This timeless French horror thriller is a reminder of how innovative indie horror can be.

It is difficult to tell where the hidden cats are in Mads,
David Moreau’s latest horror movie that unfolds in one take. The film wastes no time getting into the meat of the action and does more with its low budget than some of the biggest blockbuster horrors have achieved in recent years. Both a breakout flick and a quick zombie movie, MadS Thrives with its tight and bloody runtime, clocking in at just under 90 minutes. No longer or shorter, and MadS Could drag or miss its sweet spot, but the film is too well crafted to make that mistake.

We meet the protagonist, Roman (Milton Rich), and we are not immediately inclined to like him. Clearly privileged and unconcerned with the future, Romain has his perfect night of partying and debauchery off course when a bandaged and bloody young woman climbs into his car And it seems that she kills for him. However, that soon becomes the last of his worries as the story becomes a contagion plot, with Roman as patient Zero and his unfortunate companion soon following him into a world of madness and grotesque transformation.

MadS is short on gore but filled with suspense, let’s imagine the worst

Moreau does not need to show us the horrors for us to understand them

However, there aren’t many body horror moments or even particularly horrifying images. By scaling back on the gore, MadS Let us imagine most of the violence, an effective tool when the budget is a constraint, And the movie thrives on a fear of the unknown. Moreover, the immediate shift in tone and atmosphere when a graphic image explodes on the screen is almost a relief, as we get a breather of wonder that is hidden behind the next corner. Spending every moment in real-time with the characters pushes us and the actors to their limits.

The small and relatively unknown figure is perfect for MadS, A streamlined project without huge stars or flashy gimmicks to give the film its punch, just a relentlessly propulsive story. While crafting a film to seem like one continuous shot could be characterized as a marketing trick or cheap trick, that couldn’t be further from the case here. It is undoubtedly a stylistic choice of Moreau, as natural an extension of the story as the strange illness in the movie or the carefully designed sets and visual language.

The first act is the strongest part of the movie, since Romain is who we start the journey with, Making him the most compelling of the three main characters. At the end of Romain’s section, we finally admit to the game and come to understand how the rest of the story will disappoint. Once we know the premise, the story shifts into apocalyptic, survival thriller territory, but Moreau handles this just as deftly. The director knows how to support tension, lingering on shots and never rushing the pacing of key scenes, letting us stew just enough.

By the end of the movie, we have enough information and context to draw our own conclusions about how the outbreak started and who the real villains of the story are. The masked, faceless assailants slowly transform from monsters to real people who are as empathetic as the protagonists. Its sparsely distributed exhibition is a testament to how well MadS Keep us engaged with only hints at the larger world of the story. We know who Romain is, how his wealth influences his behavior, and his relationship with Anais and Julia, the other two prominent characters of the film.

MadS provides a universal story, which allows for a lot of interpretation

There are many ways to understand the story, giving the narrative an all-encompassing tone

MadS Can be analyzed as a critique of wealth and power, a metaphor for the hedonism of youth, or an allegory for how quickly a life can be upended by the wrong chance encounter. however, Like any great horror movie, it is in conversation with whatever we project onto it. There are elements of many criticisms and larger discussions about society, and there are few interpretations of history that can be considered far-fetched. In time, it will deliver MadS With a timelessness that is tricky to achieve but brilliant when done right.

critical, MadS Is fun and says a lot without asking too much. It’s not a horror movie with a cliffhanger ending, because it’s an open-ended conclusion, but it’s not hard to imagine what happens next. It doesn’t litter the story with easter eggs for sequels and franchise potential, a quality too many modern horror films share. One shot and many twisting story moments later, MadS Shows what can be done with a little imagination and faith in the audience.

MadS will be available to stream on Shudder on October 18. The film is 86 minutes long and has not yet been rated.