We are not going to tell stories: The Sadness by Robert Jabbaz is not to be put before everyone’s eyes. This Taiwanese zombie film, which caused a scandal at the Gérardmer Festival, did not steal its ban on children under 16! Not only is it gorissime but it presents the living dead whose overflowing libido presents sequences to be reserved for the well-tempered souls.
“Imagine a kind of inner rage that would not stop growing in your mind, until one day, a virus appears that allows you to let everything out, and allows you to satisfy all your unacknowledged urges”, explains the director in the press kit. That’s what the movie’s zombies do when hit by a mysterious virus.
Sex freaks and sadists
We are far from Night of the Living Deadof 28 days laterof Last train to Busan or series walking dead that The Sadness would pass for bluettes! Here, the creatures take sadistic pleasure in committing their crimes. Their laughing air is well made to haunt the nightmares of the viewer flabbergasted by so much violence. Fans of extreme cinema will, on the other hand, be at the party, discovering sexual orgies, mutilations of all kinds and gastronomy based on more or less appetizing victims. The whole thing quickly turned into a farce with its excesses and macabre sense of humor.
Charged with the frustrations of an ill-at-ease population who suddenly let go against the backdrop of a pandemic, The Sadness is not intended to be lighthearted. Its furious madness makes it an intense work as well as an extraordinary cinematic experience.