Directed by Rob Jabbaz
WARNING: THIS REVIEW CONTAINS REFERENCES TO SEXUAL VIOLENCE.
Zombie week continues here with our second day and we’re tackling another modern take on the classic genre. The Sadness came out a few years ago, and if you missed it at the time, then you probably didn’t hear the buzz surrounding it. Supposedly, The Sadness was the most violent and shocking zombie movie, perhaps ever made, which is a bold claim that would probably be impossible to verify given just how many zombie movies have come out and continue to come out, but I am an avid watcher of shocking cinema and wanted to give this a chance. Let’s get into the good, the bad, and the ugly with The Sadness!
The Sadness starts off in an apartment in Taiwan where a young couple is struggling to make their work schedules match up for a vacation, in a scene that is sadly relatable. This quickly becomes much less of a concern when a mysterious illness throughout the country seems to begin transforming people into maniacs intent on enacting their darkest and most violent desires on the people around them. With his girlfriend on the way to work at the hospital and their communications cut, our heroes must reunite and try to find their way away from the monstrous hordes.
Usually, my story descriptions are kind of vague. I don’t want to be throwing around plot points willy nilly and taking away the surprise, but this time the story really is as simple as all that sounds. That’s not a criticism, just an observation, and it isn’t even that uncommon for zombie movies, which tend to have extremely simple plots so they can focus on more important things like gore, social commentary, and character drama. Fortunately for The Sadness, it has a lot of all of those things. What may not be as fortunate for viewers is how excessively bleak it all feels.
A common comparison of The Sadness is the comic book series Crossed. If you know about Crossed, then your whole body just shuddered, and if you don’t know about Crossed, then I envy your innocence. Like in Crossed, the ‘zombies’ in The Sadness are not traditional zombies, they act more like completely unhinged people who can communicate, plan, and are interested in more things than just murder. If I’ve been too subtle, then let me be blunt and say the zombies have sexual appetites that are often indulged in. It is horrific and grotesque and not just one shocking scene but a repeated aspect of the film.
While it would be easy to say it’s just for shock value, the reality of why this is included is much more unpleasant. The satire of The Sadness seems to be in line with some of the harsher zombie cinema, showing these monsters not as aberrations of humanity but as humanity unleashed from societal restraints, in this particular way and in other ways. It’s not the newest use of zombies in a satirical fashion, but considering that one of the most dangerous and persistent zombie threats is introduced as a man bothering a woman reading on a subway ride and then complaining that he was just ‘being nice’, this still hits home.
Apart from the shock aspects, The Sadness is well made. I’m a big fan of the practical effects, they’re certainly disgusting and shocking, and while I was surprised by the dark comedy in the movie, it works better than I expected. While the subject matter was quite difficult the pace was brisk and action moved quite quickly, pair that with the unique setting of a city and surrounding countryside in Taiwan, this is an effective and punchy horror movie. But who could you recommend it to?