Antichrist: Plenty of Sex, Grief, and Murder
For this week’s movie club we have the experimental Danish film Antichrist.
ANTICHRIST
DIRECTOR: Lars von Trier
STARRING: Willem Dafoe, Charlotte Gainsbourg
GENRE: Drama, Experimental horror
YEAR: 2009
COUNTRY: Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Sweden
A couple lose their young son when he falls out of a window while they are having sex in another room. The mother’s grief consigns her to hospital, but her therapist husband brings her home intent on treating her depression himself. To confront her fears they go to stay at their remote cabin in the woods, “Eden”, where something untold happened 
the previous summer. Told in four chapters with a prologue and epilogue, the film details acts of lustful cruelty as the man and woman unfold the darker side of nature outside and within.
I was actually blown away yet disgusted by Antichrist. The film is definitely not what I expected, as I figured it would be more along the lines of religion. While it was briefly touched on via witchcraft, it was more focused on grief then anything. The main cast, both Dafoe and Gainsbourg were absolutely fantastic as a grieving couple. I can feel the angst and the love/hate between each other. I have to mention that while gross, the visuals are absolutely stunning.
Okay now the grosses out part. First off the Three Beggars, in a sense the deities of this world, are an immortal crow, a self-disemboweling fox, and a deer with a dead fawn sticking out if its womb. What the hell? This is just a short example of the gore, as Gainsbourg smashes Dafoe’s testicles and jerks him off until he orgasms blood. Not to mention that she castrates herself via scissors. You call this art? Apparently so.
PROS:
- Main cast performances.
- Grief themes.
- Supreme direction.
CONS:
- Grotesque images.
- Three Beggars.
- Art horror?
SCORE: 5.5 / 10
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBdDcQONmkM
If you have any suggestions for films/TV/Games/Music/Anime for me to review, drop me a comment!
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