Out on Blu-ray on May 28, 2024, from Arrow Video
Following an accident, a man wakes up on the road out of his car with a second man standing there. Soon, doors appear. A bit later, the man finds himself in hell, where he gets to experience the suffering of others until he has satisfied the needs of his sentence.
Written and directed by Quarxx, the man behind Un ciel bleu presque parfait, Pandemonium is a trippy walk-through hell and what it can represent for different people. The story here is built of shorter stories showing how some deal with death and with pain, showing the lives of others and how this can affect someone outside looking in. The film feels like a dark fairytale, a story not fully meant to be seen, giving a voyeur aspect to some of the scenes and sequences. The film takes difficult themes, heaven and hell, and where do people go and why while not giving any specifics on religion, spirituality, or who gets to judge beyond a few beings thrown into the story who don’t really align with any belief systems specifically, preferring to go a bit more generic to catch all without bailing out. The universe created here feels both real and unreal, both like it could happen here and it’s completely impossible. Overall, the story put a lot together, odds and ends, bits and pieces, successes and failures, bringing all these characters to the screen in a cohesive manner and letting them be, live (or die), and feel.
The cast here is solid, story lead Hugo Dillon feels a bit out of place from the start, like something is off with his character and his performance, which oddly enough fits the film more and more as the story advances. Giving a stellar performance is young Manon Maindivide as Nina, she is both adorable and creepy, outshining many of the adults in the cast. Another strong performance here is that of Carl Laforêt as Tony, a deformed being who is just a wee bit off. Or maybe more. The physical performance here is great, showing how to use a character with this much prosthetic makeup and making it something that is hard to avoid, hard to not pay attention to, and this without thinking of the effects at play here. Laforêt shows a great affinity for monster parts here (and in previous films). The part of Tony seems to have emerged from the short film Les Princesses font ce qu’elles veulent (which we will need to find…). The performances overall are both odd and lovely, charming and monstruous in some cases, showing two sides of each character, sometimes more.
The special effects to achieve these monstruous beings, including Tony, come courtesy of David Scherer (and likely a few others not listed online considering the magnitude of the work) who has interesting designs for all of them, letting be each a different being, allowing them to have a personality while having some simpler concepts. The work here is beautifully ugly, giving these beings a feeling that they may not belong where they are at times (Tony in particular), but that most of them are happy with what they do.
Working with all of this talent are a few cinematographers who help shape the look of the film, or rather looks for each segment and the opening. The work by Didier Daubeach, Hugo Poisson, and Colin Wandersman creates a world for each piece of the film, working together, but with different aesthetics, creating a world when needed and connecting with each other at times, but never fully connecting the film with reality. Something is off in just about every scene and it works.
This release here is the official US release for this film on disc with a great transfer and high-quality sound, giving us a collector’s level release right it the gate. The extras here are good while not as numerous as what Arrow Video has gotten us used to. All of the extras are solid though, so there is that saying about quality over quantity. The interviews with Quarxx, one solo and one with effects supervisor Olivier Afonso, are worth checking out (maybe even a few times) and the making of featurette is entertaining. The contents, other than the disc, include new writing in the booklet, a double-sided poster, and a reversible sleeve with art by Dave Creative. All in all, a newer film is being given the treatment that is usually reserved for re-releases.