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The Midnight Madness program at the Toronto International Film Festival has always been a space for cinema that pushes boundaries, disrupts worldviews, and leaves a slippery residue of viscera on the screen—during a festival otherwise dominated by predominantly highbrow, highly serious selections. As the fest turns 50 this September, the program’s disregard for good taste, social norms, and any semblance of staying inside the box shows zero signs of changing.

It’s no wonder TIFF’s Midnight Madness/Strange Cuts program was recently ranked first in Dread Central’s definitive list of the 90 Best Genre Fests on Earth (in a three-way tie with Fantasia and Sitges, respectively).

To prepare for this year’s lineup, I sat down with TIFF Midnight Madness lead programmer Peter Kuplowsky to break down the salacious selections—from the nastiest and most shocking titles to the grim, macabre, and everything in between. Kuplowsky is partly...

The Toronto International Film Festival announced today the TIFF 2025 selections for the highly regarded Midnight Madness program, its signature slate of wicked wonders that are sure to delight and disturb the Festival’s devoted and raucous late-night crowd.

The 2025 edition features seven World Premieres and is bookended by two of the year’s most acclaimed midnight comedies. Midnight Madness opens with the Canadian Premiere of Matt Johnson’s Toronto-set Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie, based on Johnson’s cult Viceland series and recipient of the Midnighter Audience Award at this year’s SXSW. Horror-comedy Dead Lover closes out the fest’s midnight section.

Also look for Bryan Fuller’s Dust Bunny, Ben Wheatley’s latest shoot-out feature Normal starring Bob Odenkirk, and a ton of bone-crunching and over-the-top genre benders to round out this year’s midnight slate.

Here’s the TIFF 2025 Midnight Madness lineup:

Dead Lover | Grace Glowicki...

The program for the Toronto International Film Festival continues as Variety has passed along their unveiling of screenings for their Midnight Madness slate. The Midnight Madness line-up is a late-night presentation of more irreverent films that is akin to a modern-day grindhouse. The press release dare you to “bear witness to the very best and most bizarre in contemporary genre and shock cinema. Its signature slate of wicked wonders that are sure to delight and disturb.” All of the films featured will be making their premieres in some way, whether it be a world premiere, a Canadian premiere or an international premiere. And one of the films featured is the Bob Odenkirk action film Normal.

The movie is written by John Wick and Nobody screenwriter Derek Kolstad, and Ben Wheatley takes up the directing duties with this one. The film finds Odenkirk playing Ulysses, a lawman “who is thrust into...

The Toronto Film Festival has selected the lineup for this year’s Midnight Madness sidebar that includes seven world premieres. The pics, whether they’re slashers, comedies or hard-r action titles, close out each of night of the festival with 11:59 p.m. screenings at the Royal Alexandra Theatre.

Of note is the world premiere of Ben Wheatley’s reunion of the Nobody franchise team of Bob Odenkirk, scribe Derek Kolstad and producer Marc Provissiero for Normal. Movie tells the story of Ulysses (Odenkirk), a substitute sheriff in a small, forgotten town who responds to a bank robbery, only to unknowingly uncover something far more explosive. Wheatley’s Brie Larson action movie Free Fire won the Midnight Madness People’s Choice Award in 2016.

Also world premiering is Dust Bunny, the feature directorial debut of TV showrunner Bryan Fuller. In the horror drama thriller, an 8-year-old girl asks...

Calling all nocturnal movie lovers: The Toronto Film Festival has unveiled its midnight madness slate, a lineup of often disturbing and always raucous works of cinema.

Director Matt Johnson’s gonzo time-travel caper “Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie,” will open the Midnight Madness section while “Dead Lover,” a zany, macabre horror-comedy from Canadian director Grace Glowicki, will be the closing night film.

Midnight Madness concludes each night of TIFF with 11:59 p.m. screenings at the Royal Alexandra Theatre, where the bold and brave gather at very late hours to “bear witness to the very best and most bizarre in contemporary genre and shock cinema,” according to the festival’s official press release. “Its signature slate of wicked wonders that are sure to delight and disturb.”

This year’s Midnight Madness section will host seven world premieres and one international premiere. Among the world premieres is Ben Wheatley’s “Normal,...

The Toronto International Film Festival has set seven world premieres, one international premiere and two Canadian debuts to screen in its Midnight Madness section.

Among the world premieres are Normal, a crime thriller from UK director Ben Wheatley (winner of the Midnight Madness People’s Choice award in 2016 for Free Fire), with Bob Odenkirk starring, and Dust Bunny, a whimsical horror thriller that marks the feature directing debut of US television showrunner Bryan Fuller and reunites him with the star of his Hannibal series Mads Mikkelsen.

Also making their global debuts are Kenji Tanigaki’s Hong Kong martial arts thriller The Furious,...

Midnight Madness, it’s almost your time. The Toronto International Film Festival has today announced the lineup of its “signature slate of wicked wonders that are sure to delight and disturb the festival’s devoted and raucous late-night crowd.” One of the most beloved aspects of the festival, the annual assortment of tricks and treats is a feast for the genre-devoted and generally curious alike.

Midnight Madness will open with the Canadian premiere of Matt Johnson’s Toronto-set “Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie.” The film is based on Johnson’s cult “Viceland” series, and is billed as a “hysterical, death-defying time-travel caper.” The section will close with “Dead Lover,” a “zany, macabre horror-comedy from Canadian director Grace Glowicki.” The 2025 edition features seven world premieres and one international premiere.

The section closes out each night of the festival with 11:59 p.m. screenings at the (possibly) haunted Royal Alexandra Theatre,...

Producer and showrunner Bryan Fuller, known for creating Hannibal and American Gods, is bringing his directorial debut, Dust Bunny, to the Toronto Film Festival for a world premiere as part of the Midnight Madness section.

The horror thriller stars Mads Mikkelsen and Sigourney Weaver, and portrays a young girl asking her neighbor for help killing the monster under her bed that she thinks ate her family. Fuller is headed to Toronto amid the backdrop a 2023 lawsuit brought by fellow Queer for Fear producer Sam Wineman that alleged a hostile workplace environment on set. The next arbitration hearing in the case is scheduled for Feb. 2026.

The 2025 edition of the nocturnal Midnight Madness sidebar, with seven world premieres, will open with Matt Johnson’s Toronto-set Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie, which bowed at SXSW, and will close with Grace Glowicki’s Dead Lover, a horror comedy about a lonely gravedigger...

Kane Parsons is already one of the foremost tellers of spooky stories on the internet. Now, the creator also known as Kane Pixels is set to become one of the youngest directors in Hollywood history.

The 19-year-old Parsons is going full speed ahead on a feature film adaptation of The Backrooms, a found footage horror series Parsons initially premiered on his YouTube channel. A24, which picked up the project in 2023, has now attached some big names to it. The film’s cast includes Oscar nominee Chiwetel Ejiofor as well as Renate Reinsve, who played the lead role in the international hit The Worst Person in the World.

With a venerated indie distributor steering the ship and several notable actors on board, The Backrooms is set to be the next big horror project led by a digital content creator. As influencers make inroads in Hollywood, the horror genre is becoming one...

Horror has consistently proven itself as one of the most flexible genres with its blending of tones, aesthetics, and voices. It's often a training ground for blossoming filmmakers on the rise, as they're frequently challenged to get their movie made with limited resources. Low-budget horror tends to breed creativity and, in certain cases, box office revenue. Just look at the careers of Sam Raimi, John Carpenter, and George Romero, all of whom have gone on to become some of our greatest filmmakers. You never really know when the next batch of talent is going to come out of the woodwork, and it looks like we have some new blood to keep an eye on.

A24 has given the go-ahead for Kane Parsons to make his feature directorial debut under their banner with "The Backrooms," a science-fiction horror film produced by James Wan's Atomic Monster (via Variety). The project is...

Rising filmmaker and sketch comedian Curry Barker has signed with UTA.

Barker is known for his viral horror movie Milk & Serial, a found footage project made for $800 that amassed 1.6 million views on YouTube and landed him meetings with practically every horror house and producer in town. He is in post-production on his next feature, Obsession, a horror film he wrote and directed, with financing from Capstone.

The native of Mobile, Alabama is also one half of the sketch comedy channel That’s a Bad Idea, which he runs with creative partner Cooper Tomlinson. Their sketches take inspiration from shows such as I Think You Should Leave and Key & Peele and blend comedy with horror. That’s a Bad Idea has amassed more than 700 million views across platforms, and boast 1.7 million TikTok followers, 827,000 YouTube subscribers and 681,000 Instagram followers.

As a horror filmmaker, Barker is also developing a feature length version of The Chair,...

When Curry Barker moved to Los Angeles a few years ago, he thought getting his short films on the festival circuit would be his path to making it as a director. But soon he discovered just uploading his films directly to YouTube was getting him attention. His 2023 horror short The Chair landed him Hollywood representation and a deal to direct a $1 million movie, Obsession. Then in August, he posted the $800 feature Milk & Serial, which he wrote, directed and starred in. It exploded online, attracting 1 million views.

“It just catapulted the amount of meetings I was taking,” says Barker, who notes he met with practically every studio and major horror producer in town.

Barker, also known for his comedy sketches on YouTube, is part of a new class of filmmakers who honed their chops on YouTube before breaking into Hollywood. The platform allows them to flex their creative muscles without...

2024 has been an outstanding year for fresh and experimental horror. March saw the release of the possession tale of Late Night With The Devil, starring David Dastmalchian as a 70s late-night TV show host desperate to up his ratings by whatever means possible. Longlegs was one of the most highly anticipated horror films of the year and delivered on its promise to be a deliciously terrifying and original story. Ti Wests iconic X trilogy wrapped up with the release of Maxxxine in early July, with scream queen Mia Goth commanding the screen as ruthless movie star Maxine Minx.

Among these notably successful releases, an independently produced found footage film managed to make a name for itself despite a tiny budget and amateur production. Milk & Serial, a 62-minute-long film uploaded to YouTube in August of this year, has quickly become a standout in the lineup of 2024 horror releases. Its marketing...

Good horror films don't necessarily have to grace the silver screen or be backed with big names and a hefty budget. One particular horror gem can be found on the free streaming platform, YouTube, and only has an $800 budget, yet manages to create a truly grisly and gripping watch that will haunt your waking moments as well as sleep. Borne from the mind of Curry Barker, Milk & Serial is a 62-minute found footage film that gives us one of the creepiest insights into the mind of a killer. Short, jarring and wickedly fanatical, the movie boasts riveting performances, a twisty story and delightfully gruesome execution it deserves to be a must-watch on any horror buff's list.

Horror fans rejoice! The acclaimed Creep franchise by creators Mark Duplass and Patrick Brice is expanding this year with a television series thats set to debut on AMC+ and Shudder. Per Bloody Disgusting, The Creep Tapes will premiere its first two episodes on Friday, November 15, with the remaining four episodes dropping weekly thereafter. The duo debuted the first movie in their found footage saga in 2014 to much fanfare at the South by Southwest film festival, and it has since gone on to become a cult-classic thats lauded for offering a fresh take on the saturated sub-genre. 10 years later, Duplass says that bringing The Creep Tapes to life has been "a true nightmare come true."

"A little over 10 years ago, Patrick Brice and I spent a week together in my cabin with a small digital camera. We emerged with a found footage horror film that was so wildly strange and uncomfortable...

I’ve always found it curious how the Found Footage genre’s greatest weakness is also its greatest strength, with the same realistic formatting that allows for deeply immersive thrills also being responsible for the massive sea of low-effort cash-grabs that gives Pov filmmaking a bad name. That’s why it’s so hard for Found Footage flicks to stand out these days, as it can be hard for viewers to justify paying for what will likely be just another Paranormal Activity rip-off.

However, there are some clever filmmakers who have managed to circumvent this issue by making their movies available online for free, trusting that the quality of their work will eventually lead to more lucrative endeavors. And with Curry Barker’s surprisingly effective Milk & Serial going viral on YouTube, we’ve decided to make a list celebrating six other Found Footage flicks that you can check out on YouTube for free!

Horror is one of the most experimental genres out there, being used since its inception to push boundaries and terrify viewers in ways they never could have expected. It's been an essential medium for some of today's most important stories, and while movies and TV shows usually get the most acclaim, there's an online platform that is quickly becoming the best place to find horror's biggest stars: YouTube. Filled with petrifying shorts and beautifully produced long-form projects, this video-sharing website allows creators to distribute their projects free from the restrictions of big studios, with the best proof of the hub for dreadful excellence this platform has become being Milk & Serial. Directed and starring Curry Barker with his team at the YouTube channel, that's a bad idea, the film is a masterclass in found footage, creating a twisted story of pranks gone wrong and introducing fans to one of this era's most chilling villains.

Over the past couple years, Hollywood has realized something the internet’s known for years: YouTube is the home for indie horror. There is a veritable smorgasbord of short horror films posted across the platform, with some nabbing hundreds of thousands and even millions of views. And those films are helping YouTube creators like RackaRacka and Chris Stuckmann pave a path to the big screen.

The latest creator to join them is Curry Barker, whose 2023 horror short The Chair (5.5 million views) put him on the map, and whose latest project, a full-length, 62-minute found footage film called Milk & Serial, is turning him into a serious contender for top up-and-coming horror writer/director/actor/you-name-it-he’s-got-it.

Barker and his crew made Milk & Serial for $800. They all worked pro bono as the film’s cast of influencer-and-friends characters, so the production budget was used to compensate the one outside actor they hired.

Curry Barker’s horror Milk & Serial is the latest internet sensation, and a pretty darn good film too. We take a closer look.

While doomscrolling on your phone before bedtime in the last couple of weeks, you might have come across something called Milk & Serial. The film is currently enjoying some viral fame after being released on YouTube a few weeks ago. Directed by Curry Barker, the low-budget, 62-minute horror is frighteningly authentic and guaranteed to make you panic every time your friends pull a prank on you.

Barker is one half of the team behind the YouTube channel that’s a bad idea. Together with Cooper Tomlinson, the pair post sketch videos to both YouTube and TikTok. The pair also star in Milk & Serial, and Tomlinson is a producer on the project.

The film focuses on two YouTube creators with an affinity for pranks, but when...

A new microbudget horror movie titled Milk & Serial has gone viral on YouTube. Made by Curry Barker, Milk & Serial is a 62-minute-long horror movie whose plot centers around a group of YouTube pranksters who get wrapped up in a series of troubling events that grow in severity. The film was released for free on YouTube two weeks ago.

Now, that's a bad idea's Milk & Serial has become an unexpected viral hit. You can watch it below:

The film premiered on August 8, and was made by Barker alongside his comedy partner, Cooper Tomlinson. Tomlinson and Barker are also both producers and actors for the film. In just under three weeks on the platform, Milk & Serial has amassed over 388,000 views on YouTube. Even more remarkable is the fact that the found footage horror film was made for a microbudget of just $800. Tomlinson and Barker enlisted their friends to...

A do-it-yourself horror movie made for only $800 has seen great success online after being released for free on YouTube. The film, called “Milk & Serial,” was created by YouTube personality Curry Barker, who took on many roles such as writer, director and actor. In just two weeks, the 62-minute “found footage” style movie has been viewed over 348,000 times.

Barker spent most of the small $800 budget on hiring an actor and buying a camera. He also sold the camera later for a $100 profit. This brought the total cost close to being covered. Critics have praised how Barker was able to tell a full story and keep viewers interested with so little money.

The movie follows two YouTubers whose online pranks turn dangerous. It explores the dark side of always needing to make exciting videos. Viewers seem to connect with its realistic filming style and portrayal of questionable online content. Horror news...

Found-footage horror about YouTube pranksters turns into an online phenomenon, giving its star and creator a Hollywood inroad

2024 is already becoming something of a banner year for horror, with Longlegs making over $100m and Late Night with the Devil earning a whopping 97% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. And yet the breakout horror of the year might just be an $800 project currently available to watch free on YouTube.

Milk & Serial is a 62-minute, found-footage horror by YouTuber Curry Barker, and it manages to be at once ruthlessly effective and wonderfully authentic. Racking up 348,000 views in the two weeks since its release, its popularity has been supercharged by raves on Reddit that have since crossed over into traditional media. Bloody Disgusting called it “one of the year’s best-kept secrets” and this week Barker found himself being interviewed by no less than Variety.

The 60-minute found footage horror short Milk & Serial is making huge waves here in the horror community, already approaching half a million views since being uploaded just two weeks ago by the channel That’s a Bad Idea, an up-and-coming comedy duo made up of film-school-pals-turned-collaborators Curry Barker and Cooper Tomlinson.

The short film was made for just $800 and opted for a direct-to-YouTube release versus a more traditional release with a more traditional distributor, with the channel’s 600,000+ subscribers spreading it far and wide across the internet. Milk & Serial follows in the wake of the duo’s The Chair, a previous horror short that similarly went viral and passed 5 million views.

Needless to say, Barker and Tomlinson know what the hell they’re doing in the horror space. And in a chat with Variety this week, they tease that another horror movie is now in the works.

The title?...

Spoiler Alert: This article contains minor spoilers for “Milk & Serial,” now available to watch on YouTube.

Curry Barker has delivered the year’s most unlikely hit.

The filmmaker and comedian is the mastermind behind “Milk & Serial,” a 62-minute horror feature about YouTube pranksters who get caught up in some rapidly escalating crises that ideally aren’t spoiled in advance. Made for only $800, the film co-stars Barker and his comedy partner, Cooper Tomlinson, who is also a producer.

The duo mainly posts sketch videos to their TikTok and YouTube channels “that’s a bad idea,” while occasionally showcasing other projects, like Barker’s viral 2023 horror short “The Chair,” which has been watched on the latter more than 5.5 million times. After considering working with a distributor for “Milk & Serial,” Barker decided to drop the full movie on YouTube on Aug. 8. Since then, it’s been watched over 323,000 times (as of Aug.

If the commercial and critical success of horror films from Jordan Peele, Zach Cregger, and David Gordon Green in recent years illustrates anything, it’s that folks in the comedy biz can often serve up major doses of effective white-knuckle chills. With the buzz following the recently released trailer for “Saturday Night Live” alum Kyle Mooney’s upcoming Y2K, the Hollywood comedy-to-horror pipeline is clearly functioning in full force–and we’d happily welcome more from impassioned cross-genre creators like these.

Enter Milk & Serial, a found footage horror feature that premiered on YouTube this month courtesy of That’s a Bad Idea, an up-and-coming comedy duo made up of film-school-pals-turned-collaborators Curry Barker and Cooper Tomlinson.

Written/directed by Barker and produced by Tomlinson, Milk & Serial follows a well-known social media comedy team (played by Barker and Tomlinson) whose lives are thrown into a tailspin following a birthday prank intended for their channel.

We’re always paying attention to what’s trending here in the horror world, and this week we’ve seen more than a handful of mentions of The Chair, an award-winning short horror film.

Directed by Curry Barker, horror short The Chair is now available to watch over on YouTube (embed below), and now that we’ve seen it we’re not at all surprised that it’s making waves.

But what’s it about, you ask? In The Chair, “After Reese (Anthony Pavone) brings home an antique chair, a series of horrific events follow, leading him to question if it’s a malevolent spirit the chair possesses or the darkness inside his own mind.”

The 24-minute horror short is a total psychological mind fuck, with the mysterious chair altering everyone who steps foot inside Reese’s home. Full of jarring shifts into nightmare territory, The Chair effectively serves as...