremy Saulnier talks about his twisted vision for Green Room
Never let it be said that Midnight Madness isn't a place of love. Misguided, highly-disturbing love.
If you missed the midnight mayhem, catch a second screening of Green Room and The Chickening at a very reasonable hour tomorrow!
We've heard that The Chickening is an animated short that precedes Green Room, making it de facto the first film to play Midnight Madness 2015. We've heard that The Chickening is written and directed by Nick DenBoer and Davy Force, who have worked on Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Code Monkeys , Conan and Best Show In The Universe. (For more about DenBoer and Davy Force, please see Robert Mitchell's profile). Here we are focused on The Chickening itself, because we've heard rumors. Rumors that seem to be born out by this image
Is it the ultimate expression of human longing--marrying both technology and art, human and chicken?
Is it the next step in evolution? The final development of life on earth--perhaps all life everywhere? Wrought, perhaps through terrible surgeries at the seemingly innocuous Charbray's Chicken World?
Surgeries that cause chicken and human alike to glow with an eerie phosphorescence?
Is it the ghostly vengeance of thousands of the Colonel's victims? Ironically wrought by just the right combination of herbs and spices? Does The Chickening take possession of our very souls?
Is the Chickening the power of all of poultry-kind united in one dreadful display of Roost-Mind? Can they feel our souls deep within their gibblets?
Roost Mind feeling your soul with their gibblets.
And, God forbid, do they know what Werner Herzog has been saying about them?
Is there anything we can do but clutch our chickens close and gather at the Ryerson to discovering the truth--the liberating Truth of the Chickening? No. No, I don't believe there is.
The Chickening is being touted as, "remixed, augmented cinema" or "Cinegraffiti". In other words, this five minute short film is an innovative, unique cinematic experience that is going to blow your mind!
Let's meet the creative forces behind the film.
Nick DenBoer wears many creative hats. He is an animator, a writer, a director, a music composer, a video artist, as well as a producer. Nick is from Toronto, Canada. He has worked on the show Kenny vs. Spenny, Vice Magazine and DC Shoes USA. The past few years has seen Nick writing, directing and producing comedy bits for Conan on TBS. Here's his show reel.
Davy Force is from Los Angeles. He is also a commercial animation director, independent film/video maker, as well as an audio/video remix artist known as TV Sheriff. Davy has animated several title sequences for television, most notably for Adult Swim's Tim and Eric Awesome Show Great Job. His professional work has also included numerous television commercials, music videos and concert visuals. Mr. Force has been nominated for a Prime time Emmy Award. He is also creating a 24-hour independent television network called InfoChammel. Here is a look into Davy's work.
The Chickening precedes the 2015 Midnight Madness opening film Jeremy Saulnier's Green Room.
THE CHICKENING screens with GREEN ROOM:
Thu, Sept 10th, 11:59 PM RYERSON
Fri, Sept 11th, 8:45 AM SCOTIABANK
Sat, Sept 12, 2:15 PM BLOOR HOT DOCS
"Little is known about this five-minute short film scheduled to precede
Jeremy Saulnier's Nazi punk thriller Green Room, but the synopsis
hints at a crazy surprise: "It's hard for a boy not to get excited when
his dad gets a new job as Senior Chief Night Manager at Charbay's
Chicken World and Restaurant Resort, the world's largest fast-food
entertainment complex in North America. But things quickly get very,
very clucked." Elsewhere, the festival program refers to director Davy
Force and Nick DenBoer's "lucky fast-food horror flick." So it's a scary
movie about chickens? Rumor has it that The Chickening is something
far stranger..."
