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| Images courtesy of Shudder |
To the seasoned horror fan, it might feel like every iteration of a zombie apocalypse film has already been done. From the fast zombies of 28 Days Later to the laughable ones of Shaun of the Dead, the genre may seem oversaturated to some. Nevertheless, there’s fresh territory to still explore in that realm, and no film has done it quite as cleverly in recent years as French director David Moreau’s new horror film MadS. It garnered some attention on the film festival circuit and for good reason: the film’s hyperkinetic energy and bold vision are as intoxicating as the drugs its main characters take.
The film wastes no time establishing its fast pace. From the opening shots, audiences know they’re in for a ride. Romain (Milton Riche) is a recent high school grad looking for a good time who buys a brand-new drug on the market from his dealer before a party. On his way home, he encounters an injured woman covered in bandages who begs for his help. Romain hesitantly agrees to take her into town, and realizes that’s a big mistake when she starts violently bashing her head against his dashboard. Now with an apparent dead body on his hands but ever the party animal, the distressed teen decides to drop the corpse off at home and heads over to the party with his friends. Returning home and feeling a bit “off,” he knows he has a big problem to deal with, but it’s not the one that he expected: the seemingly dead woman is gone, his condition is worsening, and there are mysterious people in gas masks wandering his subdivision opening fire.
MadS only gets madder from there, but part of the appeal is that the story unravels with the viewer not knowing what to expect next. This is achieved for the most part by the fact that it’s shot in a single continuous take, which gives the tightly taut film a disorienting frenzy about it that not only mirrors the mentality of the main characters in their drug-induced haze, but also has a brilliant, unnerving way of tethering audiences to certain characters, only able to learn what they see in the moment and nothing else.
Another successful aspect of this approach is how fluidly the protagonist changes throughout the film with this single-take camerawork. With each new person the viewer’s forced to follow, the story becomes a bit less hazy, but this is a film where the less that is shown here, the more effective it is, allowing the imagination to do the rest. The sense of confusion that’s forced upon the viewer is its strength rather than a weakness. Romaine’s girlfriend Julia (Lucille Guillaume) takes center stage midway through the film, and upon learning more about her situation, the grimmer the story pans out and the more uncomfortable this continuous take becomes.
The pacing of MadS is also wonderfully appropriate for this style of film. The film does not waste a single scene; glance away for a moment and miss something. It’s the polar opposite of a passive watch, where the audience is completely immersed and invested in a way that most films aren’t able to accomplish. Clocking in at under 90 minutes, it makes every minute count, and makes each one tenser than the last.
Disturbing and surreal, MadS is not just another zombie film. It has a personality all its own and should be a must-watch for any zombie lover who feels like they’ve “seen it all.” Check it out on Shudder today. It’s a wild ride, and it’s worth it.