31 Nights of Halloween - Antrum: The Deadliest Film Ever Made

Antrum: The Deadliest Film Ever Made

95 mins.

Dir. David Amito & Michael Laicini

2018/USA

Would you watch a movie that is supposedly cursed and could harm or possibly even kill you upon viewing?  That is what you will be doing if you subject yourself to a viewing of Antrum.  There is even a warning before the film begins.

Antrum is split into two parts, the first is a documentary giving a brief history of what little is known about the film Antrum, a lost movie from the 70s, that has only been seen a few times by a handful of people, each of them meeting their demise.  There have only been two public screenings of the film, both having ended in tragedy to the theatre and the patrons.  Finally a copy of the film has been unearthed, though it seems to have been tampered with by an unknown third party and is revealed here for the first time for the general public to view.  Though there is a Legal Notice stating that you are aware of what you are getting yourself into and do not hold the producers or anyone else involved liable for any event that occurs to you, wether it be illness, injury, mortal danger or death upon viewing this movie.  With that being said, let's dive in.

The film itself deals with a pet dog being euthanized.  On the way home the little boy asks his mother if Maxine has gone to heaven, for whatever reason, the mother tells the boy that Maxine was bad and went to hell.  Obviously the kid is traumatized, and begins having infernal nightmares.  His older sister, tries to comfort him by setting up a ploy to rescue Maxine's soul from Hell.  They go into the woods, to the spot where it is said Satan landed when he was cast out of heaven.  She has a grimoire of ancient rites and they begin to dig to hell more or less as they set up a star of protection and say the necessary chants.  The plan is to plant Maxine's collar in the forest for the kid to find, thinking he has freed Maxine's soul from hell and relieving his.  But did they indeed open some kind of gateway inviting something in?  They seemed to be watched by creatures just out of sight and hear unexplainable noises.  Is it just other inhabitants of the forest or is it something more.

The whole time there are subliminal images and symbols flashed upon the screen and at one point even the movie stops and it appears as a demon is watching you watching the movie.  Is this part of the movie or is this really happening for watching this cursed film?  The fact of cursed films are great urban legends or creepypasta  stories.  I got sucked into the story of Suicide mouse years back, which supposedly is a black and white loop from 1931 of Mickey Mouse walking past buildings on a city street this goes on for awhile and eventually ends and the screen goes black for a few minutes.  Later it starts up again and Mickey's image begins to be altered, his mouth stretches, his eyes fall off his face, the scene becomes distorted in the background and the sounds are filled with infernal screams.  Supposedly when this footage was originally found, upon viewing the person who saw it immediately went out and killed themself.  The original file of this no longer exists, what can be seen now has been altered into a few different versions.  It makes for a fascinating creepypasta tale that led me down the rabbit hole of other cursed videos that have had effects on the viewer, and there are plenty of them.  Some no longer available, others just legends, but all great ideas to keep you up at night.

The idea of cursed films is nothing new, the story of Ringu was based on a cursed VHS tape when viewed, John Carpenter's Cigarette Burns was probably one of the best stories in the Masters of Horror series.  Getting the audience to believe a movie is based on is real events is a proven marketing strategy with the Blair Witch Project.  So how does Antrum compare as a movie?  If you are into these legends, it is a must see.  The movie itself admittedly does carry on a bit long and is rather slow in parts, but there is no doubt that some of the visuals are pretty creepy and that is not counting any of the subliminal imagery.  It would have been nice to have expanded upon the documentary aspect behind the film a little more as that is usually more fascinating than the film itself.  While not a perfect film, there are times where it doesn't feel like it was made in the 70s and other times it does.  Like the creepypasta stories these are based on, sometimes the legend is creepier than the actual event.  If you are looking for scares throughout a movie, you will find none.  If you want a feeling of uneasiness and dread, this is worth checking out.  Because after all, you are not watching this movie for entertainment, but more to see what will happen to you after it is over.