Antichrist
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"Chaos...reigns." |
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Antichrist is a 2009 Horror film written and directed by Lars von Trier. Imagine what a film co-directed by the Stanley Kubrick who made The Shining, the David Lynch who made Eraserhead and the Andrei Tarkovsky who made Stalker could look like, and you're getting close to the idea.
The movie started a heated controversy during the 2009 Cannes Film Festival, some critics praising it as a master work of art, some others decrying the very explicit sexual and violent content, or even accusing the film of being strongly misogynistic.
For the similarly-named trope, see The Antichrist.
Tropes used in Antichrist include:
- Agony of the Feet: While alone with Nick, She used to switch his shoes. This caused small deformations in his feet. Her husband He didn't know that.
- Ax Crazy: If She doesn't fit this trope as well as Jack Torrance, then who can?
- Body Horror
- Camera Tricks
- Crapsack World: Even the acorns are miserable. And possibly vicious.
- A Date with Rosie Palms: Many times by She, then used as torture on her husband He.
- Deliberately Monochrome: The opening and closing sequences.
- Don't Go in The Woods
- Drone of Dread: the entire soundtrack—minus Händel's "Liascia ch'io pianga" in the prologue and conclusion.
- Euroshlock
- Everything Trying to Kill You
- The Faceless: Apart from the two main protagonists, the few supporting cast members appearing have their faces deliberately blurred.
- Faux Symbolism: Many critics try really hard to read into the Christian symbols disseminated throughout the movie. This was arguably intentional on Trier's part, a way of peeling back the absurdity of finding meaning in a meaningless universe.
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"But there's no such constellation!" |
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- Female Misogynist: She believes that women are evil and were tortured and killed in history because they were evil.
- Gainax Ending: After killing She, He goes away, and then he sees a multitude of faceless women going past him and towards Eden. What?
- Genre Shift: Starts as a Psychological Thriller, then progressively shifts to Psychological Horror.
- Groin Attack: And how. In both the male and female equivalent, and respectively inflicted and self-inflicted.
- Humans Are the Real Monsters: Then again, so is nature, apparently.
- Intimate Psychotherapy: Subverted hard.
- It Got Worse: Well, it's what they promised.
- Leave the Camera Running: The movie is dedicated to Andrei Tarkovsky for a reason.
- Mind Screw
- Minimalist Cast
- No Name Given: The main protagonists are never named, not even in the end credits, where they are just designated as "He" and "She". The only character named is their son Nick.
- Nothing Is Scarier
- Primal Scene: Inverted. Nick didn't see his parents having sex, but She saw him jumping from the window.
- Psychological Horror
- Religious Horror: Deconstructed.
- Room Full of Crazy: Double-subverted: The crazy was originally regular research material for a dissertation about misogyny, but...
- She Who Fights Monsters: Then she really began to believe that women are inherently evil.
- Surreal Horror
- There Are No Therapists: Averted in that He is a therapist. Things get out of hand anyway.
- Through the Eyes of Madness
- Things That Go Bump in the Night: lampshaded and heavily played with.
- World of Symbolism