What is... THE CHICKENING?

Behold Charbay's Chicken World.

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.

Mads is ready. Are you?


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

Mads Mikkelsen, his chicken and his Madstache in MEN & CHICKEN:

Mon, Sept 14, 9:00 PM SCOTIABANK

Wed, Sept 16, 10:00 PM BLOOR HOT DOCS CINEMA

Sun, Sept 20, 3:30 PM SCOTIABANK

 

Happy Birthday, Werner Herzog!

A belated happy birthday to one of Midnight Madness' favorite filmmakers, Werner Herzog! (And we hope you enjoyed Hitoshi Matsumoto's Symbol back in 2009).

Celebrate with this clip of Werner Herzog discussing penguins, madness and heading towards certain death. 

Perhaps celebrate isn't the right word...  How about Klaus Kinski singing and dancing?

WHAT WE DO IN THE SHADOWS: Vampire Profiles: Count Orlok

Lookin' good in 1922!

 Few vampires are as adorable as Count Orlok, well, adorable in a terrifying, inconceivably ancient way. He is the prince of plague and rats, whether in F.W. Murnau's silent masterpiece, Nosferatu: Eine Symphonie des Grauens (1922) or in Werner Herzog's 1979 Nosferatu: Phantom der Nacht.

1979 and still feeling confident enough to creep on the honeys.

And he brings a hip German Expressionist style to vampirism, which can get stuffy and aristocratic sometimes. Or worse, very corporate.

Ethan Hawke realizes he will be wearing a suit, going to work and having to deal with his jerk boss for eternity.

Some say that Orlok was just a way getting Dracula on film without provoking the Stoker estate. Those people are haters. Sure, the vampire in Nosferatu, Phantom Der Nacht, is called, "Dracula," but I know in my heart that he is truly Count Orlok.

So enjoy this common domain version of Murnau's film.



And this trailer for Herzog's.




UPDATE: We have received a response from three Antipodean Vampires at the Twitter account, @DeliciousNecks. Click the link to see a hot as sexy hot sauce gif that we cannot embed because of our ancient yet adorable talons and wizened brains.

@mmadnesstiff None as sexy as Deacon. http://t.co/YUeNc98KRl
— WhatWeDoInTheShadows (@DeliciousNecks) September 10, 2014

WHAT WE DO IN THE SHADOWS screening times:
Fri., Sept. 12th, 11:59 PM, RYERSON
Sat., Sept. 13th, 9:30 PM, SCOTIABANK 12
Sun., Sept. 14th, 3:45 PM, SCOTIABANK 3

Midnight Madness Picks: James Rocchi

More Midnight Madness (and some non-MM!) picks! This time from James Rocchi of MSN Movies.

Bunraku -- I tend to be an easy pitch for 'Mysterious Drifter" sagas, plus the added draw of Woody Harrelson -- whose recent work's been as strange as it is strong -- and every still's promise of candy-colored chaos in the actual film make this a big-screen must-see.

Vanishing on 7th Street -- With a title worthy of Rod Serling, the latest from Brad Anderson suggests a small-scale apocalypse with plenty of intimate strangeness -- as well as the always-entertaining John Leguizamo.

The Butcher, the Chef and the Swordsman -- Revenge, as we all know, is a dish best served cold; this film's plotline, with its implied mix of martial arts, blade-bashing action and cooking, suggest that when you do serve revenge cold, plating and side dishes matter, too. ...

And for a non-Midnight Madness Pick:

Cave of Forgotten Dreams -- Werner Herzog guides us through the caves featuring 30,000-year-old works of art. In 3D. hacks and flack will use, and have used 3D to gin ups excitement for otherwise-forgettable films, but this promised trinity of topic, technique and auteur is irresistible to any film fan who knows that Herzog's brilliance satisfies the questioning mind and the yearning heart.

-------------------

Bunraku screens:
Saturday, Sept. 11. 11:59pm Ryerson
Tuesday, Sept 14. 10:15pm Scotiabank Theatre 2
Friday, Sept 17. 5:00pm Scotiabank Theatre 2

Vanishing on 7th Street screens:
Sunday, September 12. 11:59PM RYERSON
Monday, September 13. 2:00PM AMC 2

The Butcher, the Chef and the Swordsman screens:
Thursday, September 16 11:59PM Ryerson
Friday, September 17. 6:30PM AMC 6
Saturday September 18 3:30PM Scotiabank 2

You can purchase tickets from the official TIFF website.