Antychryst

Wow. I'm glad some other people have seen this. Good. I didn't imagine it.

This short film from Poland is about four little boys and their games. Their leader is older and proclaims himself to be the Antichrist, and sets a series of foolish and increasingly dangerous tasks.

The four boys aren't professional actors. None have any other films to their credit. But all four deliver excellent performances.

The boys are playing around a rock quarry. The influences that we associate with civilization- family, school, church, rules of any sort- are far away and largely forgotten in the desolate landscape.

Eventually the three comparatively sane individuals began to realize the extent of the madness of their ill-chosen leader. The viewer is put in a moral quandary- do we fear that harm befalls the older boy as this would leave the three boys with mental scars, or do we hope that some force comes along to eliminate him in his youth so that forty years later he won't cause World War II.

This is a film that's not easy to watch. Many will be put off by what violence is scene and, worse yet, the underlying potential of something far worse. This is not for anyone with an idealized view of childhood, and it's definitely not for children.

Thanks to Independent Film Channel for running this on a program called Grindhouse Shorts. It's a revelation.

Couldn't stop watching this once it started. Stumbled into it, and images from it are still in my mind.

The desolate landscape is a mining location, well chosen for many reasons. The destruction of the landscape to bring out precious metals is a great metaphor.

The places these characters reside both physically and mentally are frightening.

This film has the rare capacity to touch a dark but sacred part in the mind of this viewer at least, which is ironic considering the title.

Bravo. Well done.

A thoroughly unlikeable and unpleasant "short" that drags on for almost a half hour. The plot (or what is submitted as a plot) deserves about three or four minutes and the rest is tedium.

If you can not figure out where this is going in the first three minutes you have no imagination. The four characters are completely superficially portrayed but behave as if theta were quoting Shakespeare. I kept watching (for what seemed like hours) thinking there must be some redeeming surprise ending. (Don't hold your breath)

Do yourself a favor and don't waste your time on this exercise in the banal.

Antychryst (2002)

*** (out of 4)

Polish film about four young boys playing in a pit mine with the oldest one constantly pushing the other three to try daring things. At first these stunts start off as harmless fun but soon it appears that the oldest kid might be the antichrist forcing them to do much dangerous things. This film runs 27-minutes and for the most part it's a real winner. What I enjoyed best was the actual setting of the pit mine, which gave the film a rather creepy atmosphere and a certain loneliness that really comes across well. I thought director Gunzinski handled the material extremely well as we're constantly left wondering if this kid is just nuts or if perhaps he really is the antichrist. I thought the director did a very good job at keeping the viewer off guard as to his identity but also to the nature of the games going on. Some of the games are silly but others are a bit more dangerous including one sequence where the boys catch some fish and slap them around before killing them. The young actors are all good in their roles and we get an extremely effective music score by Guzinski.

This is one of six films included in the collection "The World According to Shorts". For the most part, this is not a particularly good set of shorts, as I have seen many others with more memorable content than this rather disappointing DVD.

This film shows a group of Polish children following their ringleader. At first, their actions seem pretty normal for young boys, but later the ringleader just seems rather insane and antisocial. The boy is cruel, has sick fantasies of murder and declares that he's the Antichrist! Interesting kid, huh? Then, amazingly, the film gets even weirder.

While the film certainly gets points for being different, I also think the film has a serious case of the "huh factor". In other words, as you watch it and struggle in vain to understand it, you can't help but feel confused as well as asking yourself why you watched the thing in the first place! I know I sure did!