The film is awash in blood, gore, and complete savagery. The new Taiwanese horror film is partly inspired by the Crossed comic book series and tells a story that some may find too relevant for their liking. The film invites viewers into a city that is in the midst of recovering from a Pandemic, one that many of its citizens have grown tired of worrying about.
The lives of many of the characters in The Sadness have returned to normal by the time the film begins, despite the fact that there is a chance that the virus could change in dangerous ways. Considering that The Sadness is a full-blooded horror film, it shouldn't be considered a betrayal to say that the scientists were correct in their predictions. It takes less than 20 minutes for The Sadness to start throwing its fictional reality into complete and utter chaos.
The film is about a young Taiwanese couple who get separated just before the blood hits the fan. The narrative of The Sadness focuses on Jim and Kat's attempts to get back together in a world that is coming apart. If they are going to be together, they are going to have to survive several terrifying encounters with the humans that have been bitten by the fictional virus.
Most horror movie viewers think that The Sadness are just another form of zombies. In The Sadness, the zombies are crazed, but sentient and intelligent, and are driven to carry out as much sexual and physical violence against their fellow citizens as they can. They are capable of running and speaking, which makes their all-consuming cruelty that much more difficult to watch.
Jim and Kat are forced to fight for their lives against mobs of maniacs in a number of difficult situations throughout The Sadness. The first real horror sequence kicks into high gear just a few moments before the film's set pieces, and it's clear that Jabbaz is capable of quickly and effectively ramping up tension-screen.
The scene in question is set up by having an old woman walk barefoot into a packed restaurant. The tension builds by cutting back and forth from shots of the restaurant's oil fryers bubbling behind the counter to shots of nearby pedestrians as they begin to notice the woman's presence. The scene is then thrown into chaos by the film maker revealing the woman's black eyes and having her dump hot oil on the worker. She used her bare hands to peel off his burning skin.
The film is one of the most violent and grotesque horror movies of recent memory, and it feels like as good of a time as any to say that. The film pushes its violence to extremes that will likely be too far for most people to accept, and there are times when it feels like The Sadness is the bloodiest horror movie that has been released since 2019.
The film's over-the-top violence makes it hard to shake the manic energy and visual madness of The Sadness. Many of the best set pieces and scenes in The Sadness are built around a level of emotional reality that keeps the film from becoming too absurd. There are times when The Sadness fails to ride the line between gore and comic violence.
One sequence in the film's back half feels unnecessarily grotesque and mean-spirited in a way that the rest of The Sadness doesn't. It's hard not to notice how many of the film's most violent scenes involve men. There are times when it feels like the writer-director has lost his sense of direction and control when he tries to say something about the toxicity of everyday misogyny.
The stabs at social commentary are similar. A writer who is capable of bringing real-life situations and conversations to life on-screen with sometimes cringeworthy accuracy is Jabbaz. During one uncomfortable moment early on in The Sadness, when Lei's Kat finds herself stuck in an uncomfortable conversation with an older man, that's how it is. However, he is not as successful in creating a cohesive social statement.
The Sadness was not going to be remembered for its message or themes. Some of the images in the film may end up in the minds of viewers for many years to come, as the film is a grotesque and gonzo horror experience. As a directorial debut, it announces a horror filmmaker who is worth keeping an eye on.
The fact that he doesn't say much in The Sadness doesn't really matter. The film is effective in a way that few horror movies can be.
Shudder will show The Sadness on May 12.
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