Cult Cinema: The Antichrist (1974) - Reviewed

Courtesy of Kino Lorber

Shortly after William Friedkin’s The Exorcist went on to become one of the most successful horror films of all time that still generates money for Warner Brothers, it was inevitable other countries keen on stealing some of the profits would generate their own knockoffs of the hit Hollywood film.  

Somehow or another, 1974 saw not one but four imitations including but not limited to William Girdler’s banned blaxploitation flick Abby, Turkish cheapie Seytan and two Italian rip-offs known for their wackiness, green vomit and levitations: Beyond the Door and today’s entry into Cult Cinema The Antichrist.  Initially forgotten as another knockoff before being reassessed as a minor Italian cult classic, The Antichrist (also released under the title The Tempter) is precisely what you’d expect with a few nifty surprises along the way.

 
Ippolita Oderisi (Carla Gravina), daughter of rich aristocrate Massimo (Mel Ferrer), is confined to a wheelchair after suffering a near-fatal car accident at the age of twelve which also claimed the life of her mother.  The psychological trauma causes an unhealthy dependency on her father who arouses his daughter’s jealousies when he starts dating a woman named Greta (legendary Anita Strindberg).  

To cope, she visits a parapsychologist named Dr. Sinibaldi (Umberto Orsini) who through hypnosis determines she had an ancestor who was burned at the stake as a witch.  Inexplicably, the hypnosis causes the spirit of her ancestor to possess her, transforming the once crippled waif into a walking succubus who casually murders strangers when she isn’t trying to seduce her own siblings.
 
While an out and out carbon copy of the Friedkin film, premiering a mere three weeks after the Turkish knockoff Seytan hit theaters, this Albert De Martino (Holocaust 2000) directed demonic possession sleaze fest manages to be arguably the most respectable xerox of the bunch.  Sporting arresting cinematography by eventual exploitation director Joe D’Amato and a pulsating dually written original score by Bruno Nicolai and Ennio Morricone and razor sharp editing by Zombie cutter Vincenzo Tomassi, The Antichrist is as overqualified of a cheap knockoff picture of a renowned Hollywood hit as they come.  

Debatably more violent than Friedkin’s film though nowhere near as horrific, the film also features a spectacular Satanic orgiastic rite which seems to transport you past Rosemary’s Baby into the kaleidoscopic realm of Mario Bava.  What it lacks in the makeup effects and monetary department it makes up for with inspired camera trickery and optical effects shots including an arresting nightmare where the victim's bedroom ceiling disappears into the clouds while she's sleeping.

 
Performance wise, the film mostly rests on the shoulders of Carla Gravina who is tasked with doing everything from playing a cripple, portraying childlike anxieties, full frontal nude and sex scenes and eventually levitations replete with make-up prostheses and green pea soup vomit.  Though it pales in comparison to what Linda Blair and Dick Smith would do, its a decent cheapie take on the unholy lord of darkness.  

Veteran actor Mel Ferrer is generally solid if not a bit of a fish out of water here while Arthur Kennedy as the film’s central Cardinal likely drank his way through the shoot.  There are some real transgressive shocks sprinkled here and there that will raise your eyebrows and there is a really unintentionally funny moment of a man leaping off a cliff that’s clearly a shot of him standing up with the camera zooming in to give the illusion of a fall.

 
Fans of demonic possession horror are likely to get more laughs than chills from The Antichrist which genuinely hasn’t aged all that well compared to the indefatigable Friedkin epic.  Fans of cult Italian cinema however, particularly disconnected carbon copies of hit Tinseltown flicks, will be elated by all the strange and uncomfortable places this thing goes.  Not particularly scary or all that horrific, but it does have a lot in it that will get your attention even if it doesn't register quite the way its makers intended.

--Andrew Kotwicki

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