I don't usually post about movies on STC, but I just want to give a shout-out to this one. Antichrist by Lars von Trier is definitely the best movie I've seen this year and the best horror movie I've seen since... well, ever. Not for the fainthearted, but if you enjoy a nice jolt to your system now and then, you'd better catch it! For those of you in the US, I read its going to start showing on October 23 (although its not a big-name movie, so it'll probably just run in select theaters or something like that).

Here's the IMDB page:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0870984/

I'll watch it, for sure. (I've actually been called the 'antichrist'. I made someone mad once.)

I'm not a fan of Lars von Trier. Although he is artistic, I typically find his work rather dull. The one exception would be "The Kingdom", although certain parts of that dragged on too long. As for this movie, I read reviews and apparently it's very violent with various sexual mutilations. Doesn't sound like my kind of movie. I do have to admit though, it's very hard to find a good horror movie. That's why I typically stick to books, they tend to convey horror much better
I wish there were more Edgar Allan Poe movies...

cheers,

-avatar!

Don't believe the hype. Yes, there are some really unpleasant scenes, but hey, its a horror movie, its supposed to be that way, you know? Its hilarious that people go see a movie that belongs to a genre with the purpose of frightening people, then they whine about it frightening them. It seems like a lot of people focus on just these few scenes, which is a shame, since the rest of the film is a masterpiece of atmospherics and dread, and those scenes make very much sense in the context of the story. One of the funniest/most idiotic things I heard was that some people think the movie has a misogynist message, when in fact its almost quite the opposite. f---, people sure are stupid. Although its the kind of movie that definitely not everyone would like, I can tell by much of the criticism against it that it was really effective in what it was trying to do.

As for Lars von Trier, don't get hung up on that. I like most of the stuff I've seen by him, but this is completely different from anything else he's done. I'd actually say the closest thing is Riget ("The Kingdom"), although its a very distant relation, Antichrist is like a nightmarishly distorted, less comic cousin of it. And trust me, one of the words you won't hear many people use in describing this one is "dull". It ain't.

Exactly. Seeing this movie makes you realize how lukewarm and half-assed most horror movies really are. Horror movies, like horror games, is a genre of endlessly wasted potential. It should, in theory, be possible to create great masterpieces given the premises and aims of the genre (since it deals with one of our most primal emotions), yet most horror movies turn out to be B-grade crap anyway, even the ones with big budgets. Its because the people making them pamper their audiences and don't have the guts to just go all the way and do their jobs. That's why a movie like Antichrist is so refreshing and welcome: its the occasional and very rare example of an actual horror movie. Which is why I guess so many people were disgusted with it, they went to the theater expecting another Friday the 13th and they got more than they bargained for. Awesome.

Anyway, I don't want to talk up the movie too much, I might get your expectation up too high. If you like horror movies, you definitely owe yourself to watch it. Its always best to see for yourself and make up your own mind.

There was a wave of Poe movies in the 1960s, but they turned out pretty bad and shallow (in my opinion). Poe is a great storycrafter, but since all of his stuff is so short, I don't really see it lending itself well to movie transition. Some stories just work better in certain art forms, and while Poe's stuff is definitely best in book-form, something like Antichrist just wouldn't be as effective as a book.

That's funny, I consider books to be the LEAST appropriate medium for horror.

books can be especially strong since they provoke the imagination to create it's own details. It's not as effective if you don't have much of an imagination (or sometimes if you're just not in the mood to let your mind wander on such things). Visual and audio aids to horror (as in movies and games) also have many and diverse advantages. It ultimately comes down to how well the creator's particular skills line up with the way the audience is capable of being influenced.

there's a definite difference between "there is something very wrong here and there seems to be no refuge" unpleasant and "in this scene the female lead circumcises the male lead with a hole puncher" unpleasant. I'm down with the former, but while I see the appeal of the latter, I don't enjoy or appreciate it at all. It's the 21st century - I'm long past being shocked by extremes, so now I'm only disgusted and annoyed by them.

I'm not saying the movie doesn't have other merits, or that criticism of some of the things I object to can come across as ridiculous (I won't even begin to wade into the mire of quicksand that is misogyny as relates to fictional violence), but taboos like "don't have a scene where a guy's penis is ripped off and used as a swizzle stick in coffee" are among those which I don't really think need to be challenged.

Well, how lucky we are that not everyone is as depraved as you are (yet).

Well, its exactly the "other merits" that made this movie for me. Seriously, the rumour that this film is "extremely violent" that you hear everywhere is just so far off the mark, its not even funny. There are maybe three or four scenes that even have violence in them, and yes, while that violence is indeed very gruesome and quite graphic, the rest 95% of the movie hardly gets any mention. Honestly, once "those scenes" came around, I was so mesmerized by the superb ambient craftsmanship of the movie that they seemed almost secondary. Its funny how people focus on the really jawdropping scenes of movies like this even if those scenes happen to be only a few minutes out of two hours. Its like the bullshit reputation the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre got for being "ultraviolent". If you actually view that movie as an active observer, you'll find that there is actually very little violence directly shown on the screen. The reason people got the impression it was so violent was that you heard a lot of screams and chainsaw noises, and the movie just had this frightening atmosphere that skillfully made people get the impression that it was a "complete massacre" or something, when in fact "only" four or five people got killed during the entire movie (most of it was just a lot of chase-scenes). In reality, the average Schwarzenegger or Stallone action-romp from the 80s had a far higher count of killings and maimings than either Texas Chainsaw Massacre or Antichrist. But since those two were much more psychologically powerful, the violence that actually was there got magnified out of proportion, and then the idiots that make up a sizable portion of any movie audience did the rest as far as spreading rumours goes.

I'm not saying that Antichrist doesn't have some really disturbing scenes, but I think the perception of the movie "exploiting" gore and mutilations is completely baseless, as those scenes are over pretty fast, they don't linger or try to rub the impression in your face (no pun intended). As for the "sexual mutilation" stuff, its not something that just got tacked on for shock-effect, it actually has a lot to do with the story and underlying theme of the film (at least in my interpretation of it).

C'mon, that never happened in the movie. You're giving people the entirely wrong impression here.

I wasn't saying it did happen - I was trying to avoid ruining the impact of any surprises in order to preserve your intent in this topic, but I felt I had to express the visceral nature of the controversial scenes in a way that people who haven't heard about this movie could contemplate the visual impact of them.

Maybe the "swizzle stick" thing is taking it a bit too far/silly, but I wrote that after deciding it would be a waste to cut off and then throw away what is presumably a perfectly good penis.

Dais I think I love you.

lol

Oh yes, I forgot. For those interested, the official trailer can be seen here. Its a little misguiding, I thought, but still gives somewhat of an impression of the setting/ambiance.