20 Incredible Modern Horror Movies That Came Out Of NOWHERE

14. The Sadness

Asia has produced some of the most unsettling and explicit horror movies of the last several decades, such as Audition, Ebola Syndrome, Grotesque, Macabre, and the Guinea Pig franchise. With his 2021 cinematic introduction, The Sadness, Rob Jabbaz delighted, disgusted, and/or disturbed unsuspecting viewers with a comparably revolting spin on the zombie subgenre.

Essentially, it centers on a Taiwanese couple – Jim and Kat – who are trying to reunite while steering clear of the catastrophic Alvin virus. You see, the virus doesn’t just make people ill in a conventional sense; it turns them into remorselessly cruel and horrific-looking killing machines whose sole purpose is to inflict unfathomable pain on anyone who crosses their path.

Jabbaz establishes the stakes and sadism early on by having Jim witness an infected elderly woman gleefully pour boiling oil on a café employee’s face and rip apart his flesh. Afterward, another contaminated person stabs his friend to death, and then the woman is run over by a car that’s driven by another elated zombie.

From there, all manner of brutal mayhem ensues, including self-mutilation, decapitation, disembowelment, people breaking each other’s bones, and most notoriously, a businessman sticking a certain part of his body into the eye socket of a woman. The Sadness even avoids a typical Hollywood happy ending (and that’s all we’ll say about that).

Understandably, The Sadness shocked and impressed many people who clicked “play” when it came to streaming platform Shudder in 2022.