Another heck of a trip by French auteur Gaspar Noe

Rating: 7/10 (3 March 2019)

I was glad to hear when Gaspar Noe released a horror film finally last year in 2018. His previous titles with the exception of Love were almost in the horror genre at times, especially his first 3 films. To me his third film, Irreversible is a genre bender of horror, suspense, drama, and romantic genres all rolled in 1 with an artistic flair that was inventive and most definitely a unique 1 of a kind film. So I was very eager to see what he had in store with Climax since most of the early reviews classified the film as horror, and I'm a horror fanatic. Climax is a psychological horror film to me with a simple storyline. A dance crews party goes from partying, fun, and dancing to a trip through hell after lsd spiked sangria is ingested by everyone there. The first half of the film is mostly dance numbers with little character introduction. What ensues in the second half is nightmarish and unsettling at times especially if the viewer has ever had a bad experience or a bad trip with use of drugs. The film is nowhere near Noe's more violent films in the past, but still has a feeling of dread especially in the second half of the film. The film is supposedly based on a true instance from 1996 in France so is said in the opening credits. Climax has a few similar like scenes that Hint of 2 of his previous films throughout that I've found. The trippy visuals that hints of Enter The Void , and a few scenes of a character walking down a red tunnel that can only remind the viewer of the most haunting red subway tunnel rape scene from his masterpiece in my opinion, Irreversible. The film is not one of Gaspar Noes best by far but it is still a film to experience just like the rest of his body of work.