Fantasia Review: Zombie Bloodbath ‘The Sadness’ Will Make You Cringe and Rejoice
Starring Regina, Berant Zhu, Tzu-Chiang Wang
Written by Rob Jabbaz
Directed by Rob Jabbaz
The Sadness isn’t a great title for a rage-fueled zombie orgy. This film is offensive and is more disgusting than it needs to be. But it’s not depressing. The name is a reference to what’s leftover after this movie ends: not much. The title itself is traumatized by what it’s just witnessed.
Two lovers (Regina and Zhu) suddenly find themselves separated in the midst of a virus that causes the infected to basically become rampaging hordes of cannibalistic, sex-crazed maniacs. From the start, The Sadness is, at its core, a chase movie set on the streets and subways of Taiwan. It’s a relentless onslaught of mayhem and bloody murder at a frantic pace. As a viewer watching it during its premiere at Fantasia International Film Fest, I was burning calories by the minute.
That makes sense because the most in-shape person in the film is Jim (Zhu). He’s constantly running for his life as a city full of infected chase him through the streets. Meanwhile, his girlfriend Kat (Regina) experiences her own horrors as she’s harassed on the subway by an unassuming but undeniably creepy businessman (Wang). An unwelcome advance on mass transit quickly becomes something much worse as all hell breaks loose in the subway car.
It’s from there that The Sadness devolves into total insanity. As Kat fights to outrun and survive the sheer chaos surrounding her, she becomes a witness to a society crumbling. She can’t believe what’s happening around her and neither can we.
Any attempt to rescue someone turns into a burden or a trap. The infected masses become the background for an inevitable showdown. Unleashing pure id onto an unsuspecting population, Rob Jabbaz’s first feature film isn’t afraid to show how everyday conflicts can turn into your worst nightmare.
Even the most hardcore horror fans may take issue with some of the abuse on display here. But there’s a sense of release watching this kind of explosive gore. It’s strangely cathartic and reminds us why we’re horror fans in the first place.
-
The Sadness
Summary
Depending on what kind of horror fan you are, The Sadness could be your new favorite zombie film.
