Climax 2019

As the winter of 1996 descended upon the rural landscape, a troupe of French dancers, led by the enigmatic Emmanuelle (manager) and the visionary Selva (choreographer), converged on an abandoned school to fine-tune their craft for an upcoming performance. The group’s collective energy was palpable as they celebrated the completion of their intricate closing piece with an impromptu after-party, fueled by sangria concocted by Emmanuelle herself, accompanied by Goth Daddy’s haunting melodies. As the night wore on, the dancers’ personal demons and insecurities began to surface, with whispers and snide remarks circulating like a toxic mist.

However, as the party reached its crescendo, an eerie sense of disorientation settled over the group. The usually reserved Psyché’s uncharacteristic decision to urinate on the floor served as a harbinger of chaos, prompting Selva to grasp the gravity of the situation. It soon became apparent that the sangria had been surreptitiously laced with a powerful hallucinogen, likely LSD. Initially, the dancers targeted Emmanuelle, believing she was responsible for the tainted libation. However, she countered by pointing out her own vulnerability, having consumed the drink herself.

The group’s suspicions then turned to Omar, a teetotaler who had wisely abstained from the sangria. Taylor, already seething with resentment towards his sister Gazelle and her romantic involvement with Omar, seized upon this perceived slight, accusing him of being the mastermind behind the spiked drink. The dancers’ ire was piqued, and they summarily locked Omar outside, exposing him to the biting cold.

As the evening descended further into madness, Emmanuelle took measures to protect her young son Tito from the mayhem, confining him to an electrical room. Selva rushed to the aid of her friend Lou, who was struggling with the effects of the drug despite not having partaken in the sangria. Lou’s revelation that she was pregnant only seemed to heighten the group’s paranoia and aggression.

Dom, already deeply affected by the hallucinogen, entered Lou’s room, where he became convinced that she had spiked the drink. His accusatory outbursts escalated into physical violence, with Dom delivering vicious kicks to Lou’s stomach as she lay helpless on the floor. Meanwhile, in the kitchen, an altercation erupted between Alaia and Jennifer over a disputed stash of cocaine, resulting in Jennifer’s hair being set ablaze when Alaia pushed her against a portable stove.

As the group’s collective psyche continued to unravel, Lou, still reeling from Dom’s assault, confronted him on the dance floor. However, the dancers’ already fragile mental states were further compromised by the LSD, leading them to turn on Lou with vengeful intensity. Initially armed with a knife to defend herself, Lou’s emotional breakdown was precipitated by the group’s taunts, which ultimately drove her to self-mutilation. It was only through the compassionate intervention of Eva that Lou was finally able to find solace amidst the chaos.

Here is a rephrased version of the section:

Selva’s drug-addled haze forces her to navigate the darkened building, where she stumbles upon Emmanuelle frantically searching for the key to Tito’s cell. The air is thick with the sounds of screams and chaos as Selva’s disoriented gaze falls upon Taylor and his cohorts brutally assaulting David, whose earlier lecherous behavior had earned him their scorn. As the power flickers out, a mocking voice jests that Tito has electrocuted himself, plunging the school into an eerie red glow.

Meanwhile, Ivana drags Selva through the corridors, passing by a distraught Eva in a shower cubicle, where she’s desperately trying to wash away the bloodied remnants of Lou’s gruesome wounds. The two eventually retreat to Ivana’s room, seeking solace in each other’s arms as the world around them descends into chaos. David, rebuffed and rejected, stumbles upon Gazelle and Taylor in flagrante delicto, only to be unceremoniously ejected from the scene. Undeterred, he attempts to crash DJ Daddy’s pad but is summarily kicked out once more.

As he navigates the darkened hallways, David stumbles upon a sea of hallucinations as the remaining dancers succumb to their drug-fueled psychosis. The air is filled with the sounds of primal screams, wild chanting, and frenzied lovemaking as bodies writhe on the floor. Amidst this mayhem, Gazelle flees from Taylor’s advances, only to stumble into the central hall where she collapses amidst the madness.

As the night wears on, Taylor catches up to Gazelle, professing his love for her in a desperate attempt to calm her frazzled nerves. But Gazelle’s seizure is a harbinger of things to come, and Taylor eventually carries her off to his room as David falls prey to another dancer’s brutal assault.

The next morning, police find the building awash in devastation, with nearly all the dancers either comatose or lifeless. Amidst this carnage, Psyché continues to dance alone, lost in her own private world of hallucinations. Dom curls up in a ball, consumed by grief and despair, while Omar’s frozen corpse lies outside, a grim testament to the night’s atrocities.

As the authorities survey the damage, they discover Emmanuelle’s lifeless body outside the electrical room, her demise a tragic consequence of her grief-stricken state. Tito’s cadaver lies nearby, his fate sealed in the very room where he had once been imprisoned. Eva, naked and catatonic, is found curled up in a shower cubicle, while Jennifer screams in agony as she tends to her own ravaged scalp.

And then there’s Lou, who emerges from the building, his eyes wild with madness as he writhes in the snow outside, lost to the world around him. As the police search the premises, Psyché slips into her room, where a stash of hallucinogenic texts awaits her. With eerie calm, she drops liquid LSD onto her eyeball, embracing the chaos that surrounds her.