The Antichrist

The Antichrist

Original Title: L’antichristo

Directed by: Alberto De Martino

Italy, 1974

Horror/Satan/Occult, 112 min

Distributed by: Optimum Releasing.

As far as satanic possession movies go there’s not too many of them tach come off as anything else than cheesy Exorcist rip offs. These past weeks I’ve seen several variants on the old possessed teenage chick story, and it’s fair to say that the most of them all fall into the same pitfalls and needless to say they all have the same familiar traits that we know all to well.

Current stuff like Manuel Carballo’s La posesión de Emma Evans (Exorcismus) 2010, Daniel Stamm’s The Last Exorcism 2010 or even Paco & Balaugeró’s [Rec]2 2009, all play by the book, and you know before the last act rolls through you will have seen bile, rolling eye whites, foul language snarled out by the possessed and in the most cases levitation. Needless to say these movies look fantastic, a lot has happened since William Friedkin unleashed his 1973 milestone movie based on Peter Blatty’s novel of the same name. But I still hold a naïve fascination for those movies released much nearer to that landmark of genre cinema, the stuff so painfully trying to cash in on the success of The Exorcist. I’m obviously talking about movies like Mario Bava’s Lisa e il diavolo (Lisa & The Devil) 1974 - also recut with alternate material to assimilate Fridekin’s movie under the name House of Exorcism, Amando De Ossorio’s La endemoniada (The Possessed) 1975 and Alberto de Martino’s L’antichristo (The Antichrist) 1974 to name a few.

Those movies, despite how they did at the box-office back then, have become somewhat cult classics by today’s standards. Back then they where painfully trying to get in on the action, and being so close to that original flick, I feel that they where lost at the time. Today it’s movies like these that I can appreciate as they tried to pull stuff off on minimal budgets and to some extent succeeded in mimicking the sensationalism of the original.

Since a terrible accident in her childhood Ippolita Oderisi [Carla Gravina] has been paralyzed from waist down. Her religious father Massimo [Mel Ferrer] is supportive and takes her on pilgrimages to various sacred places and statues of saints in hope of some miracle cure. Even Bishop Ascanio Oderisi [Arthur Kennedy] is concerned and holds masses to pray for Ippolita. Although when Ippolita’s brother Fillipo [Remo Girone] turns up at a party with his mate Marcello Sinibaldi [Umberto Orsini] desperately trying to match the two together, Ippolita pretty soon realises that Sinibaldi is a psychiatrist with a hidden agenda.

Convinced that Ippolita’s handicap is rooted in her background, perhaps in a former life way before that childhood accident, Dr. Sinibaldi persuades Ippolita to undergo some regression therapy hypnosis. That’s when the trouble starts. In her previous life Ippolita was a witch, also playing dual roles with a spiffy longhaired blonde wig, and this witch was burned at the stake for being in league with Satan. Obviously this demonic force takes a grip of Ippolita and pretty soon she can’t tell the awoken past life persona from the real Ippolita. Which is a great thing for us as this gives De Martino and his cinematographer Aristide Massaccesi – yes old loveable Joe D’Amato – an opportunity to mess around with back projection, mate screens and creating some pretty neat levitation, transformation and freaky special effect moments including a couple of really impressive imploding mirrors and television screens along the way.

Like any movie in the demonic possession realm Ippolita vomits bile, she spreads her legs and taunts everyone around her with her sexuality, makes sideboards and cupboards levitate around the room and decomposes with each day that goes until there’s only the demon present and almost no Ippolita at all. Finally the moment we have been awaiting is upon us, Massimo's brother, Bishop Oderisi, arrives to take on the age old nemesis of the church and the final battle commences… or wait it doesn’t because this movie holds yet another surprise for it’s audience.

In film theory some studies latch frantically onto what’s known as the image system, it’s at times so farfetched that it becomes almost more parody than anything else. One of my favourite passages in all the writings Russian filmmaker Andrej Tarkovsky left behind is when he discusses the reoccurrence of horses, apples and billowing fields in his work. After years of film students and academics trying to force their theories and interpretations of his “image system” Tarkovsky himself wrote that he simply liked the look of horses, apples and billowing fields. That’s fucking brilliant and such a smack in the face of over analytical bullshit. Which also is one of the reasons I write the crap I write on here, there’s no need to sneer at alternative low budget cinema, as it’s filled to the brim of the same symbolism, traits, storytelling and image systems that the acknowledged filmmakers and art house posers have been using for all time.

Getting back on track, it’s fair to say that the image system of The Antichrist has to be toads. Toads figure in several occasions throughout the movie and these toads are obviously associated with negative values, evil magical beasts and demonic creatures. The reason for this is of course the metaphoric value that they hold, the transformation from tadpole to full grown toad represents the resurrection, the rebirth. Much like the rebirth of the demon in The Antichrist. Then there’s the symbol value of strong feminine energy, clearly the energy of the female demon. It’s also a key part of the antichrist communion, where the torn off head of the toad serves as the body of Satan!

This is a great little movie. It’s entertaining as hell and takes several sudden turns. It has a lot going for it with the back-story that slowly lets out more information as it goes along. For a while I was sure that the Mel Ferrer relationship with Swedish starlet Anita Strindberg would be milked and become a sinister back-story where Ferrer had cheated on his wife with Strindberg before that terrible accident hence being projected guilt that had paralyzed Ippolita. There’s a small indication of oedipal jealousy in there, but nothing that really pays off apart from a few lines of possessed blasphemy and raunchy talk concerning her father and future wife’s sexual appetites. But it never goes for the guilt trip in that classic way. Instead the entire back-story arc is dedicated to the witch trial and execution. A parallel story that’s also reflected in the main narrative, such as the last minute redemption that turns former life witch Ippolita into the saint she visits at during the opening sequence. This opening sequence is mirrored in more than one-way during the movie’s climax, but you’ll just have to check it out to see in what way.

I find that Alberto De Martino’s script, co-written with Vincenzo Mannino and Gianfrano Clerici is satisfying as it uses what we've seen and brings something new with it - a very salty italian twist just the way we want it. This approach is nothing new for Mannino – writer of several character driven Poliziotteschi about Police Inspector Betti, commonly portrayed by Maurizio Merli and epic adventures also “in the familiar style of others” like Enzo G. Castellari’s L’ultimo squalo (Great White) 1981 or Ruggero Deodato’s I predatori di Atlantide (The Raiders of Atlantis) 1982, has been down that path on more than one occasion. But perhaps it mostly the movies he worked as co-writer on, stuff like Deodato’s La casa sperduta nel parco (House on the Edge of the Park) 1980, Lucio Fulci’s Lo squartatore di New York (The New York Ripper) 1982 and Murder-Rock: uccide a passo di danza (Murder-Rock: Dancing Death) 1984 that he’s most known for. Movies he primarily co-wrote with Gianfranco Clerici. Regular readers will know that I have something of a fetish for movies based on Clerici’s scripts, as I feel he very much indeed did write/work on some of the finest genre movies to ever come out of Italy.

Every demonic possession movie demands a grand entrance of Old Nick himself, and at least one moment that leaves it’s mark on the audience. The Black Mass where past life Ippolita engages in a satanic orgy is fantastic. I won’t spoil it for you but there’s a goat scene – which isn’t graphic at all, but fantastically suggestive and really brilliantly edited by Vincenzo Tomassi, who you recall edited all those Lucio Fulci movies. Tomassi brings a great flow to The Antichrist and it rarely feels as if it’s loosing pace, and there’s several brilliant juxtapositions you really need to see if you are into suggestive editing – and fucking amazing movies. Apart from the goat incident, there’s a hilarious moment where Ippolita flashes her lady parts to Bishop Oderisi, and his reaction is priceless, and just one of several splendid moments in The Antichrist.

I’ve hade the soundtrack by Ennio Morricone and Bruno Nicolai lying around for years, and it’s finally been a treat to actually put some images to the mental ones those tracks have been conjuring all these years. Needless to say the music is tremendously fitting when you have images to go with it.

Something I find intriguing about The Antichrist is the way De Martino uses, or rather not doesn't use his cast. There are some pretty damned good genre names in there, but none of them really get a moment to shine. Instead the whole movie does belong to Gravina who gives a grand performance in the lead. But it still feels kind of sore not to use the cast more than De Martino has. Mel Ferrer is about as interesting as drying paint, Strindberg more or less disappears from the flick after she once briefly get’s her kit off (next to an obviously bothered Ferrer who has to snog her next), the iconic Alida Valli is merely there for two small sequences and Kennedy, well he does his five minute bit and then fucks off. It’s odd and primarily saved by Gravinas dedicated performance.

As a little bonus for you if you want to get über-geeky, look out for bit part actor Ernesto Colli as the possessed man, he’s part of the mirror imagery I was talking about earlier, he's one of those faces you always remember and recognise in the large amount of movies he had bits in. And keep your eyes open when Filippo walks into the party after the opening segment. That blonde on his arm is another Scandinavian actress, this time none other than Ulla Johannsen! Doesn’t ring a bell? Well perhaps you remember her better as the naked chick with the machinegun in Enzo G. Castellari’s Ouei maledetto treno blindato (The Inglorious Bastards) 1978. There's iconic imagery if there every was iconic imagery!

Alberto De Martino followed The Antichrist with the Poliziotteschi Una Magnum Special per Tony Saitta (Blazing Magnum) 1976, held by many as one of the finest entries into that genre. It’s comes as no surprise to see that Clerici and Mannino wrote the script. Only three years later De Martino ventured back into satanic territory with Holocaust 2000, which wasn’t only a take on Richard Donner’s 1976 hit The Omen, but also sports a great performance from Spartacus himself, Mr. Kirk Douglas.

Image:

1.85:1 Colour.

Audio:

Dolby Digital Mono, 2.0 English dialogue.

Extras:

None.

The Night Visitor

The Night Visitor
Directed by: Laslo Benedek
Thriller / Horror, 1971
USA/Sweden, 106 min
Distributed by: VIC Home Entertainment

Laslo Benedek, a Hungarian filmmaker who was brought to Hollywood by MGM studios to make movies in the USA. After a being set in charge of reshoots on Gregory Ratoff’s Song of Russia 1944, uncredited of course, he finally got a chance to direct his first major studio movie; The Kissing Bandit 1948 starring old blue eyes Frank Sinatra in what has been called Sinatra’s worst movie ever. A confusing mash up of western, comedy and musical the movie failed to make an impact and Benedek seemed to have wasted his chance. Three years later, 1951, he’d definitely learned his lesson and directed Death of a Salesman based on Arthur Miller’s play featuring Kevin McCarthy and Cameron Mitchell in leading roles. The movie won Benedek a Golden Globe for best director.

But his best movie was directed in 1953 as the classic biker film The Wild One starring Marlon Brando and Lee Marvin set the template for those later biker exploitation films of the sixties and seventies, and stayed banned in the UK until 1968.

After almost twelve years of directing TV serials like Perry Mason, The Outer Limits, The Fugitive, Rawhide and The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, Benedek returned to direct his last movies where the impressive American Swedish co-production The Night Visitor 1971 can be found.

The Night Visitor is a superbly crafted little gem that surprisingly has gone missing for reasons that are quite hard to understand. It’s a fascinating thriller with some of the greatest Swedish and British actors, packs a really suspenseful plot and has some great scenes that deserve to be brought forward in a new light.

Filmed on location in Denmark and Sweden, yes the Mental Institute is Varberg Castle in Sweden, this co-production between Sweden and USA tells the tale of Salem [Max Von Sydow – from all those stunning Ingmar Bergman movies; William Friedkin’s The Exorcist 1973, Dario Argento’s great return to the genre he perfected – Sleepless 2001, and soon to be seen in Ridley Scott’s Robin Hood 2010 to name a few of the great movies this iconic actor has been in] who is trying to take revenge for being sent to the mental institution for a murder he did not commit. Through an ingenious use of a self crafted skeleton key, his clothes, bedding and fishing line he crafts a rope that allows him to exit and return to his cell at the institute as he wants. This is why he’s running around in the snow in his underwear every time he’s out of his cell.

And when he’s out of his cell, the innocent man ironically becomes a murderer in his sinister plan to create justice. The plan is complex (although simple in narrative form) as Salem plans to murder and leave threads that lead to his brother in law Dr. Anton Jenks [Per Oscarsson – Arne Mattson’s Vaxdockan 1962 and more recently as Holger Palmgren in the Stieg Larsson Millennium trilogy – which I have no interest in seeing at all]. The first night sees him entering the Doctor’s house as Jenks discusses with his wife Ester [Liv Ullman – Again a fantastic Bergman actor and star of Jan Troell’s brilliant Utvandrarna 1971 and Nybyggarna 1972. Her portrayal of the fragile and vulnerable Kristina should have given her an Oscar in my opinion] and Emmie [Hanne Bork – who only ever starred in this movie] the ” situation with Salem”. Salem steals morphine, a syringe and one of the Doctors ties before paying a visit to Bitte [Lottie Freddie, who also only ever starred in this one] a young woman that he seduces and leaves dead. Jenks receives a call from Bitte’s parents and he goes out to their house to examine he young woman, and the first of Salem’s set up devices is exposed. A bundle of ties have been shoved into Jenks doctor bag. When the police Inspector [Trevor Howard - Carol Reed’s The Third Man 1949 and Carmilo Vila’s The Unholy 1988] starts investigating, he quickly starts putting the pieces together, a strangled victim and a distressed doctor with ties in his bag, ties that later prove to have the same perfumed chest rub as the first victim was wearing. Back at home, Jenks and Ester discover that Salem has been there too and bludgeoned Emmie to death!

Oscarsson is brilliant in his movie as the terrified Jenks to whom Salem shows himself briefly before going about his vengeance plan. Oscarsson twitches, jerks and screams in fear and panic that Salem has escaped from the asylum - supposedly impossible. He faints and that’s when the darned parrot is introduced. A parrot that will be of great importance for the final twist at the end of the film, and was the title of the Swedish release of the movie: Papegojan.

The Inspector pays a visit to Dr. Kemp [Andrew Kier from all those wonderful Hammer movies – Terrence Fisher’s Dracula: Prince of Darkness 1966, Roy Ward Baker’s Quatermass and the Pit 1967, Seth Holt’s Blood from the Mummy’s Tomb 1971. Not forgetting Gordon Flemying’s Daleks’ Invasion Earth: 2150AD 1966 which sees Hammer legend Peter Cushing returning as Dr. Who for the second time]. Dr. Kemp runs the institute - a great use of Varberg Castle, that really looks like a menacing and freezing place to be captive - where the Inspector hopes to further his inquiries into the killings and to see if there is any chance of Salem actually being responsible for the murders as Jenks claims. He sits down with Salem who delivers a splendid reference to that great scene in Bergman’s The Seventh Seal 1957 as he asks The Inspector ”Would you care for a game of chess?” Not only a reference to that iconic scene, but also a great metaphor for the movie plot as Salem taunts the detective and the Jenks family throughout, having planned all his moves to the smallest detail. This eye for details and planning ahead is reflected in a conversation he holds with the warden Pop [Arthur Hewlett] as they play a friendly game of chess though the food hatch in the cell door prior to Salem’s first revealed escape.

Salem acknowledges the crime he is institutionalised for and tauntingly set the game with the detective in motion. But the detective isn’t having it, he knows that there is something fishy going on and even though all the evidence points towards Doctor Jenks, he’s hot quite sure that Salem is telling the whole truth, and is actually locked away as tight as Doctor Kemp and Salem claim that he is.

Needless to say by this time the plot has been established and the suspense wound up to a great high, and the last act will have you biting your nails as you move towards the climax, revealing how all the crimes and Salem’s plot are connected.

Holding an almost Hitchcockian feeling with the unease of Bergmanesque despair to it, the movie plays off traditional ”let the audience in on the plot before the characters” trick so frequently used by Hitchcock, and ”underdog getting away with the perfect revenge” a excellent choice as we almost always by default become empathetic towards underdog characters. And as soon as we know reasons for his incarceration we start to sympathise with him and actually want him to succeed in his plan. Add to that the anguish of the characters that all shift between terrified feeble beings to coldblooded maniacs just like Bergman frequently portrayed his characters, and it gives a fascinating and intriguing blend.

Von Sydow gives an illustrious performance as Salem the crazed man on a mission, and does a great deal of running around in the freezing cold inter in his undies, and a fair amount of climbing to and from high spaces. His second escape from the asylum is very tense and it’s a delight to watch his cunning devices and methods as he once again breaks out of his captivity. But the splendid finale sees him frantically, and painstakingly returning to the prison fighting both the elements and time, as he must return to his cell before the police open the door to his cell.

Benedek brings out the best in his actors that are top notch here; Sydow, Oscarsson, Ullman and Howard are terrific, supporting cast members, Kier, Rupert Davies as Judge Clemens [also seen in Michael Reeves Wichfilnder General 1968, Freddie Francis Dracula has Risen from the Grave 1968 and the leading man of Pete Walker’s Frightmare 1974), and Arthur Hewlett’s gumpy gnome like prison warden Pop are very entertaining.

The movie also has a great soundtrack by the masterful Henry Mancini – composer of such classic tunes as the Pink Panther Theme, the score to Tobe Hooper’s Lifeforce 1985 (uncredited of course...), and the beautiful Moonriver from the Breakfast at Tiffany’s 1961 soundtrack.

And to top it all off, the movie was produced by Mel Ferrer, and I’m surprised that his notoriety within the European genre pieces of the seventies and eighties (Alberto De Martino’s The Antichrist 1974, Sergio Martino’s excellent Giallo The Suspicious Death of a Minor 1975, Flavio Mogherini’s The Girl in the Yellow Pyjamas 1977, René Cardona’s Guyana: Crime of the Damned 1979, Sergio Martino’s Big Alligator River 1979 Umberto Lenzi’s Eaten Alive, and Nightmare City both 1980) would have attracted the attention of genre fans, and it by far the most interesting piece he would produce.

It still puzzles me why this movie became a lost gem, it’s well written, splendidly acted and has a very captivating narrative and an excellent overall atmosphere to it. The cinematography by award winning Henning Kristiansen is fine, there’s a splendid little twist at the end, a very Hichcockian twist if you like, and the movie is really very entertaining. It’s my highest recommendation that you seek out this movie and enjoy the magic of this lost gem as soon as possible. You won’t be disappointed.

Image:

1.33:1 - Full frame 4x3

Audio:

Dolby Digital Mono 2.0. English Dialogue, that is spoken by the actors in their broken English, which is fascinating to hear.

Extras:

Previews for other titles released by VCI Home Video, among them; Ugo Liberatore’s semi sleazy Oxford decadence flick May Morning from 1970 starring Jane Birkin and John Steiner and Bill L. Norton’s cult TV movie Gargoyles 1972 with it’s special effects and scary monsters crafted by the late Stan Winston. There's a little photo gallery and short biographies for several of the cast and crew and finally the Theatrical Trailer.

Here's a glimpse at the first part of the movie that should lure you into the charm of this fascinating piece of film.