Each October, the Unsung Horrors podcast does a month of themed movies. This year, they will once again host a fundraiser for Best Friends, which works to save the lives of cats and dogs across America, giving pets second chances and providing them with happy homes.
Today’s theme: Taiwan
About the Author: Parker Simpson is a writer and podcaster focusing on cult films and their social impacts. They currently cohost Where Is My Mind, a podcast focusing on underappreciated films from a variety of genres and countries. They have also held panels, chartered local organizations, and written articles to their blog. When not writing or studying, they like to spend time with their pets and go outside. Check out the podcast Linktree and blog.
I like daring movies to shock me just as much as I like watching people react to shocking things I know I can handle. It’s not often something makes me clutch my pearls even the tiniest bit, but here we are…
The Sadness is a little zombie movie that tackles an event still very fresh in our minds: the COVID-19 pandemic. Following a young couple trying to unite amidst a disease outbreak, the general public slowly become inconsolable monsters as more and more violence breaks out and the viewer is slowly pushed to their limits.
I think it’s universally recognized that violence changes people and can convert them to monsters. Mixed with mass hysteria and paranoia, you get a recipe for disaster. That’s what 2020 turned out to be, between the pandemic, election cycle, increased social unrest, and economic downturn. So as far as how graphic The Sadness gets, I fully get it and even support it. It’s a brutal watch and one of the more violent films I’ve seen in recent memory, and given how recent it is in the climate it was made in, I have to respect it.
Violence then begs the question, when is it too much? Is there a line that should be drawn? Where? For me, that’s unnecessary sexual violence. I’m not against it entirely, because it’s a very real thing that impacts millions of people every day. Here though… it did kill the movie a bit for me. It felt like it wanted to top itself at every opportunity. When violence corrupts the populace, how much sexual assault involving unconventional body parts do we need? Can it stop at men making lewd comments on the subway or having unsavory phone backgrounds? They’re like that anyways, do we need to make them rapey zombies to drive home its point? It’s this excess that prevents me from liking this film more. Even when not sexual, there are moments where I just went “come on!” knowing specific details were there only to shock me. The reveal in the laboratory involving the babies is a good example of this – it’s vile and disturbing for obvious reasons, but it’s not really warranted. It’s just there to piss you off without much else going for it. If I want a well made movie where the violence drives home its point effectively, I’ll reach for I Saw The Devil or Natural Born Killers. If I want disease induced paranoia, I have The Crazies. There are better alternatives to whatever this is.
Outside of my prudish complaints, I still generally did like The Sadness. There’s no denying it looks great (as sickly as it’s colored) and the two main leads carry the film as young lovers trying to reunite amidst the chaos – I especially liked Regina Lei’s performance and her shared storyline with another injured woman (I am so glad she got her revenge on subway dude). The actual zombies are great and unlike anything I’ve personally seen, their soulless black eyes penetrating the viewers’ before committing previously discussed acts of violence. Sometimes the violence can be funny; the television sequence is a good example of this. Finally, the ending creeps up on you and doesn’t feel particularly climatic, but there’s a kind of catharsis that comes with that, as the male lead gets into the heads of the horde. I would rewatch the movie just for that scene alone.
The Sadness would benefit from some antipsychotics. It wants to continually out do itself to its own detriment, defeating the purpose of shock value by never giving the audience a break. That in mind, it is incredible something so ballsy came out within the decade and commented on such a fresh event – the public is still lukewarm at best to COVID/disease themed projects (looking at you, Eddington), with most usually reacting as if salt has been poured into a gash. The audacity warrants respect, even if it is some sort of recency bias. If the shock had more substance, perhaps this would work even better.
