UK film critic Mark Kermode
He says this film influenced 2009's "Anti-Christ" by Lars Von Trier in this video on his blog: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/markkermode/
shareYes I saw him doing a review on youtube and really want to track this film down after recently getting into Argento. Good old Kermode, he's always pointing to interesting and alternative films. I saw Anti-Christ at the Edinburgh LIFF press screening and it's a real brute, I wonder how this compares.
---
Right. Well, I have to - I have to go now, Duane, because I, I'm due back on the planet Earth.
Sometimes Mark Kermode recommends some really interesting stuff. Other times the stuff he recommends completely fails to appeal. I'm afraid I found this to be in the latter category. Sam Neil is great, but this movie is bizarre and kinda daft. There are some great moments, but I felt the film as a whole lost its way, particularly towards the end.
I must admit I still haven't seen "Anti-Christ". The first thing I ever heard about was the FGM scene and I've been disinclined to see it ever since.
The FGM scene is maybe a few seconds long and by far not the most disturbing thing about Antichrist. That movie is a great movie, beyond great, but it is also an ordeal. It is emphatically NOT ENTERTAINMENT.
This movie, on the other hand, isn't entertainment either, but doesn't manage to accomplish anything along the way to redeem that. Antichrist requires some explanation to understand, but that doesn't detraact from it as a cinematic experience. Possession felt to me like nothing but a shriek. A very vivid and loud shriek, but just a shriek. There's nothing profound about that.
Yes good old Mr Fairey, overheard in a 2010 episode of his BBC radio review saying [the title is lost to me] , ‘The film examines the interesting idea of whether white people can be victims of racial prejudice too.’ How's that for originality and daring eh? The corporation - apparently at his insistence - took to calling him 'Dr Kermode' soon afterwards. Easy to see why.
share