The Sadness (2021)
a review by Evan Landon
Oh man... Where do I start with this one?
I guess I should start by stating that this is one the most extreme horror movies of our time. If the X-Rating was still around, it would definitely fall under that category. I am surprised they didn't even break out the oft used NC-17 for this gory masterpiece, but because it was made in Taiwan it earned a NR rating which means “Not Rated” which really isn't even a rating if you think about it. It's basically the existential version of a rating, but I'm not a big fan of rating systems anyways. Fuck it. Moving on.
The Sadness is a 2021 Taiwanese body horror film, although it almost could be compared to a zombie flick, directed by Canadian filmmaker Rob Jabbaz in his feature film debut. Yes, he is a Canadian, so it almost begs the question of how he was not able to make it there. It was screened in Switzerland and Canada before it was released to American audiences via Shudder. I am sure they will never show it on AMC even though they do own the Shudder application because they would probably only be able to show 5 minutes of it.
If this was made 40 or 50 years ago, this would definitely be in a drive-in theater or the back row of Blockbuster in the 90's which is not necessarily a bad thing. I mean, that is usually where I would find my faves, so I will actually give that a thumbs up where other critics would pan it. We hardly ever agree on anything though because I am not paid to change my opinions, nor which movie I want to talk about. Go huff a post, Dwight Brown.
I wont go into gritty details about the movie, but let's just say some of these events must be seen to fully understand how depraved they are. There is one scene that is notorious in our horror film Discord group (which is whom I watched this with over livestream for the first time) and if you don't have an awesome watch-a-long group yourself, I suggest you find one because it is some of the most fun you can have watching movies with others. Feel free to make your own and send me the usual invite. I might show up. Either way, if you ever look up what scene it is, you will see it is definitely the first one that comes up. If you know, you know!
I usually go on about plot lines, underlying tones, nuances, and shit like alliteration to really understand, but there really is not a whole lot of that. Never let story get in the way of a good movie!
At ninety-nine minutes, The Sadness is a little difficult to figure what the profit was against expenditure, but I am not as worried about that as I am that this movie may be banned everywhere sometime soon – so see it now before it's gone.
This one is NOT for the weak of stomach! That's the only warning I will give.
3 out of 5