Following the death of their child, a therapist insists on helping his wife through her grief himself. She conceptualizes her anxiety as fear of the woods around their summer home and her husband, a proponent of hardcore exposure therapy, takes her there to face her fears. Once isolated at their cabin, however, her mental state rapidly deteriorates into acts of extreme physical and sexual violence.
Reminiscent of the dark, psychological studies of Ingmar Bergman and Roman Polanski, 'Antichrist' is an exceptionally well crafted film from a director working at the height of his powers. A sense of darkness and foreboding begins from the very first frame and is masterfully developed through almost dreamlike scenes of increasing dread to an unbearable last act of brutality, raising fascinating questions about the historical depiction of women as agents of the devil, from the Old Testament to Freudian psychoanalysis. Though the violence, whether physical or sexual, is extreme and graphic, it never once seems exploitation, but rather a natural manifestation of the deeply disturbed psychology of the character. Willem Defoe and Charlotte Gainsbourgh carry the entire film with breathtaking performances of startling naturalism, courage and conviction. A powerful, disturbing, beautiful achievement.
Reminiscent of the dark, psychological studies of Ingmar Bergman and Roman Polanski, 'Antichrist' is an exceptionally well crafted film from a director working at the height of his powers. A sense of darkness and foreboding begins from the very first frame and is masterfully developed through almost dreamlike scenes of increasing dread to an unbearable last act of brutality, raising fascinating questions about the historical depiction of women as agents of the devil, from the Old Testament to Freudian psychoanalysis. Though the violence, whether physical or sexual, is extreme and graphic, it never once seems exploitation, but rather a natural manifestation of the deeply disturbed psychology of the character. Willem Defoe and Charlotte Gainsbourgh carry the entire film with breathtaking performances of startling naturalism, courage and conviction. A powerful, disturbing, beautiful achievement.