{"id":28709,"date":"2024-05-27T01:13:56","date_gmt":"2024-05-27T08:13:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cinemastance.com\/?p=28709"},"modified":"2024-05-27T01:13:56","modified_gmt":"2024-05-27T08:13:56","slug":"blu-ray-review-pandemonium-2023","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/?p=28709","title":{"rendered":"Blu-ray Review: PANDEMONIUM (2023)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This motion picture will be available on May 28th<\/sup>\nas a \u201cLimited Edition\u201d Blu-ray from Arrow Video.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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While many are familiar with local independent horror\npictures, the French have been delivering their fair share of creepers since\nthe beginning of cinema. In the past few decades, the country has become known\nfor examples of extreme horror that go well beyond what many American genre\npictures will attempt. Writer\/director earned plenty of praise for his 2018\nhorror\/drama All the Gods in the Sky<\/em>, merging arthouse aesthetics with\nmore disturbing elements. His latest effort is the surreal creeper Pandemonium<\/em>.\nThe disc and image quality on display is excellent and the movie should please\na lot of fans of international horror. But for this reviewer, the movie falters\na bit after an incredible opening act.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story begins with two men at the scene of an accident on\na mountain road. One is a driver named Nathan (Hugo Dillon) while the other is\na cyclist (Arden Bajraktaraj). The pair try to figure out what has occurred,\nwith Nathan in particular trying to absolve himself from responsibility for\nhitting this figure. But it soon becomes clear that neither man could have\nsurvived the crash and the two are in some kind of spiritual limbo. As they try\nto figure out what to do next, two doors suddenly appear in the road. The two\nwonder whether the portals lead to Heaven and Hell, before arguing about who\nshould go through what door and what to do next.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eventually, the plot does follow one figure, who indeed ends\nup in Hell. This vision of the underworld looks like something out of the\nclimax of Lucio Fulci\u2019s The Beyond<\/em>, filled with bodies lying in dirt.\nAfter approaching some of these individuals, the main character sees how the\nbodies met their fates, before discovering what will ultimately happen to him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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As mentioned, the first 25 minutes deal specifically with\nthe panicked Nathan and the cyclist reacting to their situation. It\u2019s very\nentertaining as Nathan rambles and tries to rationalize what has happened,\nsuddenly bringing up the death of a spouse and how it should not cause him to\nbe damned, all while the calmer and more reserved biker takes the high road\n(believing himself to be pure and innocent). As more details emerge and a final\nchoice appears clear to both men, their attitudes change amusingly. The\nmountaintop roadside photography is excellent and two performers are fun to\nwatch playing off of each other. Obviously, it\u2019s a disturbing scenario, but\nthere\u2019s a lot of humor that results from their anxiety and bickering.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Unfortunately, one of these characters immediately\ndisappears and the two segments that follow are very different in tone. One\nfollows a young girl (Manon Maindivide) living in a mansion with her deceased\nparents and a malformed individual in the cellar (Carl Lafor\u00eat) whom she blames\nfor their death. It has far more fantastic leanings and is beautifully shot,\nbut the end reveal isn\u2019t particularly surprising. The other is a deadly serious\nchapter involving a guilt-ridden mother (Oph\u00e9lia Kolb) whose teenage daughter\n(Sidwell Weber) has committed suicide. She can\u2019t deal with the loss and\nattempts to take the corpse on a vacation. While well-performed, it\u2019s very\nclear from the outset that this family trip isn\u2019t going to last.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Later, we return to the character in Hell what his ultimate\nfate will be. The film does attempt to deal with issues like grief and loss\nwithin families, but the constant shifts in feel are jarring and take one out\nof the drama. The pieces don\u2019t quite fit together tonally and the graphic\nfinale seems particularly silly, when a demon who looks like a pro-wrestler\nmodeled after Leatherface abuses the protagonist a little too aggressively.\nPerhaps we\u2019re supposed to experience feelings of hopelessness at this point,\nbut we aren\u2019t attached to any of the characters long enough to truly understand\nor feel their pain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Truth be told, one wishes that the film had instead focused\non Nathan (who has suffered his own kind of family loss) and his newfound\nacquaintance contemplating Hell or Heaven, coming up with a plan and trying to\nadapt to their circumstances and what may or may not occur.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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For me, the two additional stories and finale don\u2019t really\nask big existential questions (I could have gone on and on and on with\ninquiries for that gatekeeper until he may have felt like he was the one being\ntortured for eternity). In the end, it mostly wants to shock and disturb with a\nvision of darkness, which is a bit unfortunate after the lengthy and strangely\nhumorous opening. But having said that, those first 25 minutes are excellent\nand there are some impressive visuals as the story progresses. It\u2019s an\ninteresting film, but not a consistent one that veers around and never\nestablishes a specific tone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The disc includes plenty of extras. There is a lengthy\ninterview with Quarxx who goes into making the film independently on a small\nbudget. He notes how tough it was to shoot in extremely cold weather and how\nlucky the production ended up being with this striking footage. Additionally,\nhe notes an impressive stage that was on the site of the mansion used in the\nsecond segment and how he adapted the screenplay to work it into the film.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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There is also an interview with the make-up effects supervisor who goes into the make-up work for a character on the manor segment and some of the other hellish creations. Footage of a real birth is featured at the close of the movie (believe it or not, it is<\/em> a part of the story) and another extra goes into how it was planned and shot. There is also a making-of, as well as footage from the premiere featuring cast, crew and attendees delivering their final verdict. Amusingly, two other filmmakers in attendance do mention that it wasn\u2019t their cup of tea, but that they are enjoying talking about it and were impressed with the technical skills on display. It\u2019s very similar to my reaction to the picture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To be honest, I really enjoyed the opening third and wished\nthat two lost figures from the beginning of the picture had actually been the\nfocus of the entire tale. But if you like extreme French horror cinema, then\nthere is probably a lot for you to appreciate in Pandemonium<\/em>. At the\nvery least, it is a beautifully lensed movie that takes you deep down into the\ngrimmest depths of Hell.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This motion picture will be available on May 28th as a \u201cLimited Edition\u201d Blu-ray from Arrow Video. While many are familiar with local independent horror pictures, the French have been delivering their fair share of creepers since the beginning of cinema. In the past few decades, the country has become known for examples of extreme […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":28717,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[213,826,1769,1836,3073,5686,5792,7798,7932,9028,9319,9469,15678,15679,15680,15681,16513],"class_list":["post-28709","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dvdblu-ray-reviews","tag-213","tag-afterlife","tag-arden-bajraktaraj","tag-arrow-video","tag-blu-ray-review","tag-demons","tag-devil","tag-france","tag-french","tag-hell","tag-horror","tag-hugo-dillon","tag-pandemonium","tag-pandemonium-blu-ray-review","tag-pandemonium-movie-review","tag-pandemonium-review","tag-quarxx"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28709","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=28709"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28709\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=28709"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=28709"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=28709"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}