The Sadness (2021) review

A super dangerous virus called "Alvin" is making its way through the nation of Taiwan and turning the infected into rabid lunatics, so separated young lovers Jim (Berant Zhu) and Kat (Regina Lei) have to dodge the onslaught in order to reunite and flee to safety.  While the timing of this is spot-on and it taps into the fear and paranoia surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic (and highlights concerns with big bully China and their seemingly endless threats), this stalls out when there isn't something graphic happening, and then it really leans into the sensational scenes for "shock value" (an eyeball poked out and the socket getting raped! a blood orgy! a sick baby!) ... oh, and there's conveniently a virologist there to "explain it all."  This has been done a lot better in other zombie movies, but I do have to give it some credit for using mostly practical special effects instead of relying on CGI: we need more Rick Bakers out there.