MadS

by Mike McGranaghan

The French horror movie MadS appears to unfold in one continuous 89-minute shot, although I’m fairly certain that a couple hidden edits and touches of digital trickery help out on occasion. This type of storytelling has become increasingly popular of late. In this case, the format is earned, as director David Moreau wants to make viewers feel like they’re on the same nightmarish drug-fueled trip as the protagonist. The movie is exhausting, which is more or less the point. You go through the wringer watching it.

Romain (Milton Riche) is offered a new kind of pill by his drug dealer. He snorts some, taking more to hand out to his girlfriend Anaïs (Laurie Pavy) and friends during a high school graduation party. Things do not go as planned. While driving to the party, an injured woman hops into Romain’s car and starts screaming nonsense. Is she real, or is he just having a bad drug experience? No fair telling, but what follows is a horrific journey as both Romain and Anaïs move throughout the city, finding themselves impacted by the drug in unexpected ways.

Moreau pulls off feats you wouldn’t think could be easily accomplished via the one-shot premise. Aside from the characters zipping around between locations, the film contains a fistfight, a sex scene, and a harrowing sequence where Anaïs attempts to drive while completely panicked. (How did they not cause an accident?) All of it is designed to disorient viewers, creating the sensation that they, too, are floating through these events not entirely connected to reality. That’s horrific enough. As the movie progresses, more literal types of horror present themselves, and the evolution of terror feels natural precisely because of the lack of traditional editing.

To a degree, the execution is more interesting than the plot itself. Multiple times, I found myself wondering how a section was staged. For example, a character will do something like walk down a street, then hop on a motorcycle. The camera follows along seamlessly, and you can’t help wondering what the operator got on because there didn’t seem to be any other vehicles in the shot. Somewhere around the mid-point of MadS, something splatters on the camera and remains there for the duration. Rather than being distracting, it adds to the effect. Simply noticing the production elements provides a level of entertainment.

You have to admire the hard work and coordination that went into the film. The planning sessions must have been stressful. This is not a picture you’d want to watch multiple times due to the head-spinning nature of the experience. It’s definitely worth taking the trip once, though. MadS is highly successful at turning you into a nervous wreck for an hour and a half.

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