MadS(2024)(Review)

I love when we get international films with almost no warning. This is something that seemed to show up on Shudder just as soon as it was brought up in conversation. After watching it and looking into other people’s opinions, I’m so glad I saw it before all the other reviewers ruined the mystery of what to expect. Which, I will NOT be doing here.

Over the course of a single evening, and filmed in what is presented to be a one-take shot, we follow the journey of Romain. He is a young man enjoying his birthday by going to his drug dealer’s house. He makes his purchase and samples a brand new drug before heading home for a party. On his way home though, he has a bizarre run in with a woman who appears to be in serious circumstances. Little does he realize how simply stopping to offer assistance may lead to devastating consequences.

This movie was a wild ride. The shot-in-one-take perspective is an interesting way to tell the story we get here. It gives it a vibe of a found footage film, but without being just another found footage film. It gets very violent after a certain point, and we have this unreliable narrator who leads us along as we spend a good chunk of the film wondering if we are seeing what we are seeing, or if he is simply hallucinating off of the experimental drug he takes to begin the film. While some parts come off as more clear than others, there’s still plenty of disorientation to be had.

I really want to compare this film to one of my favorites, but I do truly feel that the journey was most potent when I had no idea where we were heading. So, if I’m going to recommend this to people without spoiling anything, I’ll just say it has the feel of Gaspar Noe’s ‘Irreversible’, but the story is more close to something… more recognizable. Overall, it’s a story you’re most likely quite familiar with already, but the eye through which it’s told makes it feel fresh.

It gets to be very intense, dizzying, and possibly a bit meandering at times, but it is very entertaining once we hit the gas. It’s a film with a very small segment of downtime in between the two or three major arcs of the story, but it never lets up otherwise. Successfully, it gives us an unsettling dread that only grows worse by the minute.
If you’re doing the same thing as me and trying to cram in as many 2024 horror films in before the year’s over, I strongly recommend this one. It was surprising – and yet, not surprising at the same time – and I had a blast. The final shot of the film as the credits begin to roll is hauntingly beautiful.

4.5/5
“MadS” is currently streaming on Shudder.

‘Til Next Time,
Mike Cleopatra

The Gruesome Gazette

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