[Film Review] The Sadness (2021)

TW: sexual assault

Hitting a surprisingly mainstream audience with a wildly extreme film, Rob Jabbaz’s debut The Sadness is a cluster fuck of deviance and gore with a satirical and mean wink toward incel and r/niceguy culture. The Sadness escalates the brutality of human nature and gives a much-needed shot in the arm to the bloated zombie subgenre.

An unexplained outbreak in Taiwan causes citizens to indulge in their basest impulses, incapable of wiping shit-eating grins off their faces as they bludgeon, bite, torture, and rape their way through the uninfected. As the disease is transmitted, victims become predators, and the cycle continues until death consumes thousands. 

Before the chaos, we meet impossibly sweet Jim (Berant Zhu) and his girlfriend Kat (Regina Lei) and are allowed the briefest glimpse into their relationship, with Jim as a struggling creative and Kat a young professional. They separate at the train station in the morning, and in no time, pure chaos is unleashed.

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The disease, as loosely explained later in the film, attacks the limbic system, the center of violent and sexual urges, causing overstimulation and uncontrollable urges like an itch that can’t be scratched until blood is spilled. To be honest, the how or why isn’t a real focus in the film. The uniqueness comes not from any deep substance, but from a wealth of style. The practical effects give the film a realistic feel that turns the stomach and excites those horror fans seeking out visually stunning depravity.  

As Jim fights his way to Kat, he is accosted by wandering “zombies,” if that’s the right word, as those who die seem to stay dead – at least those whose faces are bashed to pulp. Jim seems to attract the infected merely because he is uninfected. Kat, on the other hand, is trapped in a train with rabid masses, but more than that, she is homed in on by an older man who harassed her even before infection. There is a highly uncomfortable narrative that follows Kat. The man is angered by Kat’s rejection, and though he is eventually overtaken by the disease, it’s obvious his violent rage was simmering the whole time, waiting to be unleashed, to be given the go-ahead. And there’s not a woman alive who hasn’t had a run-in with a man like that.  

This bleak and vulgar film is a welcomed addition to the extreme iceberg. And with that, it must be said, A Serbian Film walked amongst hyper-sexual violent commentary on Serbian politics so that The Sadness could run onto the front page of Shudder. Both films are dripping in excess, overwhelming the viewer with with horrific sexual violence and savagery, with a thinly veiled message beneath the gallons of semen and blood. There is sexual assault of every kind, including that of the eye hole variety, torture of every body part, biting, stabbing, innards on the outside, and even some questionable choices with babies. The Sadness is a romp that’s not for everyone, but it is a challenging movie with a feral sense of humor that excites, sickens, and infuriates all at once. 

Rating based on extremity!

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