Dragging extreme cinema screaming into the post-pandemic age, Rob Jabbaz’s controversial and incredibly gory The Sadness burst onto the genre scene at the tail-end of the COVID epidemic, winning the New Flesh Award for Best First Feature at the Fantasia International Film Festival.

When a deadly virus spontaneously mutates in Taiwan it suddenly gives rise to a fast-acting, mind-altering plague. The streets erupt into violence and depravity, as those infected are driven to enact the most sadistic and ghastly acts they can think of. Amidst the carnage, a young couple, Jim (Berant Zhu) and Kat (Regina Lei), is pushed to the limits of sanity as they try and reunite across town amidst the chaos. The age of civility and order is no more. There is only “The Sadness”.

Inspired in part by Garth Ennis’ brutal graphic novel Crossed, The Sadness is a vicious satire of the darkest depths of humanity and an apocalyptic powerhouse of an action-based horror film, packed with incredible practical special effects, guaranteed to make even the most hardened gore-hound squirm.