Romain is a young adult who goes to his usual friend to try something new. On a drive home laced with cocaine and something else, the music blares and the euphoric feeling is interrupted when someone who shouldn’t be on the road gets in the car. What follows is a descent into a, shall we say, zombie apocalypse in a movie that employs the one-shot with a sure and fearless hand. MadS has an uncanny aesthetic sense that harmonizes with the exquisite tension it builds. It makes sense that the last night is the maddest.
A young party boy tries a new drug, recommended by his dealer. ‘Caution!’ he says, but now it’s
too late… On his way back, he comes across a babbling wounded woman, but in trying to help
her, he finds himself caught up in a series of surreal events. Constructed in one glorious shot,
MadS is a small technical marvel, crossing the tension of horror cinema with the narcotic
euphoria of the horny house party movie, an unofficial genre that we all know perfectly well.
Imagine Dawn of the Dead without the political context and subtext, mixed with Project X, a
small masterpiece of recent American cinema. The night progresses but our questions remain –
are we facing a virus or the worst collective bad trip in history? Is this all a prank? It doesn’t
really matter. What matters is the way in which MadS sustains the single-shot gimmick for 90
minutes, almost never slowing down or losing its footing, in an impressive control of tension,
maintaining anxiety and realism. (Bruno Pereira)
