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Originally Posted by Frankie Teardrop  ANTRUM – The whole meta- thing seems quite hard to pull off these days. ‘Antrum’ is bookended by documentary-style passages that tell us about a deadly film, one that kills anyone who sees it, and between these is aforementioned deadly film itself, a supposed Hungarian production from the seventies about a woman and her little brother wandering around some woods. I watched it and I really wondered why they’d bothered with the wraparound because the main course, ‘Antrum’s’ central section, is actually a genuinely unnerving, spookily oneiric horror experience that feels a bit like a more disconnected and self-consciously satanic echo of the days of (eg.) “Let’s Scare Jessica To Death”. It only falls down when it tries a little too hard – the preponderance of near-subliminal sigils that are always flashing up, the odd voice that sounds a bit mwah ha ha etc – but overall I was really impressed and affected, it really does have the air of a dream that’s about to turn very, very bad (and then does). The fake context doesn’t detract too much, just seems a little surplus to requirements when the film’s best work’s been done (although you never know – as one of the directors pithily put it, “Antrum reached peak popularity during a world pandemic… I think you could make the argument”!) Very interested to see what the makers do next. |
Like you i loved this first time round but on second dvd viewing i didn't feel it worked as well and ended up getting rid of it afterwards. The plot second time round is too thin really.
It was certainly ambitious and very different. For those two reasons alone it should be commended.
It needed more dead deer sex.
