Climax/Trauma
In the video essay “Climax | The Most Anxious Film Ever?”, filmmaker and critic Spikima Movies examines Gaspar Noé’s Climax (2018), arguing that its disturbing power lies less in explicit violence than in the film’s formal construction. According to Spikima, Climax is designed as an anxiety-generating machine, built to keep the viewer in a sustained state of psychological tension.
A central argument of the video is that the film relies heavily on anticipation. From its opening moments, Climax signals that the situation will deteriorate, without revealing when or how. This prolonged sense of foreboding places the spectator in a constant state of expectation, making the anxiety precede the narrative breakdown rather than result from it.
Spikima emph
asizes the role of mise-en-scène in maintaining this tension. Long takes, fluid camera movements, and minimal editing prevent emotional distance and deny the viewer any visual relief. The soundtrack, largely diegetic and continuous, further intensifies this effect by refusing moments of silence or release.
The film’s confined setting—an isolated building with gradually sealed exits—functions as a narrative device in its own right. As the story progresses, the space becomes increasingly claustrophobic, mirroring the characters’ loss of control. According to Spikima, this spatial entrapment reinforces the spectator’s sense of helplessness.
Another key point in the analysis is the absence of a stable emotional anchor. Climax offers no clear protagonist and no reliable moral perspective. Characters shift unpredictably, leaving the audience without a figure to identify with or a trajectory to follow. This instability further heightens the film’s unsettling effect.
Spikima concludes that Climax should be understood less as a conventional narrative film than as a sensory experience. By stripping away familiar cinematic comforts and narrative structures, Noé aims to provoke a visceral, physiological response. In this view, Climax is not merely shocking, but deliberately exhausting—an exercise in sustained anxiety rather than momentary fear.