Wednesday 29 May 2024

Pandemonium (2023)

 


"Nihilistic French Art House Horror Anthology"


After its UK premiere at Grimmfest, the interestingly-named Quarxx's new film gets a Blu-ray release from Arrow.

Two men wake up at the scene of an accident on an isolated mountain road. Pretty soon they realise they're dead. Two doors appear, one of which has lilting music coming from it, the other screams.



Nathan (Hugo Dillon) finds himself in a hellscape that will be familiar to fans of Lucio Fulci's THE BEYOND. Examining some of the bodies gives him visions of how they ended up there, which takes us into two stories. The first is about a little girl who killed her family (with the possibly help of imaginary friend Tony the Monster), the second is about a mother who has neglected her suicidal daughter's cries for help. Then we're back in Hell and things turn even grimmer for Nathan.



The beginning of PANDEMONIUM is remarkably light considering what follows, so much so that anyone could be forgiven for thinking that, for a change, here's a piece of French horror cinema that's not going to be relentlessly (and endlessly) nihilistic. But be warned - this gets very grim. Fans of French horror cinema will, of course, love it.



Extras on Arrow's Blu-ray include a 20 minute interview with the writer-director, a 23 minute making of, and an interesting piece on the real birth scene that's included in the picture. There's also 17 minutes on creating Tony the Monster, as well as a trailer. The limited edition set also comes with reversible cover, poster and a booklet with writing on the film by Anton Bitel, plus more from the director. 


Quarxx's PANDEMONIUM is out on Limited Edition Blu-ray from Arrow Films and ARROW www.arrow-player.com on Monday 27th May 2024

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