Antrum: The Deadliest Movie Ever Made

Antrum: The Deadliest Movie Ever Made

2018

Director- David Amito, Michael Laicini

Cast- Nicole Tompkins, Rowan Smyth, Dan Istrate, Circus-Szalewski, Kristel Elling, Shu Sakimoto, Lucy Rayner, Pierluca Arancio

            

     This clever film presents us with a movie within a movie. The premise of the film is that Antrum was a real movie made in the late 1970s. However, it only screened in one theatre and that theatre burned to the ground killing everyone inside. Everyone associated with the film died in some mysterious way and the film was lost. Now, the movie has been found.

        

   

     We start off with a faux documentary with interviews with film historians and occult specialists, all giving their take on the film, Antrum. Then we get to see Antrum, in its entirety, complete with a warning releasing the makers of the film from any liability. This whole set up was a gimmick that would have made William Castle green with envy.

           

     But what about Antrum itself (once we get to it)? The set up did not disappoint. We are treated to a very dark, disturbing film. The story is very small, focusing on a cast of just a few people. It starts with a young boy watching his dog get euthanized (yeah, a real pick me up). He asks his mother if the dog went to heaven and mom says no, the dog didn’t go to heaven because it had been bad and the boy is understandably disturbed by this (she’s not going to get the parent of the year award).

            

     The boy’s older sister comes up with a solution that is elegant in its simplicity. They will dig a hole to Hell to free his dog’s soul. They travel out into a forest to a spot that she says is the point where Lucifer landed when he fell to Earth. She is armed with a kind of homemade grimoire that details spells of protection and what they can expect as they get closer to the Gates of Hell.

            

     Along the way, they encounter various threats; some seem like they may be the product of imagination and some that are concretely real. While the movie is not surreal, it does take place in an environment that puts it outside of any identifiable place or time. The two protagonists are apparently American, but along their journey they encounter a Japanese man and some kind of Eastern European hillbillies. The visuals are beautiful and disturbing, like a giant metallic Baphomet where people are cooked alive inside. I don’t want to share anymore because I don’t want to spoil it. Like Dante traveling through his nine levels, the journey is the reward.

            

     The film starts with clips from various Satanic silent films. Amongst the ones I recognized were L'Inferno (1911) and Häxan (1922). If you’ve seen these films then you can appreciate the kind of tone (and very high bar) Antrum was trying to set.  It doesn’t have the realism of Häxan (few films do) but it does try to push the Satanic beyond abstract philosophy into something more tangible while still examining our own tendency to turn our fears into reality. It also takes a look at the darker side of faith. It is generally accepted that prayer and belief in a higher power can help people through hard times. But if belief in God and divine intervention can translate into positive change in our life, then what about the belief in Satan and the powers of evil?