Antichrist Review
In an attempt to spark interest in this blog, not necessarily from those reading it but mostly from myself, I've decided to do something here I haven't done in quite a while; jabber on about a movie.
Sure, I could shit out a few paragraphs about all the disposable high budget popcorn flicks that are currently clogging the local cinemas (not to say I don't enjoy said "disposable high budge popcorn flicks" as much as the next red blooded American) but what would be the point of that? You already have newspapers, message boards, and probably a lot of your friends mouth fapping about blue aliens or Team Jacob already so why beat a dead horse?
Instead I'll talk about a film I'm sure most of you have never heard of and possibly never will; Antichrist.
First things first. Yes, the movie poster is a couple having sex at the base of a dead tree those are arms coming out from between the roots. Hopefully that gives you some faint idea of what your getting yourself into if by any chance you decide to go see this movie.
There's only two actors in the entire film. Willem Dafoe and Charlotte Gainsbourg star as He and She respectively. Their a married couple who lose their baby after he falls from their loft window while the couple are having sex. She ends up taking it a lot worse then He and blames herself for the whole incident. Dafoe's character, being a therapist believes medical treatment isn't the proper way for dealing with grief and that She must face her fears directly in order to overcome them. The summer before She took their child to a cabin deep in the woods called Eden to finish her thesis. He finds that this place seems to be the root of her fears and takes her back there in hopes of helping her overcome her grief. As one might expect, shit starts going pretty nuts once their in the woods and secluded from real civilization.
Perhaps I should clarify what I mean when I say "shit starts going pretty nuts." While the film is entirely in English this shouldn't by any means mean that the film should be automatically categorized as any sort of mainstream contemporary American horror film. For one, I don't think there's one jump scare the entire movie. The terror is built up entirely through psychological effect. One scene in particular that struck me was when the couple were on their way to the cabin in the woods. He wanders off by himself while their taking a break and sees a deer in a meadow. For some reason I thought of The Unborn, an American horror film that came out a year or so ago and somehow managed to blame the Nazis for all the supernatural torment that happens in the film. But I digress, while it would seem in any other film the deer's head would have turned upside down or it would have started vomiting blood or something as equally creepy yet in-your-face surreal, it didn't. Instead it just stood there starring at Dafoe's character, but when it turned to walk away it revealed half of a dead baby deer hanging from its rear. That scene alone managed to be genuinely discomforting while still managing to keep things grounded in the real world. And that's why this film works so well. Its no great feet trying to sympathize with She's overpowering despair for losing her child by sheer neglect. But the film doesn't stop there, it just keeps pounding away at the nihilism, chaos, and misogyny of it all until it just leaves you feeling drained.
This film didn't obtain an R rating and for good reason. There's graphic nudity and sex, varying degrees of sexual violence, and normal stomach churning violence as well. That's not to say it descends into "torture porn" in attempts to gross out the audience a la the Saw franchise. While there are a couple extremely graphic and haunting scenes that make one want to turn away from the screen, it all manages adds to the emotional impact and never crosses over into raw exploitation. But be warned, this film is definitely not for the squeamish. It has some of the most jarring violence I've seen on film that I can remember.
But alas, a horror film that scares is still nothing more than a film that might keep you up at night. This film really is more than that. There are so many layers to explore in the story and interpret that its really a film that forces you to think about it a great deal once the credits have already rolled by.
Even though I've been heaping vast amounts of praise on this film, I can by absolutely no means call it entertaining. The main reason I decided to see it was because it has been causing a great stir at film festivals and among critics, some even going so far as to call it the most despairing film ever made. While I don't agree with that statement, its still an artistic study on the darkest parts of human nature. Watch at your own discretion.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJ4yFyvGHnI
Sure, I could shit out a few paragraphs about all the disposable high budget popcorn flicks that are currently clogging the local cinemas (not to say I don't enjoy said "disposable high budge popcorn flicks" as much as the next red blooded American) but what would be the point of that? You already have newspapers, message boards, and probably a lot of your friends mouth fapping about blue aliens or Team Jacob already so why beat a dead horse?
Instead I'll talk about a film I'm sure most of you have never heard of and possibly never will; Antichrist.
First things first. Yes, the movie poster is a couple having sex at the base of a dead tree those are arms coming out from between the roots. Hopefully that gives you some faint idea of what your getting yourself into if by any chance you decide to go see this movie.
There's only two actors in the entire film. Willem Dafoe and Charlotte Gainsbourg star as He and She respectively. Their a married couple who lose their baby after he falls from their loft window while the couple are having sex. She ends up taking it a lot worse then He and blames herself for the whole incident. Dafoe's character, being a therapist believes medical treatment isn't the proper way for dealing with grief and that She must face her fears directly in order to overcome them. The summer before She took their child to a cabin deep in the woods called Eden to finish her thesis. He finds that this place seems to be the root of her fears and takes her back there in hopes of helping her overcome her grief. As one might expect, shit starts going pretty nuts once their in the woods and secluded from real civilization.
Perhaps I should clarify what I mean when I say "shit starts going pretty nuts." While the film is entirely in English this shouldn't by any means mean that the film should be automatically categorized as any sort of mainstream contemporary American horror film. For one, I don't think there's one jump scare the entire movie. The terror is built up entirely through psychological effect. One scene in particular that struck me was when the couple were on their way to the cabin in the woods. He wanders off by himself while their taking a break and sees a deer in a meadow. For some reason I thought of The Unborn, an American horror film that came out a year or so ago and somehow managed to blame the Nazis for all the supernatural torment that happens in the film. But I digress, while it would seem in any other film the deer's head would have turned upside down or it would have started vomiting blood or something as equally creepy yet in-your-face surreal, it didn't. Instead it just stood there starring at Dafoe's character, but when it turned to walk away it revealed half of a dead baby deer hanging from its rear. That scene alone managed to be genuinely discomforting while still managing to keep things grounded in the real world. And that's why this film works so well. Its no great feet trying to sympathize with She's overpowering despair for losing her child by sheer neglect. But the film doesn't stop there, it just keeps pounding away at the nihilism, chaos, and misogyny of it all until it just leaves you feeling drained.
This film didn't obtain an R rating and for good reason. There's graphic nudity and sex, varying degrees of sexual violence, and normal stomach churning violence as well. That's not to say it descends into "torture porn" in attempts to gross out the audience a la the Saw franchise. While there are a couple extremely graphic and haunting scenes that make one want to turn away from the screen, it all manages adds to the emotional impact and never crosses over into raw exploitation. But be warned, this film is definitely not for the squeamish. It has some of the most jarring violence I've seen on film that I can remember.
But alas, a horror film that scares is still nothing more than a film that might keep you up at night. This film really is more than that. There are so many layers to explore in the story and interpret that its really a film that forces you to think about it a great deal once the credits have already rolled by.
Even though I've been heaping vast amounts of praise on this film, I can by absolutely no means call it entertaining. The main reason I decided to see it was because it has been causing a great stir at film festivals and among critics, some even going so far as to call it the most despairing film ever made. While I don't agree with that statement, its still an artistic study on the darkest parts of human nature. Watch at your own discretion.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJ4yFyvGHnI
