All the Gods in the Sky

It is not a comfortable horror. Basic, because it has not a real plot . Only, few plots for choose the most closed to you. A brother, his sister, an accident in childhood , the isolation and a life who seems be slice of dream. And the radical change. It can be perceived as a parable or just part , with few dark poetic inovations, of near reality. The verdict is yourself. And, maybe, this liberty of interpretation is the basic motif to see it as a different horror or Svci. Fi. , or thriller escaping from the limits of genres and becoming a sort of challenge.

This is a dark, unflinching look at guilt and abuse. The trauma of a childhood accident has pushed Simon, now in his early 30s, to the edge of madness. Caring for his sister who carries the physical scars, he is almost equally debilitated by the psychological toll it has taken on him. His grasp on reality becoming more tenuous, is what he is experiencing a genuine escape or just the last vestiges of sanity slipping away ? It is a gruelling watch, with a mixture of body horror, violence and an underlying tradegy at a loss of childhood inocenents. Sometimes muddled with too many story themes it still maintains a dark fascination to the very end.

As singular as his director Quarxx. Between a flashback of the past and the prediction of a foretold drama? The life of a man in which, as the social worker says, "there's nothing to steal here!". Who'd want his life? And then that lunar face of Estelle (Melanie Gaydos) who shares with her brother a possible deliverance to come. She in the silence of a few tears and him with this cold anger against him, the others who judge or pretend to want to help and against this sky that is waiting for us? A UFO.

I'm not sure I could spoil the movie. Well not within a certain limit of characters that is. Don't worry though I'm not going to say anything that will spoil the movie for you. This really digs in deep and handles childhood trauma and other things in a very mad way.

There might not be much that makes sense to most watching this and there are some silver linings, but you really have to pay attention to things happening and not happening - no pun intended. This really is quite crazy, are you up for it?

In France ,where the film passed almost unnoticed on the feel good scene,it was labelled " horror " movie and got a R-16.

When they were children ,Simon and Estelle toyed with their dad's gun ; accidentally the brother made his sister a monster who lives a vegetative life . Another flashback shows the boy put the blame on his father who should not have left a loaded gun in a drawer.

Now adults ,Simon takes care of his disabled sister, but his motives remain obscure: is it because he is consumed with remorse?(whereas he's not really responsible) or is it because God (check the title)has plans for them ? (one sees Simon in an open field cursing the sky )?Most likely ,he is waiting for some ETs to take them away (the sister resembles a sci-fi ET cliché and in the last part,so does her sibling .There are close shots of a star (the sun?) and once again ,Simon call them :"come and take us!we are ready !")

It can also be seen as a rebellion against the establishment ,here represented by a doctor and a social worker (in the one real violent scene in the movie);after all ,in spite of her "progresses", is the sister happier in the convent?The nuns represent another side of the repression.

This is a complex movie,not your routine horror flick where gore and special effects get the lion's share ;there's another keyword:game ; the brother tells his sister tales of far away and long ago ,when fair knights rescued damsel in distress;he pays a man to make love to her ; he invites a strange little girl to play with her : she uses her as a doll , painting her lips and making up her eyes ;and towards the end ,the siblings' roles seem to be reversed .

Quarkxx (Alexandre Claudin) is certainly one of the most promising newcomers to emerge in the decade;should he continue in that vein, he will be a name to reckon with in the years to come.