Climax
2018 · Directed by Gaspar Noé
Original language: French
- drama
- horror
- music
The story
When a dance troupe is lured to an empty school, a bowl of drug-laced sangria causes their jubilant rehearsal to descend into a dark and explosive nightmare as they try to survive the night—and find who's responsible—before it's too late.
What it’s like
Long, unbroken takes that swoop and spin through a snowbound school's corridors and gym, with saturated red and blue light, strobing bulbs, and a relentless pulse of electronic music that the camera seems to dance with. The image is glossy and digital, the handheld movement loose and dizzying, and the sound often thickens into distorted, half-heard chatter. Its vibe is feverish and claustrophobic, a hallucinatory descent from euphoria into paranoid panic. It suits a late, alone viewing when you want to be overwhelmed by style rather than soothed. The pacing is frenetic and then suddenly stalled, with the emotional register swinging between ecstatic and grim. The dancers' bonds fray under suspicion and chemical unraveling. Intensity is high: explicit sexual content and nudity, graphic drug-fuelled violence, disturbing depictions of abuse involving children, and pervasive dread. Not gentle. Made for viewers who want an extreme, immersive sensory experience and can tolerate sustained shock.
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