10 More 'WTF Did I Just Pay To See' Horror Movies

4. Climax

Men 2022 Movie Rory Kinnear
Wild Bunch

Gaspar Noe's psychedelic feature Climax opens with a group of French dancers celebrating after completing an intricate dance rehearsal. Upon learning the sangria has been spiked with LSD, it isn't long before everyone is at each others' throats, figuratively and literally. 

Climax is difficult to sit through, even before the hallucinogens kick in, since the troupe turn on one another immediately, which results in one person being locked outside and freezing to death.

As the drugs' effects set in, the ensemble embraces every decadent instinct and paranoid thought, causing them to attack their friends, stab themselves, and even engage in incestuous sex. Since the manager's child drank the sangria too, he's locked in an electrical room to keep him away from all the depravity. (That situation ends as well as you'd imagine.) Somehow, things only get worse during the third act, when the dancers suffer a drug-induced psychosis.

To amplify the cerebral experience, the entire movie is filmed in one unbroken shot, meaning the hellish trip plays out in real-time. The filming becomes more erratic and distorted as the story progress, amplifying the chaos exponentially.

Climax is worth a watch, but most viewers will be deeply disoriented when it's all said and done.

 
Posted On: 
Contributor

James Egan has been with Whatculture for five years and prominently works on Horror, Film, and Video Games. He's written over 80 books including 1000 Facts about Horror Movies Vol. 1-3 1000 Facts about The Greatest Films Ever Made Vol. 1-3 1000 Facts about Video Games Vol. 1-3 1000 Facts About James Bond 1000 Facts About TV Shows