Alberto De Martino’s The Antichrist is easy to dismiss as a shameless rip-off of The Exorcist. But that would be to diminish the stylistic verve that De Martino brings to the project. In fact, aside from the more overt story elements relating to the occult, De Martino’s direction owes more to other Euro contemporaries like Walerian Borowczyk and Sergio Martino than to William Friedkin.
Densely plotted, if overlong, The Antichrist proves more enamored with matters of sexual repression than demonic possession. As the film opens, Ippolita (Carla Gravina) attends a madhouse religious ceremony—featuring snakes, writhing bodies, and a possessed man (Ernesto Colli) who hurls himself from a cliff to his death—alongside her aristocratic father (Mel Ferrer), in an effort to try and walk again. She’s been paralyzed since she was 12, the result of a car accident that also killed her mother. Needless to say, her inability to walk correlates with her loss of a sexual appetite—one that’s resurrected in a dream sequence involving sex with the devil that’s straight out of Rosemary’s Baby.
Now, as her father aims to marry a woman named Greta (Anita Strindberg), Ippolita must confront whether her condition is physical or psychosomatic, whether she possesses telekinetic powers, whether she’s more in contact with God or Satan, and also whether she’s sexually attracted to her younger brother (Remo Girone). Meanwhile, Ippolita’s uncle, Cardinal Ascanio (Arthur Kennedy), helps her to navigate these trying times, though once she’s possessed by an ancestor, who it turns out made an eternal covenant with Satan before her death, no amount of therapy exploring her childhood will do. It’s a job for Father Mittner (George Coulouris), who must perform an exorcism on behalf of the Vatican following all failed attempts to cure her.
Though there are indeed obvious parallels between The Antichrist and The Exorcist, the film is distinguished by its high-ceilinged aristocratic homes and Italian cathedrals. It’s also Ippolita’s sexuality rather than any presumable adolescent vulnerability to possession that informs her transformation from a timid, weepy invalid into a crackling, seducing vixen, culminating in her picking up and then quickly killing a random young man at an art museum.
While such a narrative trajectory could suggest that The Antichrist will spiral into full-on sexploitation, the filmmakers opt instead for gonzo horror, as in sequence with a mystic (Mario Scaccia) who’s hired by the family maid (Alida Valli) to perform a phony exorcism that precedes the climactic one. The Antichrist certainly looks dynamic and foreboding as lensed by Joe D’Amato, but given how it veers from scene to scene between orgiastic absurdism, freakout ceremonies, and solemn religious speak, its wants for more seamlessness and coherence.
Image/Sound
This UHD release in native 4K improves on Kino Lorber’s 2022 Blu-ray release, and that’s especially evident in wide-angle shots inside the film’s numerous aristocratic homes and Italian cathedrals. The image is exceptionally detailed, and colors are vibrant and natural. Best of all, this restoration cleans up the image without compromising its original filmic textures. The DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 track gives prominence in the mix to some booming sound effects and Ennio Morricone serviceable score, while dialogue remains crisp and audible throughout.
Extras
On their newly recorded commentary track, author and film historian Lee Gambin and film critic Sally Christie discuss how The Antichrist was one of numerous films that were influenced by or, less generously, ripped off The Exorcist. But they also elaborate on how the film’s themes and Alberto De Martino’s artistry distinguish it from the pack. Also included is an interview with De Martino and Morricone, produced by Blue Underground and Anchor Bay for a previous home video release of the film, in which they elaborate on their contributions to the project. (Notably, De Martino explains how the notion of a “devil” in The Antichrist is more the product of sexual repression than demonic possession.) Rounding out the disc are a handful of theatrical previews for films also available on home video from Kino Lorber.
Overall
By no means an undiscovered classic of ’70s Euro-sleaze nor simply an Italian riff on The Exorcist, Alberto De Martino’s The Antichrist is an intriguing pastiche of ’70s movie trends, and the recent 4K restoration by StudioCanal receives a nice UHD bump-up.
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