While writing about Deadgirl last week, I mentioned how much I valued 'zines while growing up. Infiltration was at the top of the list, as were a slew of punk, goth, and horror 'zines from around Toronto and Montreal whose titles I can't even remember. It made growing up in the barren winterland of Northern Ontario a slightly less isolating experience. One of the 'zines I wish I'd known about at the time was The Trash Compactor. It was a genre film fan's dream come true --  entire issues dedicated  to Blaxploitation, Russ Meyer, Japanese Monsters, Sick Fuck flicks -- all wrapped up with amazing graphics, great ads, and Mamie Van Doren cameos. Among its editors was Hal Kelly, who shared some Midnight Madness memories with us last week. The Trash Compactor also featured some of cartoonist Seth's earliest work.

So as I was flipping through the September 1988 issue, I came across a quick writeup promoting the first year of Midnight Madness, back when TIFF was known as the Festival of Festivals. Have a look:

Once again Toronto's Festival of Festivals is hosting a program of oddball flicks (remember FRANKENSTEIN ON CAMPUS from a few years back?) intended to complement the highbrow celluloid of FAR NORTH, the directorial debut of Sam Shepard and the fifty film Soviet retrospective.

Sponsored by Metropolis Newspaper, the Midnight Madness program will take place during this year's Festival at the Bloor Cinema. Running for seven of the Festival's ten nights (Friday, September 9th to Sunday the 11th and then resuming Wednesday through to Saturday the 17th), the series features the Canadian theatrical debut of Frank BASKET CASE Henenlotter's BRAIN DAMAGE as well as HELLBOUND: HELLRAISER II. Since the Festival has received a blanket waiver from the Censor Board, BRAIN DAMAGE should differ considerably from the Norstar video release currently available to Ontarians.

Other treats include Penelope Spheeris' sequel to her punk documentary DECLINE OF WESTERN CIVILIZATION entitled THE METAL YEARS. BIG TIME is the film version of Tom Waits' stage production of "Frank's Wild Years." It stars Waits and is directed by Chris Blum. There's also BRAND NEW DAY, a full length document of The Eurythmics Japanese "Revenge" tour.

On the sexual side, we've got HEAVY PETTING, a relentless collage of 1950s school and beach blanket films, sex education movies, commercials and government propaganda documentaries intercut with persoanl and sexual recollections from the likes of William Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg. Lothar Lambert's FORBIDDEN TO FORBID examines the closing of a Berlin peep show in a series of eight episodic sketches.

Finally, director Ray Boseley's SMOKE 'EM IF YOU GOT 'EM is described as a jet black comedy concerning a raging post-apocalyptic party in which everybody literally bops till they drop.

This year's Festival runs from Sept. 8-17.