Antichrist

MOVIE #1,072 • 🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿 • 07.20.23 RANKING LARS VON TRIER: #11 On paper, LVT doing horror sounds like a grand idea. Who but this unruly madman, whose entire oeuvre feels like one long protracted suicide note, might be better for the genre? But where the almost impossibly dark Antichrist fails is how hard it leans into the (rightfully maligned) torture porn territory of the genre. It’s still a fascinating film that breaks new ground and tries new tricks visually for the master director here in his 14th feature. Some of it is stunning slow-motion, evoking a dream state in a beautiful way. Some of it is cheap-looking wave FX to give the landscape unsteady motion that is far less effect but nevertheless unique. And some of it is CGI animals in horrific states of agony and pain.

There’s, obviously, massively deep and heady ideas, themes and meditations here. How much they get bogged down if not completely lost in the extremity of what we’re seeing is up for debate. It has some of the most unsettling sequences I’ve ever seen, that’s for sure (e.g. Gainsbourg masturbating an unconscious Dafoe’s dick until it shoots a load of blood all over her — fun stuff!)

While the really over-the-top stuff is, relatively, few and far between, it’s still SO extreme that it becomes one’s only lingering memory of the movie. I don’t think this is an overly prudish response. For a filmmaker such as von Trier, a provocateur who’s made his bones on pushing the envelope to a degree, this felt cheap and unnecessary. Because there’s still a ton to like and appreciate about Antichrist. It’s cinematically lovely and impeccably acted by Gainsbourg and Dafoe (the only actors in this). But the thought of ever revisiting it feels like a punishment. And maybe that’s the point? The first entry in his unofficial “Depression Trilogy” sets a certain bar. One of the most bleak and nihilistic auteurs has rendered the horrors of mental illness, at their most base and unspeakable levels, into a living document. There’s nothing lower, nowhere else to go. And I can see how that might be freeing.

ranking lars von trier cont'd
#12 ↩ • ↪ #10

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Antichrist (stylized as ANTICHRIS♀) is a 2009 horror art film written and directed by Lars von Trier and starring Willem Dafoe and Charlotte Gainsbourg. It tells the story of a couple who, after the accidental death of their son, retreat to a cabin in the woods where the man experiences strange visions and the woman manifests increasingly violent sexual behavior and sadomasochism. The narrative is divided into a prologue, four chapters, and an epilogue. It was released on May 20, 2009.