This issue marks the beginning of our eighth year of printing, so it’s time to reflect. I could regale you with seven amusing years’ worth of stories about all the blunders we’ve made. But that’s kind of painful and this page doesn’t have enough room to tell them all. So let’s talk about our last […]

You all know Bruce McDonald right? Canada’s rock ‘n’ roll filmmaker. Director of Canadian classics like Highway 61, Hardcore Logo and last year’s The Tracey Fragments. His latest, Pontypool had its debut at the Toronto International Film Festival and it’s his first foray into genre films. It’s also the best horror film made by a […]

Every year the Midnight Madness program at the Toronto International Film Festival does an amazing job screening the sickest and most disturbing horror movies from around the world. Last year it was Inside and Frontier(s). Before that came sick gems like S&Man, Hostel, High Tension and Calvaire. This year it was Pascal Laugier’s Martyrs. The […]

Last year’s Halloween editor’s letter about the time I waterboarded a friend of mine for fun upset a few people. It was a joke, okay. No one at this magazine has ever drowned anyone and me and my friends don’t physically torture each other for fun. Emotionally? Well that’s a different story. So this year […]

I’m trying to get fatter. I’m not emaciated or anorexic or anything; I’m actually pretty normal sized. I just want to get fat so I can have a distinguished gut. To accomplish this I’ve started exclusively drinking Bakon, the bacon-infused vodka, and invented a new meal between brunch and lunch. I’ve also stopped lying about […]

Raif Adelberg’s body is covered in tattoos but the cutest is of a peanut on his palm. It’s there as a reminder to never to let things slip through his hands. Darker by comparison, he has the Charles Manson quote “I can never be in love. Because I am love,” tattooed on the inside of […]

Screw objectivity. Eli Roth is awesome. He’s almost singlehandedly responsible for reinvigorating the horror genre back in 2002 with Cabin Fever. Yes, his directorial debut was an entertaining, low-budget, gore and boobiefest. More importantly though, Cabin Fever was wickedly successful and let Hollywood studios know it was okay to make R-rated horror films again. Not […]

First issue of the most exciting year for ION yet! We have some awesome new staff. We have an awesome new look. We have an awesome new office. We have some awesome new mobile technology that’ll enhance your experience with the magazine. And now we have an awesome new website as well. Guess how this […]

In case you’re not the kind of person who pays really close attention to movies and follows the UK street art scene, there’s a really interesting case of life imitating art going on right now. In Alfonso Cuarón’s brilliant film Children of Men—about the worldwide chaos that ensues when the human race loses the ability […]

When you were 18 the only direction your life was heading was to the liquor store parking lot to try and convince prospective patrons to buy you some coolers. When Harmony Korine was 18 he already penned one of the most controversial American films ever made, Larry Clark’s, Kids. His directorial debut came shortly after […]

Marjane Satrapi experienced more by the time she was an early teen than most do in their whole lives. Born into a progressive middle-class family in Iran, when Marjane was nine the Islamic Revolution happened. Then a few years after that, war broke out between Iran and Iraq. Because she was an imaginative and outspoken […]

I’ll just come right out and admit that I’m a huge fanboy of Dario Argento. This man has given us so many demented, violent and beautiful films, that I put him up there with David Cronenberg. So when I was sifting through the descriptions for the 349 films screening at the Toronto International Film festival […]

You may not be aware but Bobcat Goldthwait, the guy with the funny voice from the Police Academy movies, doesn’t actually talk like that. You also may not be aware that he’s silently been chalking up an impressive list of director’s credits. Though some thought his 1992 directorial debut Shakes the Clown (aka the alcoholic […]

If you blinked at some point in the late ‘90s you might have missed it, but electronic dance music was cool for about a year. In January 1997, two Frenchmen in robot costumes, Daft Punk, released their groundbreaking debut, Homework. Though a decade old now, Homework hasn’t aged a day and it easily rivals the […]

“The guy who made Hellboy and Blade 2 made one of the best films of 2006.” It doesn’t exactly roll off your tongue with ease. However, after watching Guillermo del Toro’s Pan’s Labyrinth, you’ll find yourself forced to say it. But maybe this isn’t such a shocker. For years del Toro’s been living a dual […]