Frightfest 2023: ‘Pandemonium’ Review
Stars: Hugo Dillon, Ophelia Kolb, Arben Bajraktaraj, Manon Maindivide | Written and Directed by Quarxx
Nathan and Daniel wake at the scene of a car crash, confused and seemingly unscathed. The two men begin to slowly understand that they did not make it. They are dead. Nathan’s previous acts will now determine his fate, however reprehensible they might have been. He will have to leave this earthly world and enter the depths of Hell that await him for all eternity and be confronted with other tormented souls whose pain he will be forced to experience…
Essentially an anthology, Pandemonium feels heavily inspired by the likes of Dante’s Inferno and it’s seven circles of hell, with Nathan only beginning his descent into hell – viewing the scions and stories of those who have come before him in two very different stories, with Nathan’s own story – a car crash, causing the death of innocents and the consequences that await him in hell, being the “wraparound” of this multi-story movie.
Whilst the stories in Pandemonium are connected by Nathan = we see what he sees as he touches the bodies of the dead in some Fulci-esque hellscape (the early visuals of hell, with its bodies strewn on dusty ground really look like they belong in Fulci’s The Beyond); the stories are also connected by writer/director Quarxx’s stunning visuals… an open door on an empty road; a deformed “monster” taking a bath; a jam sandwich; a daughter, now dead, sliding out of frame as her mother gets ready to go out; then the monsters and demons of hell in the closing portion of the wraparound – they’re all visual that will stick with you long after the film is over.
As will the stories.
The first sees a young girl left alone in a vast French mansion after her parents are killed by the daughter’s monstrous friend. Whether that friend is real or not is beautifully played out throughout this particular portion of the film – the manic performance of the young (as it turns out) psychopath never really gives us any clues until a grisly scene which ends in a terrifying Hansel and Gretel fashion! Then there’s the second tale – of a daughter bullied into suicide, whose mother can’t comprehend her daughter’s hatred for school then her daughter’s apparent suicide in the family bathroom. It’s a bleak look at bullying, loss and what it means to be a parent.
Then Pandemonium returns to Nathan’s story. And Quarxx unleashes the type of hellish visual you’d expect from the French Extreme Cinema wave – full of blood and gore but also marked by a dark sense of humour that feels like a wry nod to those who like their horror bloody.
**** 4/5
Pandemonium screened as part of this year’s Frightfest London.
