Is Antrum the Deadliest Film Ever Made?
Antrum also known as Antrum: The Deadliest Film Ever Made was directed by David Amito, Michael Laicini and is sort of a film within a film. It’s about a brother and sister who go to the woods, presumably where Lucifer fell to Earth, and begin digging a hole to Hell in order to save the soul of their dead dog. But, like I said, there’s a film within a film here. The movie plays out like a documentary, examining the cursed movie, and describing strange events and deaths that have occurred that surround it. Before I get too ahead of myself, let’s dig deeper into the technical aspects and mystery of this film.
I’m just going to come out and say that this movie is filmed very strangely. For the most part, the movie seemed pretty normal, but here’s the thing…every once in a while, to keep playing on that ‘you’re watching a cursed movie’ vibe that this movie keeps giving off, you’ll see strange cuts, symbols, images, even words that just flash across the screen. I actually though that was a pretty clever gimmick that they obviously wanted to keep using in order to push the whole feel of the film. One of the things that I disliked about this method, was that the look kept confusing me. The documentary moments mixing with the attempt to make the film look like it was from the 1970’s was kind of distracting, but not entirely a deal breaker.
The score of this movie is very spot on, with some really amazing music throughout that just sort of draws you in and gives a really nasty, creepy vibe. The entire plot of the film, enhanced by the musical score, just felt off. Like, everything I was watching felt vile, depraved, evil; it literally felt like a descent into Hell every time the characters, played by Nicole Tompkins and Rowan Smyth, got just a few feet deeper, getting closer and closer to the very gates of damnation.
That’s more or less all the good…now for the bad, or should I say the kind of okay. The acting in this film felt very off. I’m not sure if that’s done on purpose because they wanted to give it a full-on 1970’s exploitation/grind house feel, or if it’s on the direction, but I wasn’t too much of a fan. I mean, the cast overall is okay, they’re not terrible, but there were some moments with some of the supporting cast that I was just not too into and they seemed out of place, which made the plot feel a little too convoluted. Once we get back to the whole digging to Hell thing though…everything gets back on track and man, is it creepy. As I’m writing this, I am trying really hard not to spoil everything, but there’s a twist in it and it’s okay, it just kind of made me shrug, like I had already seen it coming and wasn’t very surprised. The ending…the ending will surprise you though, and it felt like something tragic was about to happen.
Overall, it’s an alright movie. The whole gimmick behind it being cursed and will mess with your head, it does invest a lot into that and I really did enjoy that part of it. The score and leads are great, the way it looks like an old grind house/exploitation horror film will definitely give it a cult following, and I think it’s worth seeing. Check it out, it’s on VOD now.
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