The restrained story centers on Simon (Jean-Luc Couchard), a factory worker who lives in an isolated farm with his severely disfigured bedridden sister Estelle far away from the society. He cares for his sister while preparing for the awaited arrival of mysterious "those up there" who just might be the siblings' salvation. Simon is plagued with guilt and depression and keeps the secret hope deep in his flesh of saving his sister by freeing her from earthly gravity. He will soon discover that this is not what it seems to be and conceals a dark and macabre truth.
Visually the film is one of the most stunning in recent memory, we are seized from these first moments by its aesthetic which evokes the scenes close to that of David Lynch films, the cinematography of Antoine Carpentier is simply sublime.
The idea of insidious contamination of body and mind is at the heart of the film. The director plays with the expectations and the psychology of the spectator, primal fears, fear of disease, madness (and also ET creatures in the process) and the atmosphere is carried by a shadowy external photography and a powerful cinematography whose use of lights transforms the vastness of the setup into a sum of little closed places, conveying the disturbing feeling of a suffocating paranoia. Quarxx operates a delicate stylistic transition, in our eyes successful, more flamboyant summoning the spirit of the films of the Lynch or a Cronenberg. If New French Extremity techniques between Cronenberg and Lovecraft to raise the tension, helped by an anxious sound-design he also knows how to turn this "old-school" approach against the spectator with shock scenes whose impact comes from the fact that the camera does not don't turn away.
I mentioned in the early paragraph the atmosphere of the film and, no pun intended, it's indeed the key element that drives the film. The atmosphere is so intense that we don't need to be scared, because we constantly keep our guard up, it's the kind of situations so calm we know something will happen. If you like horror films to be clear and unambiguous, you won't have much fun here, as " All the Gods in the Sky " reveals a different result to almost every viewer. This French gem fits many genres into one film, and it pays off in the end.
I mentioned in the early paragraph the atmosphere of the film and, no pun intended, it's indeed the key element that drives the film. The atmosphere is so intense that we don't need to be scared, because we constantly keep our guard up, it's the kind of situations so calm we know something will happen. If you like horror films to be clear and unambiguous, you won't have much fun here, as " All the Gods in the Sky " reveals a different result to almost every viewer. This French gem fits many genres into one film, and it pays off in the end.