Review: Quarxx's 'Pandemonium' (2024)

Vague Visages’ Pandemoniumreview contains minor spoilers. Quarxx’s 2023 movie on Amazon, Apple and Arrow Player features Arben Bajraktaraj, Hugo Dillon and Ophélia Kolb. Check out the VV home page for more film reviews, along with cast/character summaries, streaming guides and complete soundtrack song listings.

*

Horror fans shouldn’t expect a clean and traditional narrative structure while viewing a French nightmare tale. But there should be cohesive pacing that allows the audience to vibe with the inherent horror. Pandemonium, written and directed by Quarxx, feels like two incomplete films — one about two male ghosts arguing about their existence after a car crash, the second focusing on a child serial killer and grieving mother. The ties that bind each tale drip with suspense (and blood), yet the messy climax reveals a film that needed tighter storytelling to complement the cryptic messaging about the essence of human nature.

On a foggy mountainside road, 45-year-old Nathan (Hugo Dillon) wakes up after colliding with a vehicle. Moments later, a seemingly injured motorcyclist named Daniel (Arben Bajraktaraj) emerges from the wreckage. The characters subsequently clash about life, death and their past sins, with both men acknowledging their demise and entrance into a different realm. Nathan admits to a mercy killing involving his sick wife (who had been suffering from multiple sclerosis), and Daniel acknowledges that he accidentally struck a young girl, who then appears to both men as a curious spirit. After the rather impressive opening, full of heavy and somewhat stiff dialogue interpretations, Quarxx spends Pandemonium’s second act focusing on an evil child, Nina (Manon Maindivide), who fantasizes about living with “Tony the Monster” (Carl Laforêt) upon murdering her parents and younger sister. Meanwhile, a woman named Julia (Ophélia Kolb) refuses to acknowledge the death of her bullied daughter, Chloé (Sidwell Weber). A “princess” theme clearly links each story, but Pandemonium slowly loses its way through lackluster visual effects, questionable dialogue and a bizarre final act.

Pandemonium Review: Related — Know the Cast: ‘Nightwatch: Demons Are Forever’

Quarxx, after executing Pandemonium’s fascinating opening act, abandons the male leads in favor of straightforward gore and suggestive visual messaging. As Nina, the aforementioned Maindivide is entirely believable as a young serial killer, especially during a theatre sequence that might just remind older viewers of Robert De Niro’s delusional antihero Rupert Pupkin from Martin Scorsese’s underrated 1982 film The King of Comedy. As Nina discusses a “magic cellar” with Tony the Monster, she stages her dead parents for a self-serving theatrical performance — one of Pandemonium’s highlights that succeeds by further infusing the tale with a dark edge that will no doubt challenge the patience of casual moviegoers. Quarxx mostly receives strong performances from his collective cast, with Kolb arguably delivering the most polished acting and Weber exuding star potential; however, the narrative descent into a literal hellscape devalues the movie’s overall quality.

Pandemonium Review: Related — Soundtracks of Cinema: ‘Dampyr’

A stronger script and more attention to detail would’ve benefitted Pandemonium. During the opening act, Nathan reveals that he “kinda” killed his wife to Daniel, a character who quickly moves along with an existential commentary rather than naturally asking some logical questions. Later, during a hellscape sequence, Nathan casually says “I don’t like you” to a menacing demon; a bizarre and underdeveloped line of dialogue during a crucial moment. Quarxx guides the audience along through a French nightmare tale in Pandemonium but doesn’t seem fully invested in what’s scary beyond the surface-level gore. He swings for the fences and falls on home plate in the process.

Pandemonium released digitally (Arrow Player, Amazon, Apple) on May 27, 2024.

Q.V. Hough (@QVHough) is Vague Visages’ founding editor.

Pandemonium Review: Related — Know the Cast: ‘Late Night with the Devil’

Related