Antichrist

What director Lars Von Trier had to say on Antichrist: "It comes from my mind,so I have to accept it.I've allowed myself to make a film where I didn't hold myself back from anything."

A couple lose their young son,and the husband (a therapist) begins the process of attempting to cure his wife of grief,at first trying to isolate the source of her panic attack-inducing fear.A place is mentioned: a forest called 'Eden',but denies that it is the thing that scares her most-her biggest fear is still unknown,so they make a trip to Eden in search of clarity.

There are two extremely graphic scenes,both on genital mutilation-after the first,7 people walked out of the cinema-a few holding glasses of wine and sushi.It pays being a movie snob,at least you've read and researched enough on Antichrist to know that it is not at all the kind of film fit for wine or food to be consumed with.

Beyond those two scenes-which will inevitably characterise the film (see this poster)-there's a rich and intense psychological drama,superbly told as nature itself begins to reflect the couple's perplex and anxiety.The script is minimal, and untelling of the things that truly underlies each conversation-tension slowly shifts to the cabin's surrounding environment,there are alien noises that sweep the forest,animals going around bloody and with their insides exposed,the only two characters in Antichrist begin to feel overwhelmed by Eden.Which grows darker and more menacing with time,forcing inward horrors to spill out: in the form of the film's morbid sexual energy,channelled through in its preoccupation with pen*s-smashing,cl*t-cutting violence.

The film,as I pointed out-sure does have it merits,but the gore and violence is simply not worth enduring.There is nothing that can justify the desperate lengths the film has gone to-it was just too depraved,too sickening,too much-and whatever good the film has to offer,is seriously outweighed by its bad.

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