‘THE SADNESS’ Review – [FANTASIA 2021]

Five years ago, the East Asian zombie horror film Train to Busan brought something new to the already exhausted zombie genre thanks to AMC’s The Walking Dead. Train to Busan is the rock band that you spend more than $50 a ticket for. Taiwan’s The Sadness is the metal show that has a $10 cover which only encourages you to head to the bar and get a good buzz going and experience a show more real and visceral than the one you would’ve paid 5 times as much for at the door.

Simplistic at its narrative core, The Sadness follows our two main characters, Jim (Berant Zhu) and Kat (Regina Lei), a younger couple, who begin their day as Jim drops off Kat at the subway station for her work commute. By the time the audience gets through a rather tame (in comparison to the rest of the film) 15 minutes of small world establishment where a pandemic from a virus called the Alvin virus has mutated into a similar form of rabies, hell is unleashed. Jim sees an attack first-hand and how quickly it can spread. Simply put, the infection literally brings out the worst in people by acting out violently and in some cases perversely. Stabbing, mutilation, and overall depravity is the side effect. For comic book fans or fans of Garth Ennis, the infected in this film are very similar to the infected in Ennis’ Crossed. What may have been a shy person with internal thoughts where they get the pretty girl and everything works out to the benefit of that person gets magnified and twisted where that is their only drive, even if it means dehumanizing the subject of that person’s fantasies.

The film is somewhat unconventional in that once Jim and Kat are separated, the film flips back and forth in between their own individual segments. This benefits the storytelling by giving some slight reprieve and room to breathe between some very gnarly situations and gory set-pieces.

Director Rob Jabbaz, a Canadian filmmaker who landed in Taiwan, definitely shows no restraint and, I think it is safe to say, comments on when there is little control and prevention to a viral outbreak that people tend to eat each other alive. At times, this feels like a cautionary tale for Western countries, mainly America.

Obviously, the film was made during the pandemic as the echoes of what is happening on screen against what is happening in the world are very on the nose and, for some, it may feel a bit “too soon”. The virus in the film is essentially a fictionalized version of COVID-19 and some of the physical attributes mirror the social thinking of what most people are doing now even down to the politicizing of the virus instead of looking towards science.

This film is 100% not for the squeamish or anyone trepidatious about the content that lay within it. It is unapologetic, brutal, and pretty relentless. The Sadness is the latest and greatest example of modern transgressive cinema that will feel in line with Hong Kong Category III titles, mainly Herman Yau’s Ebola Syndrome (not a bad double feature recommendation if you wanted to test your limits). Rob Jabbaz’s debut feature definitely comes out swinging by evoking very visceral reactions, even for hardened horror fans, while commenting that the most frightening monsters can lie within the human form. While Taiwan isn’t really known for horror, this film is definitely going to make an impact with horror fans around the world and I think eyes will not overlook the country when it comes to the genre. For those that dare to venture a peek, The Sadness is ready to test your boundaries, break some taboos and possibly find its place as a highlight of recent horror cinema. Your sense of cinematic safety will be threatened.

Also, it has a killer end title track by the Taiwanese metal band, ASHEN. Here’s the track:

THE SADNESS will be released by Raven Banner Entertainment. Release Date is TBD.