The extremely anticipated and long-awaited third installment of the 28 Days Later movies has lastly hit theaters, and everyone seems to be speaking about it. Not solely does 28 Years Later construct on the world Danny Boyle created within the unique, nevertheless it additionally follows in 28 Days‘ footsteps with its distinctive filmmaking methods. The primary movie was largely shot on digital camcorders (particularly the Canon XL1) to present it a tough, grainy really feel that captured the chaos of the world the characters had been residing in. Boyle additionally felt that it was extra maneuverable for the fast, early morning shoots they steadily needed to do. For 28 Years, he used elaborate rigs with iPhone 15 Professional Maxes to seize that frenetic filming model.
These movies have been game-changers in the best way they’re filmed, however there may be one other latest zombie movie that can also be filmed in a singular model: the French horror movie MadS. The movie is one steady shot, that means it was filmed multi functional take with no cuts.
What Is ‘MadS’ About?

MadS
- Launch Date
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September 21, 2024
- Runtime
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86 Minutes
- Director
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David Moreau
MadS follows a teen named Romain (Milton Richie) who stops off at his drug seller’s home earlier than heading off to a celebration. On his means out, he picks up an injured girl to get her assist. After Romain places her in his automotive, the evening instantly takes a surreal flip. One which Romain and his pals might by no means have ready for.
Because the movie is shot in a single steady take, the story is handed off to 3 completely different foremost characters, very similar to the an infection is handed from individual to individual. We first comply with Romain, then his girlfriend Anais (Laurie Pavy), and at last their mutual pal Julia (Lucille Guillaume). Romain’s part is crammed with stress and unease because the viewer would not fairly know what destiny awaits him, and something might occur. The subsequent two-thirds of the movie that follows Anais and Julia are full-blown survival thrillers, however by no means let up on the extraordinary feeling of dread that lingers all through the movie’s brief 89-minute runtime.
‘MadS’ Takes a Distinctive Technical Strategy
The one-shot filmmaking strategy can appear gimmicky in sure movies, however right here it completely works for the story. Very like the frantic, lifelike digicam model of 28 Years Later that provides to the stress and chaos of that world, the one-continuous-take method in MadS makes the viewer really feel like we’re within the film with the characters. Because the story follows three separate foremost characters on their journey with this virus, filming the film in a single shot is sensible narratively.
We’re watching the occasions of the movie occur in actual time as every of the three foremost characters interacts with this virus on their very own. It feels pure to have the digicam transfer from one character to the following as we comply with every of their journeys with none cuts. The characters do not know what is occurring or why it is occurring. So, to wander across the streets of this French suburb with them as horrific issues occur round them places us of their footwear. When you had been residing via a zombie virus outbreak, it’d look a hell of so much like this. Due to this fact, the one-shot technique serves the story right here.
A New Spin on the Zombie Apocalypse
The zombie subgenre of horror is often credited to George A. Romero’s provocative basic, Night time of the Dwelling Useless, from 1968. Zombie films have been massively fashionable since then, so it’s troublesome to provide you with new and thrilling components to maintain this subgenre contemporary. Whereas MadS would not absolutely reinvent the wheel on zombie films, it definitely provides a singular perspective each with the filming model and the best way the virus spreads.
Romain partakes in leisure drug use, therefore why he stopped off at a seller’s home earlier than heading over to the home social gathering the place he was to fulfill up together with his girlfriend. His seller offers him a brand new experimental drug made from purple powder that he brings with him within the automotive when he picks up the injured girl. Her blood drips onto the medicine, that are later ingested by Romain, who then kisses Anais on the social gathering. It is made to appear as if the purple medicine the children had been doing on the social gathering had been accountable for the unfold of the virus, when it was possible the injured girl’s blood that Romain unknowingly ingested. Consider it like Climax combined with 28 Days Later.
The Good Degree of Ambiguity
Zombie movies are usually fairly simple. A virus or an infection is let free and infects everybody, or the undead rise from their graves. When somebody is bitten or contaminated, they too grow to be one in all them. That is true for MadS, however what occurs past that’s the place the movie turns into much less simple. The principles and origin of this virus are by no means defined however slightly left as much as interpretation. It seems that it spreads via blood or bodily contact, and it’s even hinted that different bodily fluids might unfold the illness. But, Julia comes into direct bodily contact with each Romain and Anais and would not seem to show.
The movie would not explicitly state how the virus spreads or how briskly those that come into contact with it should flip, including one other layer of ambiguity. Julia kisses Romain on the social gathering and is attacked by Anais as soon as she is turned, along with coming into contact with quite a few different contaminated individuals within the third act. Nonetheless, it’s by no means clear if she truly will get the an infection, which might imply she’s a service or immune.

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On the finish of the film, she lets out a form of maniacal chortle that would point out she succumbed to the an infection, however that is only one interpretation. It could possibly be exhaustion or trauma from what she’s simply skilled. Since we’re by no means informed the place the virus originated (and if it was the medicine or blood that unfold it), it provides to the stress, unease, and thriller surrounding the movie. Plus, with the digicam by no means slicing away, we’re by no means fairly certain the place it should find yourself. Stream on Shudder.