Movies
‘V/H/S/99’ to World Premiere in TIFF’s Midnight Madness Program Alongside Ti West’s ‘Pearl’!
The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) is one of the most prestigious in the world and we’re insanely excited to announce today that Shudder and Studio71’s Bloody Disgusting-produced V/H/S/99 will have its World Premiere as part of the Midnight Madness program! Bloody Disgusting’s Southbound also had its World Premiere at TIFF back in 2015. You can read all about V/H/S/99 and the filmmakers in our announcement.
We’re honored to World Premiere alongside several other genre films in the fest, which runs from September 8-18.
Weird: The Al Yankovic Story, the upcoming Roku original film starring Daniel Radcliffe as the beloved parody musician, will also make its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival, first reported Variety.
The other films set for Midnight Madness screenings include Ti West’s X prequel Pearl, anthology horror film V/H/S/99, The Blackening from director Tim Story, The People’s Joker from Vera Drew, Project Wolf Hunting by Kim Hongsun, Sick by John Hyams, Sisu by Jalmari Helander and Venus by Jaume Balagueró, all of which will make their world premieres. The programming series will close with the Canadian premiere of Lenore Will Never Die, from Filipina filmmaker Martika Ramierez Escobar.
The Blackening D. Tim Story | USA
World Premiere
“Based on 3Peat Comedy’s acclaimed sketch of the same name, director Tim Story’s savvy and vicious skewering of genre film tropes poses the sardonic question: if the entire cast of a horror movie is Black, who dies first?”
Leonor Will Never Die D. Martika Ramirez Escobar | Philippines
Canadian Premiere | Midnight Madness Closing Night Film
“Martika Ramirez Escobar’s surreal, award-winning first feature transports a retired screenwriter of Filipino action films into the story of one of her own unfinished scripts.”
Pearl D. Ti West | USA
North American Premiere
“In this prequel set decades before the grisly events of Ti West’s hit slasher X, Mia Goth returns as the future psycho-biddy Pearl, here a starry-eyed farm girl with a short fuse and a deadly ambition.”
The People’s Joker D. Vera Drew | USA
World Premiere
“An aspiring clown grappling with her gender identity combats a fascistic caped crusader, in writer-director Vera Drew’s uproariously subversive queer coming-of-age origin story.”
Project Wolf Hunting D. Kim Hongsun | South Korea
World Premiere
“Bloody bedlam breaks out on the high seas in writer-director Kim Hongsun’s gnarly action-thriller that pits cops versus cons aboard a cargo ship with a sinister secret in its hold.”
Sick D. John Hyams | USA
World Premiere
“A lean, mean, and wickedly timely slasher from American action auteur John Hyams (Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning) and Scream scribe Kevin Williamson.”
Sisu D. Jalmari Helander | Finland
World Premiere
“Jalmari Helander (Rare Exports, Big Game) returns to TIFF with a gory World War II action epic that pits one hard-to-kill Finn against Nazi soldiers in Finnish Lapland.”
Venus D. Jaume Balagueró | Spain
World Premiere
“Midnight Madness alumni Jaume Balagueró (REC 2) and Álex de la Iglesia (Perdita Durango) team up to conjure cosmic horror within the concrete corridors of a cursed apartment complex on the outskirts of Madrid.”
V/H/S/99 D. Maggie Levin, Johannes Roberts, Tyler MacIntyre, Flying Lotus, Joseph Winter, Vanessa Winter | USA
World Premiere
“Set at the dawn of a new millennium, the perennial horror anthology series returns with its most innovative mixtape of ‘found-footage’ thrills yet.”
Weird: The Al Yankovic Story D. Eric Appel | USA
World Premiere | Midnight Madness Opening Night Film
“Daniel Radcliffe dons “Weird Al” Yankovic’s Hawaiian shirt and accordion in Eric Appel’s infectiously entertaining and hyperbolic biopic about the legendary parody songsmith.”
Judging from the unprecedented box office success of Kane Parsons’ Backrooms adaptation, you’ve likely already seen the liminal horror hit that managed to make audiences afraid of empty hallways and bad wallpaper. And now that so many of us have already entered the yellow labyrinth (some of us more than once), the time has come to discuss the spoiler-filled details that make the movie so fascinating in the first place.
And if there’s one element here that makes the Backrooms movie stand out from any previous lore/mythology, it has to be the genius addition of the Still Life entities. Warped recreations of real people that somehow wandered into the Complex, these misremembered creatures are responsible for some of the most disturbing imagery of 2026 – as well as laugh-out-loud memes created by one of the film’s very own concept artists.
However, true to Parsons’ word that the movie would rely heavily on practical effects, each of these distorted monsters was brought to life by real actors under heavy layers of makeup and prosthetics (with the occasional splash of CGI enhancements). While Anora and If I Had Legs I’d Kick You actress Ivy Wolk wasn’t among these performers, despite what Letterboxd might have you believe, the creature cast did benefit from veteran players with plenty of genre experience.
For starters, Alien: Romulus alumni Robert Bobroczkyi (who previously brought that film’s horrific Offspring to life during its most memorable sequence) plays the flick’s main antagonist, the Still Life version of Captain Clark. And though there was some obvious CGI involved in making the character’s peg-leg and nightmarish face more believable, Bobroczkyi’s monstrous performance and his natural 7’7″ frame helped to make that final chase sequence a clear highlight among this year’s genre offerings.
The film’s Texas-Chain-Saw-inspired “dinner” scene also features a freaky collection of less-aggressive Still Life creatures in the form of the Bearded Man, the Red-Headed Woman and, strangest of them all, the cheekily named “Archibald Leland Sutter Still Life” (who earned this title among fans and crewmembers as a reference to his apparent affinity for lamps).
While this was the first major horror outing for both Patrick Baynham (The Bearded Man) and Dana Mahmood (Archibald), Rhiannon Roberts has worked as a stunt performer in everything from Yellowjackets to HBO’s The Last of Us adaptation – which is probably why The Red-Headed Woman is the most active out of Clark’s impromptu “family.” That being said, the Archibald Leland Sutter Still Life is my personal favorite of the bunch simply because his anachronistic outfit suggests that the Backrooms phenomenon might be a lot older than the Async Foundation. I also love how hard he tries to be helpful with that little light of his!
That might be it for the Still Life entities, but I think horror fans will also be pleased to hear that the film’s Found Footage prologue stars none other than Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City star Avan Jogia as Naren Warne – and American Mary herself Katharine Isabelle also shows up in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameo at Mary’s house party towards the middle of the story (though I have a feeling that she originally had a bigger part that was likely cut for time).
At the end of the day, Parsons’ Backrooms may have been an auteur-driven project motivated by the young director’s unique take on the classic creepypasta, but film has always been a collective artform, so it’s fun to see just how many talented performers it takes to bring this kind of supernatural nightmare to life in a way that connects with so many people.
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