Stuck like a chewing gum on hair.

Photograph after the last house party that went wrong in my apartment.

If I had to rate the level of disturbance a certain movie has managed to create, I would definitely rate it higher than Midsommer. If Midsommer managed to bring out the vulnerability of one character under the influence of drugs in a particular scene, the French movie CLIMAX has brought out the vulnerability of a whole dance crew under the influence of drugs. That too despite them all knowing they have been drugged. The movie drags you into not just the vulnerabilities but also their emotional conflicts as they no longer remember what is right and what is wrong. 

The movie CLIMAX is stuck in my head just like a chewing gum stuck on your hair. It refuses to go away and I need to make an effort to get rid of it. And the only way I can think of it is writing about it. I had been keeping away watching this film for a couple of weeks after a friend recommended it to me. I usually don't watch trailers if somebody has recommended a film to me. So I downloaded it and forgot about it until I was reminded again. I tried watching it, only to realize it to be in French. Therefore, I put it away again and asked my friend to send me the subtitles. Since I was going to travel back home, I decided to watch it once home. I landed back home last Saturday and decided check what was so 'trippy' about this movie. Plus, it was also the hundredth movie in my list of movies I watched in 2020. 

I started the movie and I could not hear anything. The movie opens with a girl covered in blood, walking in pristine white snow. The visual itself was a top shot and looked so beautiful that it didn't bother me that there was no sound. But only when I fast-forwarded it to dialogues, did I realize that the sound was on mute. I played the movie again from the beginning. I still feel that that particular scene looked so peaceful without the sound, considering that this was a movie about a dance group gone wild due to the overdose of LSD.

I decided to divide the film into three parts. The first part where the dancers are being interviewed on questions that have rarely to do with dance. Then there are several dance shots - the first one being before they begin partying and the other one after they have had a considerable amount of the Sangria laced with LSD. The second part of the film is rather chaotic because the people have now started realizing that their Sangria has been laced with LSD. At this stage, everybody is now rapidly losing control of themselves. There is an instance of a Muslim man being kicked out because he was the one who did not drink and is thus automatically a suspect. Then there is a moment where a little kid who is the son of probably, the manager accidentally drinks the same Sangria. The dialogue "Tito is fried" rings in your head as you realize Tito has touched the electric socket of the room his mom has locked him in so that the overdosed adults don't hurt him. Coincidentally the shrill cries of Tito when he is alive and scared and the trauma going on inside Selva's head resonates with each other. They get into your own head, making you go back to your personal memory of overdose. The third phase of the movie suddenly goes calm when the frame opens with Psyche still dancing and shots of some of the dancers sleeping peacefully, or screaming or even scratching themselves violently. The movie ends with one of the most unsusceptible characters putting drops of ACID in her eyes, thus indicating that she was the one who put LSD in the Sangria.

After watching CLIMAX, I was spellbound and disturbed. Disturbed not because of what the characters did or whatever happened but because it suddenly put me into the thought of the parties I attend. Although everyone in the dance group here knew each other and were working together, none of them had the slightest idea of anybody doing something like this. Despite being a movie, there was no clear intention, apart from the competition, yet what is alarming is that it was created out of a real-life event that had taken place in France. As awkward as it may sound, a similar situation may happen anywhere and it is only better than one brings their own alcohol or make their own drinks or not drink at all in a party unless those people are really close to you. You never know who might add what in your drink or even in what you smoke. These are definitely dark and difficult times and its better to stay safe than be sorry.