Overview
A surreal journey through Tokyo's underbelly reveals the haunting nature of life and the afterlife.
Ember's analysis
- Pacing
- Glacial
- Intensity
- Extreme
- Complexity
- Layered
- Violence
- Moderate
- psychedelic
- hypnotic
- oppressive
- late night viewing
- experimental cinema night
What critics said
Critics broadly praised the film's hypnotic neon imagery, technical ambition, and immersive out-of-body experience, while finding its prolonged duration and melodramatic ideas divisive.
What sets it apart
May contain story progression spoilers
Oscar's perspective dominates the film, including drug-induced hallucinations and a floating postmortem viewpoint.
After Oscar is shot, his awareness continues to observe Tokyo and contemplate the possibility of an afterlife.
Tokyo nightlife, love hotels, strip clubs, and city interiors are rendered through saturated colors, strobes, and hallucinatory movement.
Oscar's flashbacks return to the childhood trauma that shaped his relationship with Linda.
Films like Enter the Void, and why
2001: A Space Odyssey
shared psychedelic visuals, metaphysical speculation, and immersive altered-state filmmaking
Irreversible
shared extreme subject matter, formal audacity, and confrontational sensory intensity
Climax
shared neon-lit urban alienation, drug culture, and fractured psychological reality
The Lovely Bones
shared out-of-body perspective, existential themes, and visually experimental fantasy drama
Movie Details
- Director
- Gaspar Noé
- Release Date
- 2010-05-05
- Runtime
- 161 min
- Rating
- 7.3 / 10 (2058)
Cast
- Paz de la Huerta
- Nathaniel Brown
- Cyril Roy
- Olly Alexander
- Masato Tanno
- Ed Spear
- Emily Alyn Lind
- Jesse Kuhn
- Nobuko Imai
- Sakiko Fukuhara
Where to watch in United States
- Streaming
- Philo, AMC Plus Apple TV channel, AMC+, Shudder, Sundance Now, MUBI
- Rent
- Apple TV Store, Google Play Movies, YouTube, Fandango At Home
- Buy
- Apple TV Store, Google Play Movies, YouTube, Fandango At Home
Streaming options come from TMDB and change over time.
Common questions
- What is Enter the Void about?
- A drug-addicted expatriate drifts beyond death through a hallucinatory Tokyo while confronting the trauma binding him to his sister.
- What is Enter the Void like to watch?
- Ember's analysis rates the pacing of Enter the Void as glacial, its intensity as extreme and its storytelling as layered.
- Is Enter the Void violent?
- Somewhat. Ember rates the violence in Enter the Void as moderate.
- What did critics think of Enter the Void?
- Critics broadly praised the film's hypnotic neon imagery, technical ambition, and immersive out-of-body experience, while finding its prolonged duration and melodramatic ideas divisive.
- Which films are like Enter the Void?
- Films with a similar feel include 2001: A Space Odyssey, Irreversible, Climax, and The Lovely Bones.
- How long is Enter the Void?
- Enter the Void runs 161 minutes.
- Where can I watch Enter the Void?
- In United States, Enter the Void streams on Philo, AMC Plus Apple TV channel, AMC+, Shudder, Sundance Now, MUBI.
