‘Highly controversial’ horror film that made people faint now streaming on Prime Video
Audiences at its premiere walked out in droves.
A disturbing horror film labelled ‘gruesome and explicit’ by critics is now streaming on Amazon Prime Video.
Directed by ‘The Punisher’ Lars Von Trier, Antichrist follows an unnamed married couple, played by Willem Dafoe and Charlotte Gainsbourg, following the death of their infant son.
While the mother is hospitalized following the tragedy, the psychiatrist father decides she needs to face her fears and takes her to a cabin in the woods where they spent time with their son.
However, once there, she begins acting increasingly erratically with dangerous consequences.
Antichrist is the first film in Von Trier’s Depression Trilogy, followed by 2011’s Melancholia and 2013’s Nymphomaniac.
It premiered at the Cannes Film Festival, prompting several walkouts and even causing people to faint due to its graphic gore and disturbing themes.
Lars Von Trier’s film follows Willem Dafoe and Charlotte Gainsbourg as an unnamed married couple following the death of their son (Picture: Zentropa Ents/Kobal/Shutterstock)Despite causing so much controversy, Antichrist won a slew of awards, including the Best Actress award for Gainsbourg at Cannes.
It holds a 53% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with the critics’ consensus reading: ‘Gruesome, explicit and highly controversial; Lars Von Triers arthouse-horror, though beautifully shot, is no easy ride.’
In their review, The Spectator said: ‘Antichrist is deftly made, visually atmospheric and has, at its heart, two of the rawest, bravest performances you will probably ever see. It’s also horrible and therein lies the rub, I suppose.’
AV Club wrote: ‘Antichrist is a boldly personal film, tossing all von Trier’s ideas about faith, fear, and human nature into an unfettered phantasmagoria, full of repulsive visions and fierce scorn.’
Detroit News said it was ‘ugly and perfectly made’, while the Chicago Reader thought it was ‘filled with powerfully primal images.’
The Age pointed out: ‘Yes, Antichrist is harrowing and often shrill, but the horrors all serve the underlying theme that, try as they might, men can never fully understand the inconsolable grief women endure when they lose a child.’
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Speaking on the Louis Theroux Podcast earlier this year, Nosferatu star Dafoe addressed the film’s controversial legacy, saying Antichrist is ‘misunderstood.’
‘I think it gets misidentified because of some of its extremeness,’ he said.
‘But I think it really speaks to interesting things about women’s power, men’s fear of women, the struggle between the logical and the magical in life. There’s lots of sexual politics in it, and it’s not about misogyny at all.’
He continued: ‘I think [Von Trier] identifies with the women more than the man. I can tell you that because I play the straight, logical one in the movie. But I think he’s genuinely curious, and he’s a great filmmaker.
‘So, you know, the opening of that movie and the epilogue of that movie is great cinema.’
Antichrist is available to stream now on Amazon Prime Video
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