The Antichrist, 1974.
Directed by Alberto De Martino.
Starring Mel Ferrer, Carla Gravina, George Coulouris, Arthur Kennedy, Alida Valli, Anita Strindberg, and Umberto Orsiniin.
SYNOPSIS:
A paraplegic woman is hypnotised in an attempt to cure her psychosomatic condition, but the process brings about a demon who possessed one of her ancestors.
It is quite fitting that as the 50th anniversary of arguably the greatest possession movie of them all – that being the late William Friedkin’s The Exorcist – rolls around and we are soon to be treated with a shiny new 4K UHD disc, StudioCanal are releasing one of that movie’s greatest knock-offs, namely Alberto De Martino’s The Antichrist, on Blu-ray as part of their Cult Classics line.
In proper Italian style, The Antichrist came a year after The Exorcist first traumatised audiences and it is true to say that Alberto De Martino borrowed most of the key details that people remember – green goo? It’s here. Blasphemy spoken in a croaky voice? You betcha. Eyeballs turning white? Of course. Scar makeup and objects flying about the place? Oh yes. However, The Antichrist is nothing if not a wide church when it comes to its influences, and Polanski’s Rosemary’s Baby and Bava’s Black Sunday also get homaged/ripped off, depending on your point of view.
The victim of possession in this movie is Ippolita Oderisi (Carla Gravina), a young woman who lost the use of her legs when she was 12 after her father crashed the car, killing her mother. Now, Ippolita harbours resentment towards her father Massimo (Mel Ferrer) for his new relationship and because she feels nobody else would ever give her any attention, and after she gets hypnotised by Dr. Sinibaldi (Umberto Orsiniin) in an attempt to regress her inner state to that of a previous life (stick with it) and therefore be able to walk again, the feelings she has been keeping inside manifest themselves in a sexual awakening that brings forth the demon that possessed one her ancestors who was burnt at the stake for being a witch. Cue lots of blasphemy, incestuous sex with her brother and some really dodgy visual effects.
Safe to say that The Antichrist is to The Exorcist what Great White is to Jaws, the one exception being that it is actually pretty good; well, good in an entertaining way rather than being technically brilliant, although the first act is a bit slow. However, what it does to is economically set up our main characters and tick off all the conversation set pieces before we get to the good stuff at just over the hour mark. Not that there aren’t some interesting scenes during that first act, though, as Ippolita gets possessed whilst masturbating to images of her father and his lover making love. This is framed in a very surreal way as Ippolita imagines an orgiastic ritual in a forest, where her ancestor is raped by Satan, thus allowing her past into her present and possessing her, or something like that.
Strange things start to happen to Ippolita after that but it is during a dinner scene in the second act that things really take a turn and the potentially serious look at repressed sexuality and Freudian guilt is replaced by approximately 50 minutes of sheer lunacy as Ippolita’s uncle Bishop Ascanio Oderisi (Arthur Kennedy) is brought it to perform an exorcism, but not before the housekeeper goes into town to fetch the local con-man mystic to have a go. This is where The Antichrist goes into overdrive as Ippolita starts talking in several different demonic voices, her complexion develops sores and welts, her teeth go rotten and Carla Gravina gives it everything she’s got as she throws out every obscenity that Regan MacNeil stopped short of.
Naturally, it is all very silly and some – not all – of the effects are quite naff, especially the furniture flying around on fishing wire and the superimposed backgrounds as several characters meet their fate. However, during the final confrontation there is some truly unsettling imagery as Ippolita goes on the run during a thunderstorm, her demonic laughter and demented facial expressions creating an image of pure evil that many have tried to achieve but few have come close to. Moments like this, along with a few other clever touches such as the masturbation/possession scene, are what lifts the movie above many of the other Exorcist knock-offs and the give The Antichrist a little bit more of its own flavour.
This new restoration of the movie looks very nice, with a clean and polished image that doesn’t pop too much in the colour department, although the curse of the Blu-ray is upon it as the lines around the latex make-up are clearly visible and so forth, but considering its age and how it was originally shot it still looks good without being spectacular. Extras come in the shape of a couple of featurettes containing interviews with director Alberto De Martino and composer Ennio Morricone, an audio interview with Alberto De Martino, an audio commentary with critics Lee Gambin and Sally Christie plus a selection of art cards.
Overall, The Antichrist is a fun ride that borrows liberally from several sources but does just about enough with it so it doesn’t feel totally recycled. Yes, it isn’t very original but entertainment value trumps originality, and this being an Italian production it has plenty of competition from dozens of other Exorcist/Rosemary’s Baby clones that aren’t half as much of a good time as this is. Granted, given how cheap and grimy this is you won’t see it double-billed with the movies it wants to be in the same company as, but apart from the admirably sleazy Amityville II: The Possession (of which we still don’t have a decent Blu-ray release), The Antichrist is probably the best Exorcist wannabe there is, and given it is nearly 50 years old itself, that clearly tells you something.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★ ★
Chris Ward
