10 Horror Movies That Wage War On Your Senses

3. Climax

Berberian Sound Studio
A24

If there was ever a word to describe the films of Gasper Noé, it would be excessive.

In literally every sense, Noé's films have always been beyond gratuitous in their use of sex, violence, and striking visuals, but Climax is undoubtedly his most sensory experience to date.

It tells the simple story of a dance troupe who decide to blow off some steam in the only way they know how - by dancing and consuming enough booze and drugs to kill a small village. However, what many of them aren't aware of is that someone has spiked the punch bowl with LSD, and things soon turn ugly.

In a stroke of genius, we never see what the characters see, their acid-induced hallucinations are kept secret - but the film's bold colour pallette, serpentine camerawork, and throbbing dance music all combine to create a perpetually excruciating experience that will be permanently seared into your mind after seeing it.

Climax is, for lack of a better word, exhausting. There's so much happening at any given moment and the sheer intensity of it all becomes almost unbearable as the film inches ever closer to the end credits.

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Contributor

UK based screenwriter, actor and one-half of the always-irreverent Kino Inferno podcast. Purveyor of cult cinema, survival horror games and low-rent slasher films.