MADS (2024)

From David Moreau, the director of THEM and THE EYE comes MADS, a technically intriguing descent into absolute madness. After taking an experimental drug, Romain, (played by Milton Riche) runs into a frantic woman on the side of the road. When he tries to help her, she attacks Romain. Not wanting to miss out on a night of partying, Romain leaves the body in his garage, and leaves for the party with his girlfriend Anais (played by Laurie Pavy), and the girl he is cheating on his girlfriend Julia (played Lucille Guillaume). At the party, Romain infects both Anias and Julia with a virus that seems to be a mutation from both the drug Romain used and the bite from the woman. When a containment team arrives, all three must run for their lives while feeling the effects of the contagious virus.

MADS is non-stop madness. The film was supposed to have been made in one take, meaning that the entire hour and a half was done without cutting the camera at any time. Anyone who has made or even watched the making of films know that this is a gargantuan task. It runs more akin to a stage play done in front of a live audience from beginning to end, but add special effects and multiple locales, and the chances of accomplishing this all-in-one take is near impossible. Now, though I couldn’t identify it, I’m sure somewhere along the way, there were some cheats where the film actually was edited, but still, the film attests that it was all done in one take. Either way, this technical detail makes MADS all the more of an impressive piece of filmmaking.

This continuous movement of the camera and constant action within the frame makes MADS a hectic and almost exhausting film to watch. This is not a movie where the actors stand around and talk for five minutes at a time and then move to another room and blab another five or ten minutes. The players are almost always moving from one room to the next when they are inside a place, such as the party they visit or within Romain’s house, or the camera is somehow tagging along with moving cars, bicycles, and people running. While the action in the movie enveloped and interested me, I found myself marveling at the way filmmaker David Moreau was able to keep the camerawork kinetic and mobile as he follows these three main players as they descend into madness.

Now, the story itself is a typical contagion tale as the camera follows three characters as they encounter this infection (which takes a while to turn the afflicted into lunatic zombies) and then pass it along to the next sad soul. The film keeps things vague about the origins of the infection. Sure, it is pretty obvious that the infected person Romain picks up at the beginning of the film is the source of this madness plague, but the introduction of the drugs is the outlying factor. Do the drugs delay the effects? Do they intensify the symptoms? Or do they make the carriers immune to the effects? The answer is never revealed, but I’m sure adding a new, experimental drug to the mix doesn’t help things.

The afflicted are downright scary. At times, we see the world through their eyes, sort of, as the camera feels more like it is on the shoulders of each of the afflicted rather than simply following them. The settings are not always normal, such as the party with flashing and neon lights everywhere or the building under construction where the action of the film ends. All of it makes for a dreamlike experience, making the terrain these kids must move through unreliable and unearthly.

The three main actors are great, the best of the bunch being Laurie Pavy who plays Anais. There’s a scene where she is riding on the back of a motorcycle and she is struggling to keep her sanity, but unable to keep herself from bursting out in screams of terror or uncontrollable laughter. It’s chilling seeing this juxtaposition of emotions, knowing that the character is struggling to keep her wits to her. Milton Riche as Romain serves as the connective tissue and infector of the two other main players, and while he isn’t a standout, he serves that purpose well as a privileged rich kid. But Lucille Guillaume who plays Julia is shown the most as struggling with this virus and offers up some great emotional range.

MADS is a film that you can’t just casually watch. It’s engrossing in the way it was made to the action going on from beginning to end. It reminds me of films like RUN LOLA RUN, which feels like an adrenaline shot in the heart all the way through. It’s going to make your heart beat fast and your feet start tapping. Filmmaker Moreau delivers another monstrously good film that never lets up and I highly recommend it for those who are fiending for fast-paced frights.