The Sadness: Not Technically a Zombie Movie, But Gory Enough For Greatness

By Thom Ernst

Rating: A-minus

A zombie purist might argue that The Sadness, a first feature film from director Rob Jabbaz, is not a zombie movie. The flesh-eating creatures in The Sadness can talk, they can reason—with the acidic wit of a movie-verse psychopath—and they can move without the staggering death walk. 

Oh—and important point—they aren't dead. I'm not a purist, but I think being dead is a significant qualifier for zombie status. It’s not that labeling The Sadness as a zombie movie is necessarily wrong, but it’s like calling Attack of the Giant Leeches (1959) a vampire movie—same bite, different teeth. 

But the distinction between zombies and anything else is likely to concern only those who take their zombie facts straight-up. Others, less restricted by the zombie playbook, might be more prone to profiling based on “if it eats, walks, and talks like a duck then it’s a duck.” 

But be it zombie, psycho or duck, if I were caught up in a game of ''would you rather'' and the question was ''be attacked by zombies or attacked by the virus-infected deviants from The Sadness,'' I would, without hesitation, choose zombies.  Whatever they’re called, those things are vicious. 

Granted, there is not much new life to breathe into the zombie or zombie-like genre, so maybe the only option is to crank up the gruesome. 

It's not easy one-upping the bloodletting of a genre that's been with us since the ‘60s (‘30s if you're going to count Bela Lugosi's White Zombie (1932), but why would you?_—not without defaulting to cannibal Holocaust-like shock cinema. 

Not that The Sadness straddles any redeeming line between decency and exploitation; to make such a claim would be to sell the film short. The Sadness is quick to sink neck-deep into extremes. Sure, a few punches are pulled, but mostly, it's 99 minutes of solid round-house kicks to the jaw. 

So, what salvages The Sadness from the direct to Tubi horror bin? Mostly, it's director Rob Jabbaz, originally from Mississauga, Ontario (Go Canucks!) who now lives in Taiwan.

The Sadness is Jabbaz's first film since 2014. And out of five films, it's his first feature and second live-action. 

I can’t comment on Jabbaz’s trajectory without the benefit of seeing his previous films. Perhaps he has always effectively couched violence in an uneasy tension so that when things do explode it feels as if the extremes aren’t just plausible, they’re earned.

There are several well-placed set pieces in the movie—a hospital waiting room, a subway, a local diner—each methodically allowing the inevitable to unfold with genuine nail-biting suspense—think Brian DePalma in his prime. 

The action in The Sadness is divvied between Kat (Regina Lei) and Jim (Berant Zhu) a young couple who are at opposite ends of the city when a virus strikes, turning its hosts into ravaging sadists bent on torture, murder, and sexual violence.  While Jim battles through an infested village to reach Kat, Kat is relentlessly pursued by a solicitous businessman (Tzu-Chiang Wang). 

The threshold for some viewers might be the sexual violence—of which both male and female fall victim—particularly a scene that depicts an atrocity that was harrowing enough when merely described by Jack Nicholson in The Last Detail (1973).  But those who can stomach such things might find it no more unsettling than the sexual bug that infected a suburban high-rise in David Cronenberg’s Shivers (1975).  Nah! I’m kidding. The Sadness a lot more unsettling than anything in Shivers.   

The Sadness is good. Not just genre-specific good, but cinema good. And even when it arrives at the inevitable ‘who are the real monsters’ scene, The Sadness still has bite. 

For all its bone snapping, eye-gouging, face in the deep-fryer gore, The Sadness doesn't skimp on action, and suspense. Humour too, but maybe that's just me.  

The Sadness is directed by Rob Jabbaz and stars Regina Lei, Berant Zhu and Tzu-Chiang Wang. The Sadness is available in select theatres April 29 and April 30.