Horror-flick fans, here is another infectious zombie apocalypse (currently screening at the Locarno Film Festival) this time set in Taiwan. Introducing Director, Rob Jabbaz, a Canadian Filmmaker, and fellow Mississauga native, makes his official feature film directing debut and is making his rounds in the film festival circuit. If there’s one thing to learn about filmmakers making their first debut horror film, is that they will go all out with very edgy and controversial themes including gruesome gore, murder, mutilation, and rape. Rob Jabbaz’s ‘The Sadness’ is definitely one that did not hold back.
The film starts off with Jim (Berant Zhu) and Kat (Regina) in bed waking up in the morning arguing with each other on their conflicting work schedules to spend time with each other. After some light bickering, we transition to a quick news report on television about a deadly virus looming, called the ‘Alvin’ virus pandemic. Thereafter, Jim sees a mysterious old patient, just standing in an apartment rooftop with its back turned before briefly disappearing from Jim’s point of view.
At the beginning of the film, Jabbaz was able to put together an innocent-looking everyday couple going about their normal lives, making it appear to be a simple drama flick. Only thereafter, the news reporter on television reveals that there was a pandemic over the last year, called the ‘Alvin’ virus, that has been spreading across the nation, with relatively benign symptoms. The theme of the drama remains, but eventually, the genre begins to evolve, and things escalate quickly.
The ‘Alvin’ virus is a rapidly spreading pandemic in Taiwan, where it mutates humans into zombie-like characteristics. The spread of the virus has been happening for a year and news outlets have been keeping viewers updated that the symptoms were being controlled. However, in this film, the horror genre is introduced the moment we see the same mysterious old patient in a restaurant, who proceeds to attack and murder patrons, causing them to immediately return to life and begin the spread to others.
When the mind-altering plague takes over the individual’s brain, themes of murder, torture, mutilation, and rape are introduced by the zombies. Expect to see a never-ending plethora of gore and sexual violence on women that is carried out by the zombies, and a certain businessman, who was desperately trying to make a connection with women when he was human.
Mutilation scenes are not held back. The special FX team has really gone all out with the creation of mutilated body parts, face-ripping, eye gouging, and of course, tons and tons of blood. The cinematography shoots a few scenes where the roughly two-minute medium and wide shots of mutated zombies are simply just standing there, perhaps even staring at the camera, to let the audience absorb the horrific changes that has been made to that individual. And given that the fast-paced nature of the killings, these scenes are used in a transitional way to slow down the pace before it set ups the next batch of scenes to come.
Some real-life scenarios are carefully crafted and often creates a thought-provoking discussion of what humans have become today. There was a train scene where almost every rider was just riding the train and staring into their phones. The scene was set up for an older character, who brings up the issue of lack of human connection like in his old days, and todays society of being glued to the phone. Even some parts of the killing, there were shots of survivors just standing around and filming the killings, instead of being a Samaritan to help the suffering.
Much of the zombie apocalypse does take away from the main story developed between Jim and Kat’s relationship, but just know that it’s still there. They are the anchors of the developing chaos, which are shot in two different scenarios as they were separated during most of the film. This device allowed for more flexibility to show multiple situations of the spreading pandemic and to introduce some supporting characters to help move along the plot.
Full disclosure though. Yes, it is 2021, and it is completely understandable our society is progressing with current political and social views, that will spark some controversy when watching this film. So, if you are not comfortable with mutilation, rape, depiction of women and sexual violence, it is strongly advised that these themes persist throughout the film. But if you are a viewer that simply loves extreme horror and a gore-fest, them Rob Jabbaz’s ‘The Sadness’ may be for you.