Remember the first time you saw THE RAID? Remember that feeling of being completely floored by the sheer artistry of its ultraviolence? Well, Taiwanese horror THE SADNESS conjures up that same feeling, but with even more extreme imagery and through the prism of a sort-of zombie movie. Young couple Jim (Berant Zhu) and Kate (Regina Lei) are separated and must find each other in the middle of a rapidly-spreading epidemic, a virus that turns ordinary people into rictus-grinning maniacs drive to give in to every primal instinct. The depraved gore in this on a level where you frequently find yourself making a noise halfway between an incredulous laugh and a pained yelp, but strong character work, constant momentum and the smarts to satirically skewer the real world’s uninspiring response to the still ongoing pandemic makes this a treat for those with a real taste for this kind of stuff. SSP