¡QUÉ HORROR! 2019
Candidate #23
CLIMAX
(May 2018)
Gaspar Noé’s* self-described "catastrophe movie with dancers," Climax
is an interesting entry in the “Cinematic Experience as Endurance Test” horror
movie category.
In it, we witness a group of dancers have the
Worst. Night. Ever. thanks to an external trigger that shall remain
unidentified here.
The fact that the trigger is a very real and
possible occurrence also makes Climax
the kind of horror film that doesn’t need ghosts or demons or vampires or
masked slashers or (Heaven forbid) zombies to make its case, but instead, is a
chillingly disturbing example of Sartre’s observation "L'enfer, c'est les autres!" (“Hell
is other people!”).
Hell
is also a gradual, hypnotic, dizzying, alluringly repulsive descent into chaos.
But
while all of the above may be true,
it must also be pointed out that Hell
has a slammin’ soundtrack!
[Climax is] all about people creating something
together, and failing in the second half. It’s like the story of the Tower of
Babel. Mankind can create big things. And then with the influence of alcohol,
or some accident, everything falls.
--Gaspar Noé
*
Noé has pointed to titles like ‘70’s disaster films The Towering Inferno and The
Poseidon Adventure, as well as David Cronenberg’s Shivers as some of the inspiration that fueled Climax.
(Climax OS’ courtesy of impawards.com.)
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