‘MadS’ Film Theories: The One-Shot Zombie Film Wonder

Usually, I pause movies and get off the couch for a few minutes. Make something to eat, do a chore, stretch, etc. Not this time — MadS (2024) is all one shot, and I barely blinked the whole time.

The credits rolled with my mouth agape and my mind racing. There’s a lot to pick apart in this film, but it’s perhaps less “elevated” than many of the horror movies I discuss here. 

Still, MadS was so excellent (and fun to watch, and bleak, and terrifying) that I had to review it. Here are my thoughts and theories about MadS, including my take on the film’s meaning and themes.

Screenshot from the trailer for “MadS.”

Top Theories About the Meaning and Themes of ‘MadS’ (2024)

1. The Perpetual Present: One-Shot as a Metaphor for Unstoppable Catastrophe

Theory: The single-take format isn’t just a stylistic choice; it reflects how quickly disaster escalates, locking the viewer into a relentless forward march. Without cuts—or any temporal breaks—there’s no reprieve from the chaos.

• Why It Fits:
  • Much like certain apocalyptic scenarios (zombies, virus outbreaks), once the dominoes start falling, you can’t pause or rewind.
  • Romain and later Anais are forced to react in real-time—mirroring an irreversible chain reaction that characterizes end-of-the-world horror.
• Key Moments:
  • Romain’s tense drive home from the “incident” with the mutilated woman. The continuous shot amplifies the panic of not having time or space to think.
  • The midpoint transition from Romain to Anais—again, captured on one moving camera—underscores how quickly a global (or citywide) catastrophe can shift protagonists.

2. Contagion as a Symbol of Human Self-Destruction

Theory: The infected in MadS might represent humanity’s tendency to destroy itself—whether from drugs, poor decisions, or literal virus-like experiments. The “toxic product” Romain picks up becomes a catalyst that draws him into a wider plague.

• Why It Fits:
  • Romain’s actions (buying drugs, messing up his dad’s car, continuing to party) show personal recklessness that parallels the broader societal meltdown.
  • The bandaged woman’s ominous message about experimentation suggests a darker reflection on how humanity meddles in forces it can’t control.
• Key Moments:
  • The woman’s escape from a “nearby facility” hints at scientific or military experiments run amok, reminiscent of classic outbreak narratives.
  • Romain’s contaminated blood smeared across him and, ultimately, the city nightlife—like the literal spread of a weaponized virus that thrives on human error.

3. Youth Culture, Party Scene, and Denial

Theory: One could read MadS as a critique of a generation (or society) so committed to partying and escapism that it ignores doom until it’s too late. Even after encountering horrific events, Romain continues his night out, and Anais steps into the chaos with him.

• Why It Fits:
  • Romain’s initial impulse after washing off the blood is to still go clubbing—reflecting denial or numbness.
  • The party itself becomes ground zero for a wider outbreak, symbolizing how escapism in a crisis can worsen disaster.
• Key Moments:
  • The abrupt shift from Romain’s shock in the garage to dancing and drinking underscores willful blindness.
  • The moment Anais inherits the spotlight, taking the camera from Romain, signals a communal downfall—everyone’s implicated, not just one reckless individual.

4. A Subversion of ‘Elevated Horror’—Chaos Over Meaning

Theory: MadS openly rejects the “elevated horror” trend by diving headfirst into frenetic, blood-soaked madness. The film’s refusal to offer easy symbolism or grand moral lessons may itself be the point: sometimes horror is just an exhilarating freefall.

• Why It Fits:
  • The director, David Moreau, is said to have cast aside deeper metaphorical pretense in favor of “chaotic horror.” This might be a deliberate statement on genre purism.
  • The relentless action and minimal exposition create a pure survival/contagion scenario, reminiscent of fast-paced Romerian or Cronenbergian nightmares—only updated with one-take style.
• Key Moments:
  • The camera following Romain or Anais through frenzied city streets, with no time for reflective downtime or backstory.
  • Unexpected humor in the carnage—characters cracking wry lines between decapitations—feeds a sense of immediate gratification horror, unburdened by subtext.

5. The Shifting Protagonist as Commentary on Futile Survival

Theory: Midway, the focus hops from Romain to Anais, indicating that no single protagonist can truly anchor an apocalypse. Everyone is equally doomed, so the narrative perspective changes hands like a relay baton.

• Why It Fits:
  • This unpredictability emphasizes that survival is a matter of timing and luck—Romain simply doesn’t get to finish his story, so Anais picks it up.
  • Also, it underscores the mass scale of the outbreak: the “hero” is irrelevant when the world’s collapsing.
• Key Moments:
  • The exact moment Romain “cedes center stage” to Anais is described as a shock—viewers realize the movie’s focus can shift in a heartbeat, just as the infection’s unstoppable.
  • The final realization that “everyone was doomed” fits a pass-the-torch approach: one character’s meltdown, another picks up the fight, but inevitably meets the same fate.

6. The Body “Gone Mad”: Twitchy Infected as Embodiment of Techno-Frenzy

Theory: The infected move with “wonderfully twitchy physical movements,” possibly embodying how hyper-modern life—clubbing, social media, overstimulation—pushes bodies into a frenetic, unnatural state. The virus externalizes a deeper cultural mania.

• Why It Fits:
  • The references to Tykwer’s Run Lola Run or Romero’s zombies meet a techno-throbbing modernity: an entire generation always “on,” racing the clock.
  • The infected’s convulsions might mirror a rave-like dance gone lethal—wired, uncontrollable, and ultimately destructive.
• Key Moments:
  • Scenes of infected clubgoers writhing to the beats, blending dance with deadly spasms.
  • Romain physically deteriorating while trying to keep partying, ironically resembling the infected but for different reasons (drug use, shock, or the actual virus).

7. Urban Alienation and the ‘Single Take’ Irony

Theory: The continuous shot provides intimacy yet underscores isolation: Romain’s (and later Anais’s) desperate journey through a city that feels unhelpful or unaware. Everyone’s too busy, too inebriated, or too scared to connect—mirroring contemporary urban loneliness.

• Why It Fits:
  • Even though the camera never cuts away, we see plenty of people failing to register the crisis, as if they can’t process it or choose to ignore it.
  • This ironically heightens a sense of no help forthcoming—Romain/Anais are perpetually on their own, even in a crowd of city dwellers.
• Key Moments:
  • The party’s obliviousness to Romain’s disturbing condition—nobody slows down to ask if he’s okay.
  • The unstoppable forward motion of the camera, always pushing the protagonists along, reflects a city that doesn’t pause for personal disasters.

8. Doomed Humanity: A Bleak but Liberating View

Theory: Ultimately, MadS embraces the idea that everything is spiraling beyond control. By the halfway mark, it’s clear there’s no rescue mission or moral lesson—just unstoppable infection. Some fans might read this as a dark liberation, free from contrivance or a forced happy ending.

• Why It Fits:
  • The film’s “viciously bleak” tone signals that standard heroic arcs (like discovering a cure or saving the city) won’t happen.
  • The chaotic rollercoaster approach insists we live in the now—like the characters who keep partying—because the future is literally crumbling.
• Key Moments:
  • Romain’s meltdown, followed by Anais’s own frantic scramble, is unrelenting. No one steps in with a miracle solution or a deeper plan to contain the outbreak.
  • The abrupt, savage violence (like the bandaged woman’s self-harm in Romain’s car) foreshadows a world beyond redemption, letting viewers “enjoy the rollercoaster” as everything collapses.

Key Themes in ‘MadS’

Continuous-Take Intensity

By unfolding the story in a single unbroken shot, MadS heightens the urgency. Viewers share the characters’ ongoing, claustrophobic experience without the relief of cuts or time jumps.

Rapid Descent into Chaos

The film’s compressed time frame and mounting disaster capture a whirlwind collapse of normalcy, driving home the sense that the world can unravel in a single night.

Bleak Survival Instinct

Characters must make impulsive decisions—often driven by fear or self-preservation—underscoring how quickly moral considerations fade when society teeters on the brink of collapse.

Urban Party Culture vs. Real-World Horror

Romain and others cling to nightlife and hedonistic escapes, even as catastrophe looms. This collision of revelry and doom highlights how denial and frivolity can accelerate a larger downfall.

Physicality and Infected Contortions

The frantic, twitchy movements of the infected emphasize body horror, capturing the visceral impact of a rapidly spreading threat that twists human form and behavior.

Confronting the Inescapable

MadS offers no clean getaway or deeper “cure.” Instead, the single-take format and relentless action remind viewers that some horrors can’t be outrun—and the only option is to keep moving until the very end.

Plot Summary

• Year Released: 2024
• Director: David Moreau
• Writer: David Moreau

In MadS (2024), party-loving Romain (Milton Riche) picks up a new drug supply but encounters a mutilated, bandaged woman in his car. She wounds herself, infecting him with what seems to be an experimental virus from a nearby facility. Disturbed yet determined not to ruin his night, Romain goes to a club with his girlfriend Anais (Lucille Guillaume), growing increasingly ill as chaos escalates around them.

Shot in one continuous take, the film follows Romain’s frantic attempts to understand his infection—and survive—as more people show signs of violent, twitching behavior reminiscent of “brain eaters.” Midway through, Anais becomes the focus when Romain’s condition worsens and the city’s nightlife devolves into carnage. A former cop named Henry appears, offering limited help, though the outbreak’s scope makes escape unlikely. The relentless action and unbroken camera work thrust viewers into a single night’s apocalyptic collapse, culminating in an open-ended sense of doom for both the infected partygoers and the city itself.

Movies with Similar Themes to ‘MadS’

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REC (2007)

A Spanish found-footage horror in which a TV reporter and her cameraman follow emergency workers into a quarantined apartment building. The relentless pace, viral threat, and claustrophobic setting echo MadS’s sense of immediate, unstoppable chaos.

—> Watch REC online.

Victoria (2015)

Not a horror film, but notable for being shot in a single continuous take as a young woman’s night in Berlin spirals into danger. Like MadS, it uses the uninterrupted camera to keep viewers locked in the protagonists’ unfolding crisis.

—> Watch Victoria online.

Climax (2018)

Set over one disorienting night of dance and drug-fueled paranoia, Gaspar Noé’s film mirrors MadS’s frenetic party atmosphere devolving into mayhem—though here it’s hallucinogenic madness instead of a viral outbreak.

—> Watch Climax online.

La Horde (2009)

A French zombie film where criminals and cops face an undead onslaught in a single high-rise building. The intensity and focus on close-quarters carnage resemble MadS’s desperate scramble to survive an evolving threat.

—> Watch La Horde online.

The Sadness (2021)

A Taiwanese extreme horror about a rage-inducing virus that unleashes brutal violence across a city. The film’s unflinching bloodshed, breakneck tempo, and bleak worldview align with MadS’s apocalyptic spirit.

—> Watch The Sadness online.

Train to Busan (2016)

Although set on a train, this Korean zombie thriller shares MadS’s sense of inescapable infection, rapid character turnover, and a real-time race against doom that unfolds over one chaotic journey.

—> Watch Train to Busan online.

Have Your Own ‘MadS’ Theory?

Phew. I have to be honest: Writing this MadS review left me less exhausted than watching the film itself did. But it was, like, a good exhaustion, if that makes sense?

In other words, I loved it. But buckle up if you haven’t seen it yet. And prepare to be thinking about it for weeks. 

And if you have seen it, what did you think? Let me know in the comments. If you share any theories about it, I’ll add them to this article and give you credit.

😱