The big news for cult film fanatics is that the Midnight Madness sidebar event at the Toronto International Film Festival will premiere the newest films from two heavyweight filmmakers. The incredibly prolific Takashi Miike will present his newest film Sukiyaki Western Django, while Dario Argento will show Mother of Tears. Because the Toronto Film Festival is one of the major film festivals held in North America, reception of these two films will determine the extent of theatrical distribution not only in the U.S., but internationally. The still is of Miike, standing at the left, with his cast.

Miike’s film actually takes place in 12th Century Japan, so it will be interesting to see how he reworks the spaghetti western hero personified by Franco Nero over thirty years ago. The film has an an official website you might want to check out. Miike is probably best known to western audiences for his film Audition and his banned contribution to the Masters of Horror series, Imprint.

Dario Argento has contributed twice to the Masters of Horror series. His fans are hoping his newest film gets a decent theatrical distribution which now seems more likely with the Toronto premiere which is a month earlier than the originally planned screening at the Rome Film Festival. One hopes that this new film is as good as the first film of the Three Mothers trilogy, Suspiria, although Inferno did have its moments. We will share more news when the TIFF takes place in September.