Quickcard Review - Chicago International Film Festival Review Antichrist

Directed by: Lars von Trier Cast: Charlotte Gainsbourg, Willem Dafoe Running Time: 1 hr, 50 mins Rating: NC-17 Release Date: Oct 12, 2009 (CIFF) Oct 23, 2009 (Limited)

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PLOT: After the sudden loss of their son, a married couple (Gainsbourg, Dafoe) with a strained relationship seek healing in their cabin in the woods.

WHO'S IT FOR? This horrifying film is likely to gain some sort of following, despite having a narrow appeal that demands art house audience members to watch images that would disturb even the most grotesque fare of mainstream Hollywood.

OVERALL

Antichrist is the closest I will ever come to experiencing hell. It grabs hold of the viewer with an astounding slow motion and black and white opening, which might as well be how a modern version of Dante’s “Inferno” would look. The film then slowly creeps its fingers over our souls for the first two acts, tugging us along with inconclusive observations of fear, despair, and pain, all accompanied by a mélange of unusual images that only heighten our own anxieties. The hands of Antichrist then grab the audience by their throats, and forces them to experience with an unblinking eye horrifying images that could only be witnessed in such an abyss of pure darkness. Close-ups of cinema’s most disturbing shots in years force us to feel the film's pain, leaving the audience crippled by the same madness that plagues the two characters. Our souls have been destroyed just like the “survivor” of the chaos that reigns throughout. Until we realize that Antichrist is not a state of mind but still a film, we are dazed by its darkness.

Lars Von Trier, or rather, the rage of Lars Von Trier, has crafted a cinematic experience of complete wickedness that will paralyze and repulse, but because such a film as evil as Antichrist exists, it is a force to be reckoned with.

FINAL SCORE: 8/10