10 Intense Horror Movies You (Probably) Haven't Seen

Horrific, Taiwan-set pandemic horror The Sadness is a Shudder exclusive that made some big, nasty splashes at the international festivals last year.

One of the first true post-pandemic horrors, The Sadness shows Taiwan succumbing to a viral pandemic that transforms its populace into evil, rapacious, bloodthirsty maniacs, who want nothing more than to cause each other bloody pain and suffering. At the centre of this is a young couple (Berant Zhu and Regina Lei) dodging infection and battling their way through the city to be reunited.

With disturbing, over the top visuals from the outset, the film pulls no punches, offering a host of unpleasantries that even the Saw series would baulk at. Bone saws, secateurs, barb wire poles... you name it. While its low budget might be apparent in some of the mise-en-scène, its creative camera work goes a long way to glossing over this.

In any case, the intense action and visuals don't overshadow its blunt-force social commentary. Critiquing not the pandemic itself but many of the general public's response to it, the underlying aggression of a restless society and their insistence on viewing everything through a digital lens prove to be many characters' downfall.

The Sadness is utterly void of taste and tact, but it is unlikely anyone involved in the making of this film would take that as a criticism.