The Sadness  ★★★★

TAIWAN’S The Sadness is “the most violent and depraved horror movie ever made”, according to one horror magazine.

So that kind of review meant I was all in for This film which pretty much lives up to the hype.

Watching the film, which is set in Taipei, I was thinking this is a real oddity for mainstream Chinese cinema which, while entertaining, usually adopts either a didactic or non-controversial approach.

But you could also argue it’s once removed, being a product partly of Taiwan and is directed by a Canadian, Rob Jabbaz, in his feature debut.

As horror movies go, this one ranks pretty high in the gore stakes but it also has a nasty edge to the story and presentation of many scenes.

Set in Taipei City it follows a young couple trying to survive a pandemic that causes violent sexual behaviour.

Why sex is involved is explained in the third act of the film but still didn’t make a lot of sense to me.

It leads to some truly gruesome stuff with two women in particular being stalked by a rabid bloke who is intent on raping and mutilating them.

The Sadness can be construed as an obvious commentary on the debate over why and how to deal with the Covid outbreak, but it’s slight to say the most.

Mainly this is a pure, blood-and-guts horror that takes time to establish characters and set-ups before exploding into full-throttle mayhem.

A few years ago we had the fantastic Korean film Train to Busan featuring fast zombies wreaking havoc on a passenger train.

The Sadness features a signature sequence on a train that will go down in modern horror cinema history for its bloody quota.

Expertly made and full of tension, this is one of those films you can’t miss a minute of.

But even horror fans should be aware that this one is up there with the goriest of extreme Korean and French cinema.