'The Sadness' (2021)


I don't know what it is with me... I've got a 'Shudder' subscription but I only ever seem to find out what's on it via Youtube adverts. I feel like I should be paying more attention to 'Shudder' but anyway... It won't surprise you to learn then that the first I heard of 'The Sadness' was via a Youtube advert ;o)

You know me though, if there's word of a zombie movie that I haven't watched, the odds are that it won't remain unwatched for long. And that's exactly what I ended up doing with 'The Sadness Last Night'.

A young couple trying to reunite amid a city ravaged by a plague that turns its victims into deranged, bloodthirsty sadists.

First up... I hate being that guy who gets all precious about definitions but here I am :o) 'The Sadness' isn't a zombie movie, it just isn't. I don't mind whether zombies shamble or run but I'm afraid that I do have to insist on them being dead; that's the whole point of zombies. The infected in 'The Sadness' are just that and the thing is, there's no need for the movie to call them anything else, not when 'The Sadness' is as good as it is. Because it is.

'The Sadness' is a manic, headlong rush into a city that's suddenly full of people eager to fulfil all those nasty little fantasies that you never admit to. And it just doesn't stop, not until there are literally no more people left alive. Seriously...

There's an engaging sub-plot about a young couple trying to find each other, amongst the madness, and there's also some commentary about the government's reaction to the outbreak in an election year (and where have we seen that before?) What it's really all about though is more blood in an hour and a half than there was in three seasons of 'Ash vs Evil Dead' and thinking to yourself, is that guy's head really going to explode? Yes, yes it does.

It is worth going into this one pre-warned though... 'The Sadness' is all about freedom from inhibitions and takes this to 'Crossed' levels of violence and general depravity. Consider this your content warning then for sexual assault and a high level of physical violence throughout. And infected babies as well. You don't see too much of them but they're there and that was almost my limit. I would have probably turned it off but there was only something like fifteen minutes left and I thought that I may as well stick with it.

'The Sadness' doesn't hold back at all (the fact that it's all people that you could bump into in town etc really makes you stop and think) and if that's not you then I'd probably give this film a miss. If you can sit through all that though, 'The Sadness' is worth the effort. Plenty of gore and plenty to say for itself. They're still not zombies though... ;o)

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