Antichrist (2009)

Option 1Option 2

Avg Rating: 4.3 / 5. Voted: 138

No one cared thus far. Do you?

AKA: Anticristo
Directed by: Lars von Trier
Starring: Willem Dafoe, Charlotte Gainsbourg
Country: Denmark, Scandinavian Cinema, European Cinema
Language: English (English Subtitles)
Runtime: 01:48:49
Genres: Sexual-Violence against Women, BDSM, Gore-Gruesome, Sexual-Violence against Men, Self-Harm, Family, Misery-Depressing

Plot – Spoilers:
Willem Dafoe and Charlotte Gainsbourg play an unnamed couple. She’s been working on some sort of a thesis on the concept of hatred towards women just because they are women (gynocide), while he’s a therapist, though it’s unclear whether he is practicing.

Anyway, while they’re busy fucking to glory one snowy night, their little son stumbles out of his crib through an open window and falls to his death. With time, the woman is not able to deal with her grief and the husband suggests he take over her care and get rid of all the medication she’s being fed. As part of his methodology, he decides that they head over to their cabin in a woody place called Eden, where she’d spent summer alone with her son.

While at Eden, she vacillates in bipolar fashion between being submissive and accusatory and soon, he realizes he is probably not equipped to handle her.

Thoughts on the Ending – Massive Spoilers:
Towards the end of Antichrist, she is shown to have actually seen her son walk towards the window while fucking, which she then chose to ignore. This coupled with the fact that she deliberately forced an abnormality on the kid’s foot indicts her. But this is probably untrue. Her having seen the kid seems to be something she has convinced herself about the events in hindsight.

Likely, her guilt over being in the throes of pleasure while her son fell to his death ravaged her so monstrously, suicide seemed an inadequate measly punishment. Instead, she probably drove him to rage deliberately, through her continued aggression and torture, to the point where he felt compelled to kill her. Her expressions when he finally rids himself of the grindstone suggests a certain peace over her impending murder at his hands.

The point with this movie though is that everyone has the right to a theory because even Director Lars von Trier has said he couldn’t explain the movie fully even if he wanted to, as he wrote it during a period of intense depression.

Subscribe
Notify of
guest
36 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Old Mother Hubbard
Old Mother Hubbard
May 24, 2023 11:13 pm

Willem Dafoe and Charlotte Gainsbourg are both masters of their craft. I went on a Charlotte Gainsbourg kick for a while and watched a shit load of her movies. One performance that she was outstanding was in “Melancholia” (2011). Willem Dafoe was superb in “The Lighthouse” (2019) though I have to say that I like “The Lighthouse” (2016) starring Mark Lewis Jones and Michael Jibson better because it is a more accurate depiction of the Smalls Lighthouse Tragedy that happened in 1801 near Wales. “Antichrist” is a epic film. One of Lars Van Trier’s masterpieces.

Gay sex the nigger w
Gay sex the nigger w
November 6, 2022 2:55 am

Interesting don’t know what the hell happened 9/10

Rumpel
Rumpel
June 4, 2022 6:24 pm

a mom that gets aroused by his sons death. WOW brutal. Lars Von Trier manages to shock without being cheap no wonder why his films are getting so much fame and controversy, but let´s face it that disturbed mom is fucking hot

Rumpel
Rumpel
June 4, 2022 5:15 am

Both options lag for me

sarah
sarah
May 17, 2022 3:31 pm

i didn’t understand it

Proots
Proots
March 5, 2022 8:10 pm

I’m glad that I was finally able to sit through this movie and watch it. Normally if I’m not into a film within the first five minutes I turn it off. It ended up being pretty damn good.

izzy
izzy
March 3, 2022 5:24 pm

watch this with headphones omg
dude the ants it feels like they’re crawling inside of u

MantraBeeg
MantraBeeg
January 24, 2022 9:34 pm

Apparently, this movie had to have a double for Willem Dafoe because his cock was too big.

Paulo Guina Demacol
Paulo Guina Demacol
January 5, 2022 10:10 pm

Another bullshit european movie. European cinema is a big pile of feces tbh (it´s just sex, violence, sexual violence, polemic, exploitation, and sex… and sex…)

I, Observius
I, Observius
Reply to  Paulo Guina Demacol
January 10, 2023 6:36 am

If that’s what you see in it then it says a lot more about you. People shouldn’t derogatorily generalize a foreign cinema just because some of the films in them contains a specific predominant theme they don’t like. It’s like saying a certain race is full of criminals just because some people born in that race turned out to be criminals.

The Eye of Art
The Eye of Art
January 5, 2022 7:41 am

Slow build up but result to great clarity at the end. An excellent distinct perspective film.

diannee
diannee
January 3, 2022 7:21 am

i don’t hate myself enough for this

AyoPeePeePooPooCheck
AyoPeePeePooPooCheck
December 20, 2021 3:14 pm

RIP my man’s weenie

FrankyTeardrop
FrankyTeardrop
December 20, 2021 5:43 am

got way too high to this great movie tho

Alex Hogendorp
Alex Hogendorp
June 13, 2021 4:18 am

When even the director cannot explain the writing. Chances are it’s all over the place.

Dr Harris
Dr Harris
April 30, 2021 7:17 am

Hmmmmmmmmm

Not sure about this at all .. certainly looks and sounds great but MY GOD… It trys waaaayyy to hard to be alternative and edgy. . It’s actually over bloated over produced utter pretentious garbage.

I don’t understand what the director and producer wanted aside from making money on fans of true art like users of this amazing site ie us….

They were so desperate to shock and stun us they actually totally forgot about story.. proper plot.. pace.. pathos … Drama…
Watch the witch or sinister or summat

Gay sex the nigger w
Gay sex the nigger w
Reply to  Dr Harris
November 6, 2022 2:54 am

They weren’t desperate to shock at all, the film clearly has a deeper meaning that may be hard to understand if you’re too busy thinking about the genital mutilation.

Vic
Vic
March 13, 2021 8:51 pm

I wish I could tell you the end because that is my favorite part. Charlotte Gainsborough is really good in this (as well as many other films). I think this is one of Lars Van Trier’s top 5 movies.

Jun
Jun
February 14, 2021 8:59 am

She looks so cozy in those sweaters

Alice
Alice
February 12, 2021 4:52 pm

Another overrated, pretentious film. One good thing is that, it’s cinematographically-stunning.

Arath
Arath
Reply to  Alice
March 11, 2021 12:34 am

Why overrated?

Gay sex the nigger w
Gay sex the nigger w
Reply to  Arath
November 6, 2022 2:51 am

I think he means in the sense of a disturbing movie, this one isn’t really disturbing yet a lot of people say it is.

shroomsluver
shroomsluver
February 9, 2021 9:20 pm

if they did shrooms this would have been way more fucked up

shroomssexhaver
shroomssexhaver
Reply to  shroomsluver
June 3, 2022 8:17 pm

would be way more fucked up if i did your mom

Madison
Madison
December 9, 2020 6:26 pm

That tick scene though

Nims
Nims
September 17, 2020 11:36 pm

It’s been a decade since I’ve seen this but there is a scene that disturbed me so much, I still frequently think about it and wince in pain. I’ve seen some intense movies (A Serbian Film, August Underground, Martyrs, to name a few) but this movie really got stuck in my brain. It’s a great movie though. CHAOS REIGNS.

Antinatalpist
Antinatalpist
Reply to  Nims
December 21, 2020 3:12 pm

Whittle doggie.. ‘Chaos REIGNS. I gotta say I think that part is so damn stupid.

Zed Man
Zed Man
August 24, 2020 12:50 pm

Slow start, quite boring and then suddenly it started to get my interest up and by the end of the movie I was thinking wtf. It totally mindfucked me trying to understand all the symbolism behind it. Whilst not very gory it had enough content to earn its place here at EUM. Willem Dafoe is a great actor and one of my favorites, have seen many of his films.

Cake
Cake
Reply to  Zed Man
August 18, 2021 2:38 am

Such an amazing movie – it gives me chills when I talk about it with others. The forest backdrop gives it this intense, vivid serenity and I also love the slow crescendo in plot.

Chris Ramirez
Chris Ramirez
August 13, 2020 11:56 pm

I wonder if female circumcision is really how it is performed? Quite gruesome & sick! Thanks EUM for uploading this movie.

Nobody
Nobody
August 4, 2020 12:15 am

I found this to be pretentious. It was like a pretend disturbing film for people who think they are being disturbed but are living too much in their heads to take a real punch to the gut. In that respect it was like a French movie. I felt the same way about this as I did about Martyrs.

Gigi
Gigi
Reply to  Nobody
November 15, 2020 8:31 pm

Well, the director IS known to be pretentious.

mama
mama
July 1, 2020 12:10 pm

Read Joe’s comment, and then mine.

girl in red
girl in red
Reply to  mama
November 7, 2020 3:31 am

nice pfp dude

Glum.Sullen
Glum.Sullen
Reply to  girl in red
June 14, 2021 3:19 am

DaE liKe AdVeNtUrE tImE?!?

joe
joe
May 13, 2020 11:09 pm

What the fuck man