BEFORE: I watched the remake of this film last October, and I think I've only read the MAD Magazine parody of the original, so let's knock off another franchise before I go on vacation later this week.
Boy, it was really tempting to hold off a few days and make this movie #666. But when I blocked out the month, I couldn't make it work that way - so more about movie #666 later.
THE PLOT: An American ambassador learns to his horror that his son is actually the literal Antichrist.
AFTER: From the decade that brought you "The Exorcist" and "Rosemary's Baby" - this film took advantage of a very particular moment in time - the baby boomers were having children, and the end of the millennium was just a few decades away. So, if Satan was going to bring about the Apocalypse in 1999, (666 upside-down, sort of...) he'd have to plant the seed, so to speak, in the mid-1970's, so his demon-child would be an adult at the right time.
So Damien is born on June 6 (6/6) in...1971? That doesn't seem right. OK, so the movie explains he was born at 6 am on June 6 - there's your third 6. But was this based on a book in which he was born on 6/6/1966? And maybe it took a few years to get the movie made? At least the remake was released on 6/6/06...
So how do you know if your child is a real demon-spawn, or just prone to tantrums? I'm sure there are some parents out there who are willing to believe that their child acts demonically when he or she misbehaves... But maybe they don't have the hounds of hell defending them, or have odd accidents happen to the people around them...and they probably don't have that demonic choral soundtrack that follows them around.
I've got to call shenanigans on Hollywood's notion that animals - dogs, monkeys, giraffes, etc. - are more able to spot demonic children (or werewolves, for that matter) than people are. Do animals even have souls, according to the Church?
One easy solution to the problem of a demon child: boarding school. And the prophetic photographs? Well, early in the film you see Ambassador Thorn knock the camera out of the photographer's hands, so it's not too much of a stretch to think that the camera was damaged, which of course affected the photos...
Still, this goes down as a horror classic, from a simpler time before zombies, serial killers, chainsaw massacres, and evil deathtraps. When movies relied on suspense instead of blatant gore. Though there are a couple of gruesome deaths here - now, if it were me, and I saw a sharp lightning rod falling off a building, I'd step out of the way, but what do I know?
Starring the great Gregory Peck (last seen in "Cape Fear"), Lee Remick, David Warner (last seen in "The Company of Wolves"), and Leo McKern (last seen in "The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes' Smarter Brother"). Also a cameo by Bruce Boa, who later played General Rieekan in "The Empire Strikes Back" - the rebel General on Hoth who accepts Han Solo's "resignation" - hey, he's on my autograph wall!
RATING: 5 out of 10 baboons
SPOOK-O-METER: 4 out of 10. Who's a cute Antichrist? You're a cute Antichrist!
No comments:
Post a Comment