There are filmmakers to take home to meet your parents and then there's Gaspar Noé, a man who is to fragile sensibilities what a bull is to an overstocked china shop. There's nothing half-hearted about his movies, no half measures, and **Enter The Void **is just as visceral, confronting and arresting as you'd expect from the man who gave the world Irréversible.
It's also a unique visual experience, a neon-lit triptomatic fairytale set in Toyko by night - Murakami meets **Blade Runner **by way of half a gallon of PCP. It's influences are as diverse as '50s noir, Kenneth Anger and 2001. Fear And Loathing might be a touchpoint too, as you can see from this clip in which American drop-out Oscar (newcomer Nathaniel Brown) takes a hit of DMT and slips into a psychedelic reverie. Shot completely POV-style, its bonkers and brilliant all at once.
The high is prelude to a drug deal that goes catastrophically wrong for Oscar. He's condemned to a floating, ambient existence looking down on the lives of his sister and those he was close to. It won't be everyone's cup of green tea, but it's haunting, truly original and just a little bit demented.
Enter The Void is out on September 24.