Main cast: Lucille Guillaume (Julia), Laurie Pavy (Anais), Milton Riche (Romain), Yovel Lewkowski (Noa), Sasha Rudakowa (Subject C39), and Vincent Pasdermadjian (The Dealer)
Director: David Moreau
MadS is a French movie that details the start of a zombie apocalypse-like event, with subtitles helpfully provided.
Sadly, this movie details what is happening very explicitly early on, so the sense of mystery quickly evaporates. Fortunately, what is left is still a compelling movie that blends absurd humor and tragedy really well.
A test subject, identified on a radio news report as Subject C39, pushes her way into the car of a young man, Romain, while he is enjoying some private time with his newly purchased cocaine stash. High, he can’t think clearly when she vomits her blood all over him and, from all appearances, kills herself in the car.
Not sure if any of that is real, he drives home, shows everyone his willy as he showers, and then he realizes that the body is missing from his car. Oh well, maybe he just imagined the whole thing… so he goes off to his birthday party with more cocaine with him.
Meanwhile, her girlfriend Anais learns that her good friend Julia is pregnant from having sexy times with Romain. Oops.
Still, teen soap opera will have to wait, when Romain begins experiencing physical changes that makes him more like C39: feral, insane, and most scary of all, apparently unkillable. Worse, he’s infected Julia and Anais and who knows anyone else. Subject C39 hasn’t been idle either, and soon the whole town is experiencing an outbreak of the worst kind.
Because the main characters are all high from snorting a few lines each, their actions and speech pattern lend a touch of dark comedy that blends seamlessly into the movie.
While Romain features more prominently in the first third or so of the movie, the story is actually about Julia and Anais, as the two young ladies try to navigate through both Julia sleeping with Anais’s boyfriend and the two of them trying to live through the madness gripping the city. There is no saccharine happy ending here, of course, as we are talking about a zombie infection outbreak, but their relationship feels genuine and often darkly macabre in spite of the drama between them.
The best thing about this movie, however, is how it gives a very personal and tragically intimate close look at the lives of two young ladies on the night everything starts to go to hell. Throughout everything, the director David Moreau that also doubles as screenwriter keeps a steady hand on the wheel: dialogues feel painfully natural and real, the fear and confusion are all palpable, and the whole thing is at-edge-of-seat suspenseful at times.
As an aside, I’m also glad that this movie avoids present day Hollywood tropes of having final girls suddenly turning into gun-toting heroines like they have been secretly practicing how to shoot in the last 10 years or doing acrobatics like they are born ninjas. No, the actions of the characters feel real and hence, human.
Sure, there’s nothing in here that particularly gives off “Gee, this is something groundbreaking and original!” vibes, but the whole package is a fun, scary, and intense watch that never feels dull or trite. There is MadS fun here, and it’s definitely worth a peek!
