Von Trier has mutilated his own film, turning it into a crazy, hysterical work that alienates the audience with its infantile shock tactics and tedious transgressions.
Antichrist (2009)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:118
Fresh:57
Rotten:61
Average Rating:5.3/10
Consensus: Gruesome, explicit and highly controversial; Lars Von Triers arthouse-horror, though beautifully shot, is no easy ride.
Rated: 18
Genre: Horror/Suspense
Theatrical Release:24-07-2009
Synopsis: Only two actors, Charlotte Gainsbourg and Willem Defoe, inhabit the space of this supernatural thriller directed by Lars Von Trier. The stars play a couple who attempt to grieve for their dead... Only two actors, Charlotte Gainsbourg and Willem Defoe, inhabit the space of this supernatural thriller directed by Lars Von Trier. The stars play a couple who attempt to grieve for their dead child by living in seclusion in the middle of a forest. But their story does not end there: in the forest, they encounter pure evil in Satan. With Von Trier at the helm, ANTICHRIST promises to be a challenging, intelligent film that doesn’t adhere to the conventions of cinema or religion. [More]
Starring: Willem Dafoe, Charlotte Gainsbourg
Starring: Willem Dafoe, Charlotte Gainsbourg
Director: Lars von Trier
Director: Lars von Trier
Screenwriter: Lars von Trier, Anders Thomas Jensen
Studio: IFC Films
Reviews for Antichrist
Antichrist is something to be experienced rather than understood, at least at a first viewing, and it concludes in the visionary epilogue on a tone of tragic tranquillity.
A garbled, appallingly misogynistic fantasy that makes little sense and plays like torture porn cloaked in artistic pretensions.
Troma and porn have flogged this sort of stuff for years - the kind of films that don't get previewed by critics.
It's ploddy, affected and ludicrously nasty but, for all that, Lars von Trier's new movie could well be the best horror film since the genre's 70s heyday.
We can scoff and dismiss it as the last gasp ravings of a deranged opportunist. Or we can look, unflinchingly, at Von Trier’s fantastically painful mirror and acknowledge the Id within us all. Now that is scary.
Antichrist is a smirking contraption of a film, a cheeky, nasty, clever device for making us upset about the dead kid, making us scared at the creepy happenings, making us freaked out at the violence, and finally making us convulsed with liberal outrage.
It’s thrilling to see that von Trier’s vicious sense of mischief, his moviemaking skill and his desire to smash limits and expectations all remain undimmed. However you swallow it, this bizarre, hysterical melodrama is impossible to ignore.
The problem with Antichrist is not that it is bloody or attention-seeking, though it is clearly both. It is that from a thought-provoking premise it says absolutely nothing about grief, its two protagonists or the human condition.
Von Trier - a wind-up merchant par excellence - started off with an impressively disturbing vision of parental hell...but he just didn't know when to stop.
This thoroughly pretentious offering is more childish and terrible than enfant terrible. The most startling – and boring – film you’ll see this year.
Antichrist is a horrible combination of extraordinarily unpleasant elements. It's offensively misogynistic. It's needlessly graphic in its use of violence. And its maker almost certainly needs psychiatric help.
Antichrist is a fairground ride through the brain of a genius, both nightmarish and apocalyptic. Trier’s head is the most dangerous place in modern cinema, its multiple caverns mysteriously structured and weirdly laid out.
It's so outlandish that at times you wonder if Von Trier himself knows what's going on. It would not be surprising to learn that he's making it all up as he goes along.
The film can expose you to nothing about life, nothing about film, while telling you more than you ever wanted to know about the director’s malicious vanity.
Like David Lynch's Eraserhead, it's perhaps impossible that this flick will truly ENTERTAIN, but provided you can hang onto your sanity, its creepy mood and twisty f**ked-up ending will spin in your conscious for weeks to come.
The expert direction, editing and photography are all here, along with two amazing performances. But this warped Adam and Eve myth is seriously hard to stomach.
Antichrist, by turns brilliant, by turns boring, is the most average horror film of the year.
It seems like a glib joke on von Trier's part, as if he's daring us to engage with it on an intellectual level when really there's not much to engage with.
The gruesome nature of what follows is best avoided by those of a delicate disposition.
Latest News for Antichrist
October 22, 2009:
Critics Consensus: Astro Boy Doesn't Quite Soar
This week at the movies, we've got an anime hero (Astro Boy, with voice work from Kristen Bell and Nicolas Cage); a vampire war ( Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant,... More...
October 12, 2009:
Lars von Trier Blasts Off for Planet Melancholia ![]()
Fresh from grossing everyone out with "Antichrist," Lars von Trier has announced that his next project will be a "psychological disaster film" titled "Planet Melancholia." More...
September 27, 2009:
New: View the Brand New Trailer Here. ![]()
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September 13, 2009:
Trailer & Poster review ![]()
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