Antichrist – the most controversial film of the year!

source: youtube.com

We’ve been putting this off for far too long. If you are yet to see the trailer for Lars Von Trier‘s controversial (and we mean controversial) new film Antichrist, then you quite simply have not lived.

Von Trier’s film debuted at the Cannes Film Festival to a chorus of cheers and jeers; critics decreed it as either a work of genius, hokey trash or pure evil (with a few just downright confused and undecided).

Antichrist stars Willem Dafoe and Charlotte Gainsbourg as an unnamed couple who head out into the woods to deal with the death of their infant son.

Check out the trailer below and let us know your thoughts! But be warned: It’s weird. I mean, it’s really weird.

Gainsbourg was named Best Actress at Cannes for her performance, which demanded complete emotional vulnerability and even some bodily mutilation (all fake, of course).

The film received a special “anti-award” by the Cannes ecumenical jury, who normally award prizes to film’s that promote spiritual, humanist and universal values. The jury invented the “anti-award” after declaring the picture evil and witnessing Von Trier’s hilarious post-screening claim: “I am the best director in the world“.

Now take a look at what the critics are saying and you look me in the eye and tell me your not curious:

Chris Tookey at The Daily Mail: “Antichrist is a bonkers attempt to merge three extremely different genres – arthouse, horror and hard-core pornography – with predictably catastrophic results.”

Kevin Mahar at The Times Online: “Is it worth the price of admission? The answer, typically, is both yes and no. ‘No’, if you are of a nervous disposition and suspect that you might be psychologically traumatised by the sight, in momentary close-up, of an ersatz vulva being manhandled by the props department.”

Roger Ebert at The Chicago Sun Times: “Von Trier’s film goes beyond malevolence into the monstrous. Never before have a man and woman inflicted more pain upon each other in a movie…This is the most despairing film I’ve ever have seen.”

Does anyone else hear this buzzing noise?

Anyway, it’s ridiculous to declare whether or not a film is special unless you’ve seen it with your own two eyes. Australians will have to wait until November before it hits cinemas (and just the art house ones no doubt). Take a look at the proposed film poster for the Australian release. I don’t think it made it past the censors though. A damn shame.

I absolutely cannot wait to sink my teeth into Antichrist and make up my own mind.

Discuss: OK, how do you feel about Antichrist? Anticipating or dreading it?