This Trippy A24 Horror Movie Should Have Never Flopped At The Box Office

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Gaspar Noé's 2018 dance/horror film "Climax" is, to put it as plainly as possible, messed up. The premise is as simple as it is nightmarish, and the bleak, long-take filming style makes the movie's initial fear expand into blind, sweaty, overwhelming panic. Once the horror begins, the only thing the characters — and the audience — can do is ride it out. 

"Climax" takes place in 1996, and follows the travails of a French dance troupe as they attend a wild wrap party following a massive performance. "Climax" is thrilling from the jump, with the dance troupe engaging in a long and elaborately choreographed number that Noé plays out in one prolonged take. The dancing is incredible, and everyone is exhilarated. The troupe is led by Selva (Sofia Boutella), and made up mostly of local aspiring dancers who are stoked to be involved in a troupe of this size. At the afterparty, the camera continues to swirl among the dancers as they converse, gossip, and dance to the music of the DJ (Kiddy Smile). They all drink long draughts from a giant bowl of sangria, and get swept away in the energy. 

Of course, if you know the filmography of Gaspar Noé, then you know that this evening is about to get horrifying. Noé is the enfant terrible behind films like "Irreversible," "Enter the Void," and "Love," so he likes to play on the outer edge of extremity. "Climax" isn't as intense as "Irreversible," but it's pretty close. 

At that afterparty, you see, someone has spiked the sangria with a powerful hallucinogen. Everyone has had some, and they're all freaking out. There is a lot of panic and screaming. Then more screaming. Then danger, rage, and violence. 

The film bombed, making only $1.7 million on a $2.9 million budget.

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Because none of the dancers intended to take a hallucinogen that night, they are all immediately enraged and terrified. As they slip further and further from lucidity, they begin to accuse one another of spiking the punch, and they even begin attacking each other. A young child (Vince Galliot Cumant) was at the party as well, and he also drank some of the sangria. His mother (Claude Gajan Maull), to protect him, locks him in an electrical closet. One cannot imagine that turning out well. 

With inhibitions lowered, there is also eventually a sexual element to "Climax." A woman named Eva (Léa Vlamos) passionately makes out with Selva, while a brother/sister duo ... well, maybe I'd better not describe too much more. /Film is a family-friendly website. Needless to say, by the time the sun rises, there will be blood. 

In an interview with Candid Magazine, Gaspar Noé revealed that he extrapolated "Climax" from a real story about a dance troupe in the 1990s who were all collectively drugged by a spiked punchbowl at a party. In real life, the dance troupe all unexpectedly hallucinated, but they survived the night. In Noé's version of things, everything turned out terribly for everyone. He also said that the making of "Climax" was a very organic experience, shooting the entire film chronologically, and letting a lot of the story elements, and all of the dialogue, be improvised on the spot. Most of the cast were non-professionals, and he even admitted that he didn't meet the only two professionals in his movie —Sofia Boutella and Souheila Yacoub from "Evil Dead Burn" — until a few days before the shoot. 

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You already know from the description above whether "Climax" is the kind of movie you want to see. "Climax" isn't gory or anything, but it is shrill, loud, and horrifying. And the long takes and camera closeups keep the audience pressed right up against the screaming chaos. The movie is only 96 minutes, but after 60 of them, you're going to feel just as panicked as the characters. There is no release. There is just roiling in hallucinatory hell. 

The critics were, as one might expect, mixed on "Climax." Sheila O'Malley, writing for RogerEbert.com, described the second half of the movie as an unholy mix of an Agatha Christie mystery and "Lord of the Flies." She continued: 

"Maybe Noé is an acquired taste. Maybe he's not your thing at all. He can be hard to take, and sometimes it's all a little bit silly, 'Climax' included. But Noé is a personal filmmaker, an artist, with a unique vision and style, pulling off feats with bravura, like a lion tamer taking a melodramatic bow. He's grandiose and more than a little bit mad. If you think too hard about what 'Climax' means, the film deflates. It's not news that civilization is a thin veneer and human beings need very little excuse to go off the rails."

And that's true. The chaos is the point, not some deeper message. Noé just wants to plunge you into the human experience just as it's flying off the rails. There's no deeper truth than the hallucinatory. /Film liked it. 

Noé's most recent movie, 2021's "Vortex," starred Italian director Dario Argento as a man who was slowly growing apart from his dementia-suffering wife. The movie was presented in split-screen. Noé can never be faulted for not being ambitious.