"A teenager who stops off to see his dealer to test a new drug before heading off for a night of partying. On the way home, he picks up an injured woman and the night takes a surreal turn." 

OUR MOVIE REVIEW:

Review contains some spoiler-like information…

I am a sucker for a single-shot film. Alfred Hitchcock’s Rope (1948) was a film that changed me as a movie-watcher and turned me into a full-fledged cinephile that truly fell in love with the art of film. Hitchcock’s Rope was the first to do the single shot form of storytelling on screen and for me it still remains the best to do it. The suspense that is able to build from the camera “never” cutting is unlike any suspense a traditionally shot and edited film can offer. 

Apart from the technicality, Rope also has a full story, with a clear beginning, middle, and end that leaves the audience satisfied in the quest. Other films to attempt this could be considered chaotic in nature, think 2015’s Academy Award winner for Best Picture, Birdman, or the war epic 1917 from 2019 directed by Sam Mendes. These films are highly respected and adored, as they should be. The technical achievement is off the charts, but what makes these so good is because there is also so much story to go along with the technical admiration. That is where MadS falls short. 

MadS started off incredibly strong, I was intrigued immediately and invested in this main character, Romain. Romain has partaken in some illicit drugs and quickly finds himself in an unfortunate situation. After leaving his drug dealer to meet up with friends to party on his birthday, Romain is driving down the road when he stops and encounters an injured woman. He attempts to help her, which is of course, a bad idea. 

This quickly turns to madness – the woman is genuinely freaking out to such an extreme that she is unable to speak or form sentences, only screaming and continuing her erratic behavior. Going as far as to attempt to kill herself while Romain is driving, bashing her head on the dashboard. Selfishly in his attempt to find her help he decides not to get the police involved, due to his paranoia surrounding being high and his fear of getting caught. 

We continue to follow Romain, as his friends pick him up to go to the aforementioned party. From there Romain wonders how he’ll be able to answer for the injured woman he’s left behind at his parents’ house. There is a decent foundation of suspense here, but this is also where the film begins to turn in a direction that lost me. 

The story ends up swapping its main focus to (one of) Romain’s love interests, Ana, while she begins to fall deeper into what we have learned is a zombie outbreak. She tries to shake the morphing, bouncing jarringly from normal teen girl to blood sucking monster. Again, this is where the story gets farther and farther from its original plot line. 

I want to know how Romain is going to get out of the situation with the half dead girl back at his dad’s house–who we know was arriving home soon because he called Romain about flight information and they discuss when he will get back home and plans for the next day. However, we never explore any of this because when Romain begins transforming, he is captured by law enforcement tasked with containing the outbreak and he vanishes from the narrative. The rest of the film is a spiral induced by the outbreak, following Ana and her friend, Julia (Romain’s other love interest). 

By the time the credits are about to roll, Julia is the only one still alive out of the triangle and she is tasked and armed by a newly infected guard, who is passing her weapon to Julia in hopes of her survival. 

If you appreciate a 90-minute thriller consisting of a fun and exciting “one shot” take, I highly recommend this. However, if you want a fully fleshed-out story, distinguishable characters and don’t have a preference about how a film is shot, blocked, or edited, this one is not for you.