The upcoming Taiwanese horror The Sadness already has critics already asking if it will be the most extreme movie of the last decade, as its recent red-band trailer showed multiple, gore-filled scenes that recall early Peter Jackson. The Sadness is tellingly the only film at Montreal's Fantasia Festival to accompany a trigger warning for attendees. The movie is the directorial debut of Canadian animator Rob Jabbaz and is currently set for an October release in the U.S.
The Sadness' premise is somewhat reminiscent of 28 Days Later and takes place in Taipei, which is coming out of a long period of lockdown following a pandemic. One day the city suddenly explodes in violence as people are infected with a virus that unleashes their most violent impulses, and the story follows a young couple named Kat and Jim as they try to find each other amidst the rising bloodshed.
The Sadness is shaping up to become the most extreme horror film of recent years. The gore featured in The Sadness' trailer would ordinarily be considered borderline comical, but with animator Jabazz at the helm, he certainly appears dead-set on pushing the envelope in terms of violence. In one clip, a man on the subway is stabbed in the neck with a switchblade, sending blood spraying over the other passengers. In another, a man's face is ripped apart as it dissolves in acid, a-la David Cronenberg's The Fly, highlighting the visceral extremes the Machi Xcelsior Studios production is prepared to go to in its apparent disregard for convention.
However, what makes The Sadness a contender for the most extreme horror movie of the decade is that it has substance to back up its depravity, making the gory chaos hit harder. The Sadness is pulling rave reviews from the small crop of western critics to have viewed the movie, with many praising the finesse of the film in driving forward a narrative that deals with pandemic ideologies in tandem with its shocking violence. The question, then, is which horror movies of the last ten years can hold a candle to The Sadness' apparent savagery?
Spiral is a contender, with Chris Rock and Samuel L. Jackson bringing a fresh twist to Saw's trap-based shock tactics. Don't Breathe 2 and its Blind Man will have its admirers after he enacts bloody, literally eye-popping revenge on the gang that kidnaps his adopted daughter. Other contenders include the upcoming Candyman reboot if it can capture the original's macabre energy, as well as Elijah Wood's Come To Daddy, which while comedic at times, also contains a deeply disturbing torture scene. It may be folly to try and state The Sadness will already be the most shocking movie of the decade, but until the full film arrives, it simply must be in the running based on the viscera in the trailer alone.