Tags:
Film: Pandemonium
Year: 2023
Director: Quarxx
Writer: Quarxx
Starring: Arben Bajraktaraj, Hugo Dillon and Ophélia Kolb
Review:
This is a movie that I got the chance to see thanks to Justin Cook when he sent over a screener link. Now when I saw that this was a horror film that hit festivals in 2023 and getting a wide release in 2024, I was in. Being that this was foreign also adds to it since I like to get an array of countries to truly decide how good a year is overall for releases. I also decided to give this a second watch to see how I stood with it.
Synopsis: after realizing he has died at the scene of a car crash, Nathan (Hugo Dillon) descends into the depths of hell, where he is doomed to experience the pain of tortured souls along the way.
We start this with an establishing shot of an isolated road that has trees and what looks to be the side of a mountain. There is a guy lying in the road who turns out to be Nathan. He is confused as to why he is there and not in his car. He was in an accident and thankful to be alive. He’s joined by Daniel (Arben Bajraktaraj). He was riding a motorcycle when he was struck by Nathan. It also turns out there was a little girl playing by the road as well. Daniel points out something that shocks Nathan. The former has come to terms with the fact that they’re dead. Nathan struck Daniel and then crashed.
That’s when two doors appear. One is nicer and Daniel hears music coming from it. The other is creepier and Nathan hears what sounds like screams. Decisions were made in both of their lives to decide which door they could go through. We see that can change quickly as well. Nathan goes through the only one that is available to him. This starts the journey from the synopsis as he sees what a girl named Nina (Manon Maindivide) and a woman named Julia (Ophélia Kolb) did to end up where she did. The latter involves her daughter, Chloé (Sidwell Weber). Seeing what they did is just the start of the punishment that Nathan goes through.
Now that is where I’ll leave my recap and introduction to the characters. I should say that this doesn’t have the deepest story, but it also doesn’t need it. We’re getting the classic idea brought forth by Christianity that there are two places you go when you die. Something interesting here is that we’re seeing the concept of Nathan not accepting his fate. He was in the same accident as Daniel, but the latter died on impact. He’s been in the afterlife longer, by just a little bit. I love that this explores the idea that a second in the real world could be minutes on the other side. That gets explored more as we follow Nathan’s journey. I also like the idea of a decision that Nathan made leads to the punishment he goes through. He doesn’t feel it is deserved, but this is a bleak look. There are no grey areas.
Let’s then delve deeper into the character of Nathan. I’m not going to reveal fully what led him to go to hell. Let’s just say that someone close to him was suffering and he decided to put them out of their misery. When we look at it as humanity, it could be seen as a mercy killing. What causes stress here though is that demons don’t see it that way. They pose a question that makes Nathan’s blood run cold. That is terrifying. He is punished for doing what he thought was the right thing. I’m glad that it doesn’t get revealed until later about the particulars. He just tells Daniel in the opening scene that he killed someone. There’s also an interesting thing that happens there as he technically killed Daniel as well, even if it was an accident. We see how strict things are with the little girl that also joins the afterlife. I did want to credit Dillon here as he is the character we follow.
Where I want to go now would be the concept of hell. It is taking on aspects of Dante Aligieri’s 14th-century epic poem of the Divine Comedy. There are different rings of hell and what you do decides which one you go to. There is guide, Norgul (Jean Roucheau), who is a demon. Nathan tries to plead with him and he points out that he doesn’t judge. He is there to conduct what he’s told. I did love that. We also see Billy (Albin Jenssen) who is freakish, also doing what he is told. This goes dark where that story ends up. I love using this Christian mythology to tell the story.
Part of Nathan’s punishment is that he experiences a couple people he touches in hell. First let me say here that I love that Quarxx, who wrote and directed this, decided to make hell look like it does from The Beyond and The Void. I’m a fan there. He touches a little girl, who is named Nina. She is terrifying as we see her story play out with what happens to her and this deformed person named Tony (Carl Laforêt). There is also the other which deals with Julia coming to terms with what happened to her daughter, Chloé. These tugged at my heartstrings for a couple of different reasons so credit to the filmmaking there. I like that a child can be evil and then of course, there is the cardinal sin as well. That is where I’ll leave it, but I’ll credit all these actors for bringing the stories to life. It almost made me think this was going to be an anthology. It is just using those elements to help better tell this story.
All that is left then would be filmmaking. I’ll credit the cinematography here. The afterlife looks like ours. We see that Nathan and Daniel can affect our world with something that happens. I like what get with the cinematography and framing bring things to life. The look of hell is good. That is terrifying for sure. I did hear Quarxx talk with my podcasting friend, Duncan, where I learned that our writer/director is a painter. That is probably why things look as great as they do. We don’t get a lot in the way of effects, but we don’t need them. There were a couple scenes that needed more blood. That’s not a major issue though. What was good though was the look of Tony and the demons that we meet in hell. I also like what they do with Chloé. Her eyes were creepy. Other than that, I thought sound design and music fit what was needed here.
In conclusion, I’m glad that I checked this movie out. We’re playing with classic source material by incorporating elements of the Divine Comedy. Also, the use of Christian mythology is good as well. I thought that this told a simple story, but the backstories and how things fit together carries this. The acting was good in bringing the characters to life. That also helps to present the story. I’d also say that this is well made. The cinematography, settings and effects were good as well. I’ll warn you; this is from France so I watched it with subtitles on. If that’s not an issue and you like what I’ve said here, give this a watch. I’ll say that now with a second watch, this has solidified what I thought. There are great things here that work for what I enjoy.
My Rating: 8.5 out of 10