Film Review: The Antichrist (2009)

A Serbian Film is in the mail, so I'll do this one first, as it just screened at The Sci-Fi Center in Las Vegas. This one didn't get quite the kind of controversy that Human Centipede 2 did as it was not made illegal for months in England before 32 cuts were made, but is another example of extreme horror cinema coming out of Europe in the last few years. I also don't really like it as much as Human Centipede 2, but that's just me. I'll tell you what though, one person you don't want to be is the shrink in these films. There's a great bit in the beginning of Human Centipede 2 where the psychiatrist overseeing Martin the retarded security guard throws out a Freudian bit of psycho-analysis and notes that Martin's obsession with creating a human centipede is "probably just a passing phase." Of course, the shrink is wrong- Martin is deranged beyond psychoanalysis. Later, Martin shoots the shrink in the groin, a relatively painless death compared to what he has in store for some of his other victims. The failed psychotherapy in The Antichrist goes on for almost a 100 minutes and ends with partially similar results for the attempted therapist… The film starts out with a full graphic sex scene with William DeFoe and Charlotte Gainsborgh, in which the couple's small child in the other room steps out the window. William DeFoe's character is a psychotherapist of some kind and he starts doing something a therapist is not supposed to do- he begins trying to treat his wife. Well, he takes his wife to a cabin they have in the woods where the wife had been working on a thesis (turns out to be about witchcraft and witch hunts in European history) and his wife begins to become much unhinged. He really does not know what he's screwing around with. There is quite a humorous bit when a fox pops out of a foxhole and pronounces that "chaos reigns!". Similar magical goings on involving animals take place in the film. DeFoe's attempts to decode and treat her obsessions with nature and witch burnings only seem to make matters worse. Spoiler alert! The female lead maims William DeFoe's character in a couple of different ways, one of which involves his genitalia. She also mutilates her own genitalia. There's a whole lot of odd activity involving animals such as the talking fox that seems to be based in European pagan tradition. Nature is a whore witch, and as it ends, well, what happens with witches? These European directors are getting fairly good at producing graphic images of torture, I'll give them that much. I was biased against this film because the director, Von Trier, worked on set for a different film with Bjork and committed a great travesty against art- he was close enough to Bjork to slash her voice box out but did not do so. In all seriousness, the fact that Von Trier worked with Bjork is something I really had to look past, because her music is excremental and irritating. The Antichrist is good enough that I will forgive him. I have read him quoted as saying that he is the greatest director in the world. I don't know about all that. I like Tom Six more. I don't see why this film would deserve controversy. There's a few parts where I winced imagining the physical pain involved. I like the "therapy fails" angle. I kind of want the talking fox for a pet.