Pandemonium – Movie Review (3/5)

PANDEMONIUM is a French Horror Movie. It’s basically an anthology about death, which sounds dark, but it’s also wonderfully weird. And slow-burn and brutal. Extremely brutal. Read our full Pandemonium movie review here!

PANDEMONIUM is a new horror movie from France. It’s slow-burn and will surely be labeled as art house – or just “artsy” – by many. And they wouldn’t be wrong. It’s just also a slow-burn horror anthology about dying and finding out what comes next.

The first part of the movie turns out to be more of a wrap-around segment for the rest of the stories in the movie. However, as wrap-around stories go, this one is a very strong and damn creepy one. The runtime is 1 hour and 35 minutes, but it feels longer. Just not in a bad way as it gets increasingly wild.

Continue reading our Pandemonium movie review below. Find it on VOD from May 27, 2024.

A journey to the afterlife

The super short plot description for Pandemonium is to say that it’s about a man traveling to the afterlife and realizing he’s not going up, but down. We follow him on his journey as he descends into the Hell that he has been “sentenced” to for his actions in life.

The man is Nathan (Hugo Dillon) and he’s very much an ordinary man. When the movie opens, he’s been in a car accident and is surprised he made it out unscathed. Right until another man shows up, who was on the motorcycle that was also in the crash.

He points out that they did not survive the crash alive. After Nathan is forced to acknowledge that he died at the scene of a car crash, two gates appear. One pearly white with beautiful music and another dark and gnarly with nothing but screams coming from the other side.

Descending to the depths of hell

Nathan cannot enter the pearly white gates, which means the only other option is the one for him. Basically, his actions in life (which we hear about early on) have resulted in him going straight to hell.

As Nathan descends into the depths of hell, he comes across a few other bodies lying just inside those dark gates. When he touches one of the bodies, he sees their life story (or at least the final moments of their life) and finds out why they are also there.

In other words, he is doomed to experience the pain of all the tortured souls he comes across along the way. That is until he reaches his own next destination which is pure horror. I mean, hearing a demonic force describing what he will go through is so intensely terrifying.

It’s actually beyond human comprehension. You’re bound to realize this when you hear Nathan trying to argue and bargain his way out of his eternal damnation. Oh yeah, it’s dark!

Watch Pandemonium on Arrow or VOD

Director Quarxx (All the Gods in the Sky) is the creative mind behind this aesthetically stunning yet indescribably brutal tale. Those familiar with the themes of Dante’s “Inferno” and Milton’s “Paradise Lost” will surely see them in Pandemonium.

This French horror movie is a disturbingly dark fairy tale that has the darkest of comedy and sinister thriller elements. The movie had its world premiere at Neuchâtel and went on to screen at Fantasia, Frightfest, Fantasy FilmFest, Sitges, Grimmfest, Trieste, and Screamfest. Basically, all the big ones!

The Streaming Service ARROW will release Quarxx’s French horror anthology feature in the US, Canada, the UK, and Ireland. On the same day, Pandemonium will also be available on all major VOD platforms – including Apple TV and Prime Video.

If you want something that will touch the darkest corners of your soul, then this is it!

Pandemonium is on Arrow and VOD from May 27, 2024.

Details

Director: Quarxx
Writer: Quarxx
Cast: Hugo Dillon, Arben Bajraktaraj, Ophélia Kolb, Carl Laforêt, Manon Maindivide, Jérôme Paquatte, Sidwell Weber