This is where the fish live.
Antrum: The Deadliest Film Ever Made (2018): 4 out of 10: is a horror film directed by David Amito and Michael Laicini. It presents itself as a lost, cursed film from the 1970s, with a reputation for causing misfortune, injury, or even death to those who watch it. The film is framed within a documentary-style prologue and epilogue, which discuss its sinister history and the tragic events surrounding its past screenings. The central narrative of Antrum is shot in the style of a 1970s horror film, complete with grainy visuals and an unsettling atmosphere.
Antrum follows a young boy named Nathan and his older sister, Oralee, who venture into the woods to dig a hole to hell in an effort to save the soul of their recently deceased dog, Maxine. Nathan, deeply distressed over his dog’s passing, has been led to believe that Maxine has gone to hell because she was not a “good dog.” Oralee, aiming to comfort her brother, constructs an elaborate ritual that convinces Nathan they can retrieve Maxine’s soul by digging deep enough into the earth.
As they progress in their excavation, strange and disturbing occurrences begin to unfold. They encounter eerie symbols, hear ominous whispers, and are seemingly watched by unseen entities.
Along their journey, they encounter a pair of sinister figures—two strange men living in the forest who engage in gruesome rituals involving human and animal sacrifices. (Think The Hills Have Eyes but Scandinavian). As the siblings struggle to escape the escalating horrors, Oralee becomes increasingly paranoid and unhinged. The film does that flashing things quickly on the screen thing that I suppose is scary?
The Good
The Good: Antrum starts off as a documentary (Well mockumentary) about a late seventies horror film that was associated with the deaths at a film festival, the burning of theaters, suicides et al.… this part of the movie is excellent. Entertaining and extremely well done.
Had Antrum stuck with this throughout, showing brief snippets of the film, I think we could have a winner. Think a self aware version of Unearthed & Untold: The Path to Pet Sematary.
The Bad
The Bad: Unfortunately, the filmmakers recreated the entire film. Antrum nails the soft focus occult themed horror of the seventies. All it is missing is an inappropriately sappy folk song or two. Also, this is the real problem. There is a reason such movies went out of favor almost as quickly as they came about. They are often a boring slog.
The film is very well crafted for what it is trying to accomplish. It is spot on for a late seventies Satan film. MST3K fans will immediately get a nice The Touch of Satan vibe down to the nature shots and soft photography.
While it mixes things up eventually with an invisible Cerberus and a couple of demons/cannibals that are right out of various Hills have Eyes remakes (Complete with a bestiality scene that looks like something Tom Greeen would do) It is too little too late.
By sticking with the deadly boring soft focus seventies horror, the film bluntly puts one to sleep. And unlike similar modern films such as The Ritual or even 2016’s The Forest the main leads in Antrum have neither the character nor star power to keep things interesting.
The Ugly
The Ugly: Our two leads have the personality of wallpaper paste and soft focus, grainy, and poorly lit is no way to go through life, son. Antrum is disturbing in a “there are fifty minutes more of this?” kind of way. The only way someone died from watching this film is if they fell asleep with a lit cigarette.
In Conclusion
In Conclusion: I mean the filmmakers give it a good college try. I know I keep repeating myself in this review, but Antrum really looks exactly like a boring “Satan” film from the seventies. Problem is, I have seen a few of those and there are no robots making this experience less painful and bluntly less boring.
