PANDEMONIUM screened at Grimmfest 2023 on Friday 6th October, and before the screening I had a chance to sit down with the writer/director Quarxx to pick his brains about the flick.
Could you describe Pandemonium in one sentence?
One hellish trip to hell.
That’s catchy! How did the idea come about?
A personal experience where I had a NDA? How do you say it? A near-death experience? NDE?
I thought you meant non-disclosure agreement! That’s NDA.
I was surfing in Bali where I was living in Indonesia at the time and I drowned. I got caught into a current and to make a long story short, after a couple of waves hitting me, I turned into a washing machine mode and you don’t know which way is up, which way is down, and I start breathing water and I’m gone. I woke up, I went into a coma and I got rescued actually. So I woke up and I remembered that I was left alone in the middle of the sea. So there was no chance for me to escape that situation, really no chance. But then when I woke up I thought I was dead, I really thought I was dead. I was pretty sure. And so, but then I had that two or, I don’t know how long it lasted, maybe two or three minutes that I left alone. After I woke up there was nobody, so I touched myself and I had my sensation. I said, OK, this is death, you know, it’s like, OK, it’s like another alternative of life, because you have this feeling and you still are in… I’m still in my body. So after the nurse came in and she explained to me that I got rescued, actually, and I was very, very lucky. And… but this experience initiated the process of, what, the idea of pandemonium. What about if you wake up to find out that you’re dead?
That’s a very strong concept isn’t it? When did it become an anthology thing of sorts, with different stories? Did you have these different stories already and thought they’d fit into this framework?
I wanted to change the usual course of storytelling. By using that anthology element, I wanted to feel that the main character of Nathan was going through the circles of hell. Actually, at the beginning, I had more stories. But because of the time frame of the film and because of the budget I had to choose, I had to make only three. But I thought that it was interesting to have this idea of the main character feeling pain through the pain of others, not his own pain. I thought as he’s meeting his soul in hell, he’s going deeper and deeper into the circles of hell. So that’s why I wanted to use different stories, but that they are all related to him because he’s experiencing the pain and suffering of this, of those characters having those other stories. I thought it was meaningful to play it that way.
In the film there’s some really striking imagery and scenes. What were some of your inspirations there?
One of the inspirations is I wanted really to pay a tribute to a filmmaker that really pushed me into doing filmmaking myself. When I was seven years old, I saw the film THE BEYOND from Lucho Fulci. I was seven, right? That’s a pretty hardcore film. It really blew my mind away. I don’t know what it did to my brain, but it just exploded every cell, every brain cell that I have. I thought to myself, this is exactly what I want to do with my life. I remember that moment. For me that film was really to sign the contract of the kid that I was, watching Lucio Fulci’s film and his picture of hell at the end that totally blew me away. I said to myself, okay, this is what I want to do. So I signed that contract by doing this film, and I paid this tribute to Lucio Fulci’s INFERNO at the end, which I retake in my film and change it a little bit, but I was totally inspired by THE BEYOND.
What do you think of the current state of horror in cinema?
Depending on where you’re placing yourself, because in France it sucks pretty much. Very, very difficult to to produce something that is not like a drama or a psychological drama or something very social. I don’t know what’s going on, and I also think that with horror films there’s a lot going on but most of them are not very good. I think it’s really a genre where many people start or when you don’t have any money, you go to horror very quickly. So I don’t really know what to say. Sometimes I’m quite pessimistic, but every now and then I’m watching a film and I’m saying “Wow okay, they are saving everything”, because there still are guys that are using the brain and are really working hard and have so much talent. But when you compare it to the old package, it’s tough. It’s tough. I’m really happy when I write. I’m not a horror fan, to be honest. I’m just writing stories wherever they need me. If it is that horrific, very well. But if it’s not, it’s fine as well. I don’t really like to be labeled. I didn’t even know with my previous film, it was called ALL THE GODS IN THE SKY, and I didn’t know that I was doing a genre film, to be honest. I thought it was a surrealistic drama. Everybody told me it’s a horror film, it’s a genre film, and you’re a part of the new French extremism and everything. But I didn’t feel that I was part of it. For me, cinema should be like life. Life is a mix of genre, from the morning until the time you go to bed at night, you experience so many different kinds of feelings and emotions. You can be scared, you can laugh, there’s sadness and there’s sex and there’s greed and there’s so many. I think cinema should be a reflection of that.I don’t like when people go to a linear path, you know, like that. I like to make it, you know, a lot more….
More like life.
Not a straight line.
What’s the best film you’ve seen recently, whether it’s new or old?
I saw an amazing film last week, it’s actually from a friend of mine, I forget his name…. Karim, Karim Ouelhaj. It’s called MEGALOMANIAC, it’s a Belgian film and it really blew my mind. It’s absolutely amazing.
We screened that at Grimmfest last year.
It’s amazing. It’s a very, very, very good film. I want to add another one that I’ve seen a few months ago that’s an absolutely crazy film it’s called THE PAINTED BIRD. So PAINTED BIRD and MEGALOMANIAC are my two best films that I’ve seen this year. Absolutely amazing film, both of them. Best by some distance.
What’s up next for you?
I got two films going on, pre-production right now. One is called THE THINGS INSIDE ME, and I’m going to Sitges tomorrow, pitching it at Fan Lab. We won the best scenario at the BIFF in April, so we were invited to Sitges with that. This one is about a mother who has this condition, about the Munchausen syndrome. It’s a really fucked up condition.
My other movie is called BODY AND SOUL and this is going to be the most atrocious, violent, incredibly crazy film I’ve ever put on film, ever. That’s why I have a lot of problems producing it, because it’s very, very controversial. Up to the point that you even cannot imagine.
I’m intrigued!
I have a shit storm coming up to me right now because of some sequence in this film. People say that it’s totally impossible to ever shoot that. I say yes, of course it is because it’s kind of fun. But they don’t really agree with me. I’m fighting so hard for that film. We have a great cast and we also already have international buyers on it so it’s going great. It’s looking alright.