MadS

Night of the Screaming Teenagers can give the impression of an intense horror experience at times, but really only at times - for example in the opening sequence of the car ride, or at the very end. In other parts, the creative effort comes up empty. The moments when the director tries to create the impression of an apocalypse in progress by means of various sounds and noises, even though visually we see a quiet night town which is obviously completely dead, are downright ridiculous. Once I noticed this, it distracted me from the intended experience until the end. The single-shot form doesn't add to the believability of the action in this regard, either, as the character currently in focus gets caught in the middle of a police intervention, but a few steps away it's quiet again. (2024-10-20)

A horror ride of one crazy night. The film is shot in real time, as if in one take (though no doubt with hidden edits) and formally it is a very skillfully put together spectacle, which as time passes grates more and more on the viewer's nerves and gradually picks up an unstoppable pace. Revealing anything about the plot would unnecessarily spoil the potential for surprise in its development, so I recommend not to find out too much in advance, it's fine to go in completely blind. That's the kind of thing I want to discover at festivals! A very good, understated horror surprise from France. (2024-10-06)

MadS breaks some kind of record in serving up a brilliant (!) exposition and then criminally failing to fulfil expectations. With its inverted dramatic arc, MadS is impressive in its strong technical ambitions of a continuous one-take film, kicked off with an extreme situation promising great development to come, only to lose its lustre in the second half with gradually diminishing ideas due to screenwriting incompetence. And wretched logic. What a shame! [Sitges FF] (2024-10-06)

A big disappointment for me. The trailer promised an intense, brutal and unpleasantly wild found-footage ride shot in a single take, like a French variation on REC, but the result is extremely unsatisfying, it is neither brutal or unpleasant enough, nor is it intense. Nothing is explained, the film is divided into three parts, so to speak, where in each part we follow one infected person and theor transformation, but I found the transformation rather awkward. These zombies don't turn into bloodthirsty monsters, but rather into idiots who look like they escaped from an insane asylum. They wave their arms and run around like headless chickens, I was as embarrassed watching them as I've been in a long time. There’s no gore and there’s no explanation either, this was just a misstep for me. I was poisoned. 3/10. (2024-10-22)