David Moreau’s “MadS” is a fever dream of a film that feels like a cross between Sebastian Schipper’s “Victoria” and Gasper Noe’s “Climax.” It’s a one-shot horror thriller that follows an intoxicating yet ridiculously terrifying journey of a few individuals on a night in a French city. Throughout its duration, it feels like a relentless attack on all your senses following characters as they fall into inescapable, frightening situations. After making waves in this year’s Fantastic Fest 2024, it is now streaming on Shudder. It stars Lucille Guillaume, Milton Riche, Laurie Pavy, and Lewkowski Yovel in the central roles.
Spoilers Ahead
MadS (2024) Plot Summary & Movie Synopsis:
Directed by David Moreau, “MadS” on Shudder follows the visceral, maddeningly chaotic journey of a few teenagers as they find themselves caught in a string of horrifying situations. It is one of those films where the less you know the better.
What happens in the ‘MadS’ (2024) film?
MadS” begins with a recently graduated 18-year-old Romain (Milton Riche) snorting drugs at his dealer’s place. His nose starts bleeding but that does not concern him. Soon, he heads to a party, looking forward to meeting his father, who is going to give him a surprise. The sun starts setting as Romain begins to drive his dad’s red Mustang. Shortly after, he accidentally drops his cigarette on the car seat and instantly regrets it. He stops the car and wipes the stain as if his life depended on it. Moments later, an injured woman suddenly bumps into his car from the roadside.
The woman enters Romain’s car and urges him to drive. He calls the local helpline to ask for an ambulance. The person on the other side mentions he will send the police as well. Since Romain is high on drugs, he cuts the call to evade the charges and plans to drop her off at the hospital. Throughout the ride, the woman keeps screaming, unable to control herself. She seems to be in unbearable pain for a mysterious reason. While crawling back and forth in his car, she taps on a device that reveals something about Subject C39. It describes her present situation as a result of a scientific experiment.
Romain’s Paranoia
As Romain tries to calm the traumatized woman, she stabs herself to near death. Suddenly, she bites him in the face like a zombie. With blood all over his car, he returns home as quickly as he can and rushes it into the garage. He tries to get over whatever he just experienced. However, the drugs make it harder for him to make sense of it all. Soon, his father calls and asks him to look for his flight ticket. Romain returns to the garage to find the traumatized woman gone. Moments later, his girlfriend, Ana (Laurie Pavy) arrives and finds him scared beyond his wits.
Romain had ignored Ana’s recent calls. Even at home, he seems weirdly distant. So, she worries that he is hiding something from her. Soon, her friend arrives there to pick them up. So, he looks at the security footage to find the traumatized woman but can’t see her. He turns on the house alarm to alert him in case of any intrusion. While his friends are happy and full of life, Romain is sullen and terrified. While at the friend’s place, he momentarily parts ways with Ana. Then, Romain overhears her doing drugs with her best friend, Julia/Juju (Lucille Guillaume). Ana notices Julia’s pregnancy test kit and asks her about it.
Ana & Julia’s Friendship
Julia reveals she has a pregnancy test kit because she is late on her period. Ana wonders how Julia can be pregnant since she has not been in a sexual relationship for a while, as far as she knows. Julia jokes that she has been with Romain, which upsets Ana. After Ana leaves, Romain kisses Julia, who notices something disturbing about his eyes. As he looks in the mirror, his father calls to tell him about an intrusion alert at their house. So, Romain decides to leave immediately. He takes someone’s motorcycle and rides it back home. Once inside, he speaks with his father, who laughs at his miserable state.
While inside, Romain finds the device the traumatized woman had with her. It reveals that the woman’s condition is a result of neuroendocrine modulation. It gives her spectacular strength when exposed to light. Romain finds her in his bathtub, covered in her blood. Then, he hears a few armed individuals entering his house. As the woman crawls outside, they use intense light flashes to catch her. Romain senses the danger and runs away into the woods to reach a nearby street. However, the armed people find him and kidnap him in their van.
Soon, Ana gets out of the party, wondering where Romain is. The drugs she snorted at the party, start showing their effect. As she starts losing her mind, a van of armed people starts following her. So, she runs away and calls the cops but to no avail. She walks inside a bar to find herself covered in blood. While Ana hides in the washroom, the armed people enter the bar and kill everyone else inside. Ana somehow escapes and walks up to a nearby bridge. There, she steals a bicycle and rides it to meet Julia, who waits for her on her motorcycle.
MadS (2024) Movie Ending Explained:
What awaits Ana, Julia, and Romain at the end of the night?
Julia picks Ana up on her motorcycle but finds her out of her wits. Ana pulls her hair, screams, and covers her face with blood. Soon, Julia finds Ana’s reckless behavior unbearable. So, she drops her off midway and drives away by herself. Then, she receives a call from her own, warning her about something strange happening in their city. Still, Julia drives back home, trying to save herself from bloodthirsty Ana. On her way there, Julia gets stuck in the elevator. Before an operator arrives to help her, Ana terrifies her neighbors and starts killing them.
While stuck in the elevator, Julia hears from the armed individuals, who warn her not to run away but to submit herself to the authorities since she has been exposed to a mysterious substance. Eventually, Julia gets out of the elevator and finds Ana crawling around like an insect. A masked person finds Julia and tells her to follow her. Then, this person finds Ana and brutally kills her. Moments later, the person takes off her mask to reveal herself as Noa (Lewkowski Yovel). Noa realizes that Ana just bit her, which means she is also infected. So, she tells Julia to leave before she gets hurt and shoots herself to death.
At the end of “MadS,” Julia sits by herself in her apartment, after witnessing these terrifying tragedies, manically laughing and screaming. While trying to escape the danger, she succumbs to the same horrors that her friends did before. By the end of the night, Ana, Julia, and Romain become the creatures they were afraid of. While trying to get past their paranoia, they succumbed to the inevitable.
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