One of the many impish tricks of "Antichrist" is how writer-director Lars von Trier grounds the film in modern psychological dogma, but keeps us purposely locked outside of the characters undergoing these very intricate (yet very subjective) psychoses. Further complicating matters is a deliberate disconnect between protagonist and antagonist -- while a more conventional horror film would jump at the opportunity to make a therapist husband (Willem Dafoe) -- full of textbook knowledge on manipulating patients into desired states of rationality and self-actualization -- the shrewd villain toward his grief-stricken wife (Charlotte Gainsbourg), Trier underlines the detachment between individuals brought about by a shared tragedy (the death of a child). To aid his despondent wife in overcoming her pervasive grief, Dafoe takes her to an isolated cabin deep in the woods, where the natural life surrounding them begins to take on a life of its own...a life informed, perhaps, by Gainsbourg's own damaged psyche. In a possible dream sequence, a deformed fox informs Dafoe that "chaos reigns." Like the best works of David Lynch (particularly "Eraserhead"), "Antichrist" paints a portrait in symbols and abstract (and sometimes cringingly gruesome) displays of physical and mental anguish; there is a stark rawness and ambiguity to the proceedings that transcends art-house pretension as it plumbs the darkness of the human soul.
7.5 out of 10
7.5 out of 10