TORONTO - Diablo Cody's high school horror film "Jennifer's Body" and a documentary about the White Stripes' 2007 cross-Canada tour are among the films that will make their world premiere at this year's Toronto International Film Festival.
Festival organizers say the "Midnight Madness" program -- dedicated to off-beat and horror fare -- will be kicked off by the latest script from "Juno" screenwriter Cody, who rocketed to an Oscar win after debuting her quirky high school comedy at TIFF in 2007.
In "Jennifer's Body," directed by Karyn Kusama, Megan Fox stars as a stuck-up small town student who is possessed by a hungry demon and turns into a pale and sickly creature with an insatiable appetite.
Other films in the late-night program include the Ethan Hawke sci-fi vehicle "Daybreakers," about a future world populated by vampires, and "George A. Romero's Survival of the Dead," in which the master director chronicles two feuding clans in the aftermath of a zombie epidemic.
"Bloody proms and zombies seem to pop up as main themes, but I've made sure to inject some truly bizarre action into the mix with animated plastic toys from Belgium and Russ Meyer-inspired fighting femme fatales," programmer Colin Geddes said Tuesday in a release.
The documentary slate will be anchored by Emmett Malloy's "The White Stripes Under Great White Northern Lights," which chronicled the rock band's extensive Canadian tour. The tour included surprise gigs at unusual locales including a Saskatoon bowling alley and a Winnipeg city bus.
TIFF will also screen the documentary "Good Hair," in which comedian Chris Rock examines African American hair culture, Mehran Tamadon's examination of extremist Islam in Iran in "Bassidji," and Chris Smith's portrait of radical thinker Michael Ruppert in "Collapse," in which Ruppert outlines his apocalyptic vision of the future.
The festival will also introduce two new people's choice awards, recognizing the most popular documentary and Midnight Madness film.
The festival's Wavelengths program, which focuses on avant-garde and experimental movies, will showcase Klaus Lutz's "Titan," avant-garde artist Ernie Gehr's "Waterfront Follies," and Canadian Michael Snow's "Puccini Conservato," which was commissioned by the Lucca Film Festival for the 150th anniversary of the composer's birth.
The film festival runs Sept. 10 to 19. It opens with "Creation," a biopic about Charles Darwin directed by Jon Amiel.
