When the pandemic hit the world, genre fans knew it would only be a matter of time until pandemic-themed horror films would be a dime a dozen. Starting with Nathan Crooker’s Isolation and Rob Savage’s Host, the quarantine-horror subgenre indeed skyrocketed into the genre’s zeitgeist. Surprisingly, most of these films dealt with the themes of isolation and germaphobia, and zombie films didn’t necessarily make the comeback it was poised to make. That’s until Rob Jabbaz burst onto the scene. Until The Sadness, I have never seen Shudder provide a content warning before a film–this is the perfect film for a content warning.
A Blood-Soaked Descent into Madness
The Sadness pits a couple, Jim (Berant Zhu) and Kat (Regina Lei), in a race against time to regroup as a rage virus viciously tackles Tawain (and the world). After dropping Kat off at work, Jim takes his time going home and stops at a cafe for a cup of coffee. The cafe worker drizzles himself with scalding hot fryer oil, and it’s off to the races from there. Kat soon finds herself helping a fellow commuter after an especially harrowing subway ride, as they are tailed by an infected businessman with an extraordinary taste for blood.
There’s no question about it: The Sadness is unapologetically violent and mean, it’s visceral and offputting. My first watch of this film, when it was released on Shudder, took almost three and a half hours because my stomach could not handle the hyperrealistic blood and violence. The overwhelming majority of The Sadness is practical and adds to the surreal authenticity of the chaos. If you have a friend who says they can watch any film, no matter how gory or violent it is, then The Sadness would be a fantastic litmus test for that.
We have umbrellas stabbing eyes, throat slits, cock and ball torture, hundreds of stabbings, de-fingerings, mouth grenades, and so much more. Each scene of violence acts as a warmup for the next scene of violence, trying to best itself in each latter scene. 99 minutes go by in the blink of an eye if you can stomach the film in one sitting.
The Alvin Virus and the Horrors of Humanity
The virus in the film is called the Alvin Virus, and while it doesn’t follow a COVID-type virus, it does produce some of the effects we’ve seen from COVID. While this is to a lesser extent, I remember going to the grocery store in the third or fourth week of lockdown and watching a 20-year-old man ram an elderly woman with his cart in order to get the final pack of toilet paper. The message behind The Sadness is more of a take it or leave it message. If you want to read into this film, you’ll find social commentary strewn about. But if you want to watch a bloody-as-hell flick, then you won’t be too upset by the barebones story.
Is this a zombie film? Are people infected by rage viruses considered zombies? I consider rage-virus films zombie films, and that will probably upset some die-hard zombie fans. To me, rage-virus zombies are much more frightening because they still have some level of consciousness for their semi-cognitive actions. The Alvin Virus, kind of like the virus in Joe Lynch’s Mayhem or Vittorio Rambaldi’s Primal Rage, takes away all inhibitions from the brain of the host and allows them to act on their most violent tendencies.
The Sadness Pushes Boundaries
There are some critics, and moviegoers, who have chastised the film for its use of sexual assault. And while I would prefer not to see sexual assault in film (besides the fact that it’s been played out and is completely overused as plot devices), it fits the type of virus the Alvin Virus is.
Do you want to watch a film where the phrase “getting head” means something much more sinister? Or what about a film that traps commuters on a train with a growing number of ravenous killers? What if I said, “zombie baby”?
As a film viewer, I seek out films that push boundaries, films that step out from the shadow of others within their subgenre to be transgressive and different. As stated in the title of this review, The Sadness is no frills, all thrills. With wall-to-wall action and thousands of gallons of blood, this film is truly a top contender for one of the goriest movies ever made.
You can stream The Sadness on Shudder.
