Dancers rehearsing in an abandoned school are plunged into violent mayhem when the sangria they’re drinking is spiked with excessive amounts of LSD.

Sometimes I crave absurdly spicy food that provides a little endorphin rush alongside the suffering, which is the only reasonable comparison to my impulses to watch intense horror movies. Every viewer has a spice preference for their horror, but a wave  of international interest in ultra-spicy horror spawned a movement called New Extremity. Filmmaker Gaspar Noé is a known provocateur whose visceral art house movies are often associated with the movement due to their unflinching violence. I recall needing a break in the middle of Irreversible (2002). If you know, you know.

CLIMAX (2018) begins with a montage of interviews from young performers who discuss their passions, sex, fears and aspirations. They then perform as a group in a deserted school gymnasium, voguing, whacking and break dancing to the DJs endless pumping beats. It’s the final grueling rehearsal of many, so they celebrate with sangria and slip away into conversation to gossip and size each other up. But things slowly unwind as each person spirals unknowingly into a sweaty psychedelic trip that creates paranoia and violent tendencies amongst the troupe.

The soundtrack blares as they run amok through the campus, panicking, dancing, fighting to maintain their grasp on reality. This movie does it all: drugs, rape, self-harm, child death, physical abuse, piss, group sex. Noé movies are experiential.  The camera spins, it’s upside down and on the ceiling, drawing us deeper into pandemonium. 

It’s the Hot Ones of horror if you can stomach it. You may even learn a dance move or two.