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The director Quarxx offers us in “Pandemonium” his particular vision of hell, of the concepts of good and evil, of redemption, and of what awaits us after death.
The film begins in a wonderful way introducing us to Nathan and Daniel, two men who have just had an accident and realize that as a result of it, they have died, finding themselves in a kind of limbo, waiting to be judged and to know if they are worthy to go through the gates that lead to Heaven, or on the contrary those that lead to Hell.
Their sins committed in life will determine their destiny, being forced to go through the gates of Hell, experiencing the horrors that are kept there.
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Without a doubt, these first twenty minutes are the best minutes of fantasy genre seen in all of 2023. The performances of Arben Bajraktaraj and Hugo Dillon, convey the anxiety, despair and suffering in the face of the unknown.
Despite some rather significant narrative problems, the film shines in every other aspect. the direction is wonderful and elegant, the mise-en-scene and photography are sublime, the music accompanies the images perfectly and the make-up and CGI effects match perfectly, all together creating an incredible atmosphere.
“Pandemonium” is an impeccable work on a technical and filmmaking level, which fails in its lack of narrative cohesion and in its attempt to address the concepts of good and evil, leaving the viewer confused at times, and not entirely satisfied at the end of the viewing.
Correct in the aesthetic section, who wants spectacle better to try other options. It is not frenetic and crazy: it is an auteur film that “cooks” you over a slow fire and uses some provocative themes (child psychopathy, the stubborn denial of reality or juvenile bullying) to test the emotions of the viewer.
To the non-believer (in religious terms), it may seem a crude tale. But for those who do believe in the heaven-hell-after-death dichotomy, here is a nightmarish conception of the underworld that shows why it has terrorized so many people throughout history. And yet, humanity does not change.