Shudder Saturday: MadS (2024)

Writer-director David Moreau may not be the most prolific person working in the movie business nowadays, but he certainly isn't afraid of trying different things. Whatever you think of it, Them AKA Ils (2006) impressed many horror movie fans when it was released. The Eye (2008) didn't impress anyone, to my knowledge, but Moreau was brave enough to even tackle it. He has since tackled comedy, a fantastical teen movie, and a heart-warming adventure drama about some people trying to return a trafficked lion cub to Africa. MadS sees him firmly back in the horror genre though, and it's almost as if he has something to prove. 

Milton Riche is Romain, a young man who takes some drugs before having his chilled evening plans ruined by an encounter with a sick and bloody young woman. What Romain doesn't understand is that he's about to be an important link in a chain that will lead to a zombie-like virus spreading. Romain inadvertently infects many other people, but the main one we then start to observe for a while is his girlfriend, Anais (Laurie Pavy). 

Presented as if everything is being shown in a single take, although some cuts are hidden away here and there, MadS is a bold and intriguing spin on the infection/zombie movie. Moreau builds up a head of steam in the opening scenes and then somehow manages to keep control of a rolling snowball of energy right up until the very last moment. While the style of the thing is a gimmick, it's done well enough to make it worthwhile, yet it's also done without seeming to stop every few minutes to point out how audacious it is being.

Things are helped along by the lead performances, particularly that of Pavy. Riche is good enough to make his potentially irritating character bearable for his section, and a third important character played (and played very well) by Lucille Guillaume gets to carry us to the end credits, but Pavy is the shining centrepiece here. Whether in carefree party mode or showing the changes within her via some great physical work, Pavy is consistently mesmerising.

I was wary when this started, worrying that I had started some kind of drug-fuelled horror movie that would compare to the divisive work of Gaspar Noé, but Moreau put my mind at ease within the first few minutes. A great title card gives way to a sudden dose of added tension, which then gives way to a narrative that creeps along as steadily and surely as the malady about to spread through the population. I said near the start of this review that it's almost as if Moreau has something to prove. Well . . . he certainly proves it.

8/10

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