Antrum - Il film maledetto

While clearly not appreciated by everyone, I found Antrum incredibly effective.

I would start with the pitch-perfect performances of the two protagonists, played by Nicole Tompkins and Rowan Smyth. At times you forget you're watching a movie; you can tell the direction is very deliberate here as the script slithers along in an unorthodox and bizarre way, yet these two actors somehow manage to express exactly what you'd believe real people would at any given moment.

Secondly, the film is disorienting and oppressive. This is accomplished, first of all, by invading a "safe space" from demons, Satan, hell, and the occult: a sunny, almost idyllic forest. Usually, dark forces creep around in gothic mansions or dark forests after midnight, around bonfires.

Not so, here. Instead, the bad stuff happens mainly in broad daylight in an otherwise peaceful, appealing setting. The effect, therefore, is more unsettling because daylight and nice forests are supposed to be the respite between the periods of darkness where evil things rise and run amok in the shadows.

There is no respite here.

Further, the not-quite-subliminal frames inserted into the film really amplify matters, which brings me to the most important point:

If the filmmakers would have asked me my opinion of this, I would have advised them to ditch the concept of a "cursed film" leaving the middle part - the Antrum story itself - to speak for itself. It feels like the filmmakers started out with this idea of a cursed film, perhaps with the film's plot as a secondary concern, but in reality the film itself holds up well and exceeds expectations.

In particular, we're not 100% sure that what we're seeing is really happening, or whether the two characters have unwittingly created an egregore, in which a consensus hallucination of sort is occurring.

Had the filmmakers had a much larger budget, they might have been tempted to use CGI to represent actual supernatural elements, but, in particular, the chains dragging across the forest floor were somehow more horrifying than a full-bore representation of what was supposed to be pulling at those chains.

I might have even advised pulling back further to make this even more subtle. The real tension here is between what is real and what is imagined in the minds of the characters.

The metal baphomet is reminiscent of the wicker man, which I appreciated, and the way the film doesn't feel the need to explain the presence of that or the forest Hungarians who treat it as some kind of totem, is greatly appreciated. Any attempt to tie this film together with a grand explanation would have been far less satisfying.

Something is seriously wrong in this forest.

Lastly, there is the soundtrack, which must be fully heard to be believed. As with the deft editing, I kept wondering how the filmmakers figured out how to combine all of these things the way they did to create a deeply unsettling experience.

I am not sure why this is not rated higher. Viewed in the right state of mind, the film really breaks a lot of conventions.

I like it a whole lot. What starts as a film about tunnelling to hell morphs into folk horror, as the landscape - the sunny forest - becomes a character unto itself.

7/10

I liked the film. The film succeeds in creating a creepy atmosphere. It is not as scary as some people in the review mentioned, it is definitely creepy and an interesting watch.

Plot: The film starts by introducing the legend of the film named Antrum. It is said to be cursed and anyone who saw it died. The Antrum starts. A boy has nightmares that his dead puppy Maxine is in hell, so his older sister takes him to a forest where with help of a mysterious book they can dig into second layer of hell and save the soul of Maxine. On this journey things gets increasingly disturbing and the question arises are we really in a forest or descending into hell.

The imagery is effective and creepy. We see lots of sigils, markings and blurred face of demons. The editing is done intentionally in a way that makes seem like made with some sinister purpose. The cautionary tale in the beginning is very clever, it makes the viewing feels like something we shouldn't be doing.

The acting is amazing, there are some twists there. Which makes sense and was hinted early on. The characters of brother and sister is likable.

The film has similar feelings of The Blair Witch Project. Towards the end film gets intense. Enjoyed the film.

Warning. This is a movie that's better watched without prior research.

Antrum is a gimmick. It is a movie about a movie that plays the movie in its entirety, and that is going to make it a difficult pill for many people to swallow. But the premise is pretty solid. There exists this movie, it is pretty messed up, and everyone who watches it dies. Now, does it work?

The movie is interesting in its commitment to the gimmick. It does feel like a movie from the 70s. There are a few tells that detract from it, but things like the choice of clothes, the jenky 70s audio, and grainy film quality does make it feel older. But more importantly, it makes some of the effects feel natural. Periodically, there are sigils that pop up that looked as though they were etched into the film by hand. Then comes the truly messed up parts. The movie sporadically just quits and cuts to some shocking footage. I didn't care for the torture scenes so much but there is one scene that I found truly disturbing. Without spoiling anything, its when the screen just spontaneously goes black where the movie gets genuinely so creepy it becomes hard to watch. There is no build to it but it is the most upsetting two minutes I've seen in any movie.

Unfortunately, the plot of the movie is a bit slow and tedious. There are long shots of kids digging a hole. In fact, that's the premise of the movie. This isn't necessarily bad, it works with the gimmick, but if you can't bring yourself to buy into that gimmick, its going to hurt. A lot. No manner of horrible taxidermy squirrels or devil shaped brass bulls is going to save that. If you can get into it, the movie is pretty entertaining, like looking up cursed images online. Its just you putting more into it.

I overall liked it. It was a fun experience if only for its cursed film gimmick. Not for everyone but ultimately something that should have been tried for yourself before reading a single review. So if you've gotten to this point, you've done goofed.

This film was a gimmick film that begins with a 10 minute "documentary" that says many people who have viewed this film have died and it was advertised as such. The film itself is a 70s horror film about two kids trying to bury their pet dog but end up summoning evil. It has a waning saying by viewing this film you may die as a result. Obviously is all crap but its a kinda cool gimmick that would work better if this kinda thing happened decades ago. It may make a good midnight movie experience. It also has demonic images that randomly pop up through the film. Sadly the film itself is pretty much just boring. Mostly kids walking around in the woods. The film takes an interesting premise and does little with it.

The opening mockumentary about the movie was the best part and interesting. You hear people talk about the film and where it came from and how it supposedly killed everyone at the initial screening, which is why it was banned and supposedly lost forever. There was some very intriguing lore there. I wish that would have been the whole movie. Instead we get shown the movie that was recently uncovered and it's pretty boring.

A girl and her brother go into the woods to try and find their dog... Or bury their dog; I'm still not sure. The sister has been telling her younger brother about the entrance to hell through a sort of folklore story.

They walk a lot, they barely talk for a while, they meet some rednecks who have some satanic plot. They dig some more. Supposedly digging their way to hell. Looking for a dog that died, but the brother loved him so the sister thinks she can find the dog again by digging their way to hell. It's convoluted and boring.

It looks like a movie made in the 70's through grainy after effects and the styling of clothes is appropriate. The acting isn't bad at all. For how young the leads are I think they did a good job overall in that respect. It just fails to capture any real suspense or even a slight thrill. There are moments of unease and some cool visuals, but most of that has nothing to do with the main storyline.

Overall, I think this was a huge missed opportunity. When the most compelling part of your movie is the first ten minutes (which actually isn't part of the 'movie') you have a problem.

It is slow, uneventful, messy and just uninspired. When I want to see more of a mockumentary about a cursed tape (which we have all seen before) then you know the rest is a dud.

I am giving it 3 stars because the mockumentary section was good, the acting was decent and it did give that 70's lost film kind of vibe at times. Beyond that there is nothing to see here. If you were drawn in by the marketing of the most horrifying, deadly movie then don't watch this. If you want to see a slightly well crafted 70's style movie then maybe give it a watch, but don't expect anything super compelling or scary at all.

This film will only kill you with boredom.