Antrum: The Deadliest Film Ever Made

Leaving this film without the documentary fictional sauce, I might be willing to give it at least three stars. However, it plays against itself and if the creators think the viewer will fall for it, they are wrong. I strongly believe that even the film itself was obviously shot in the present, because the cuts and camera angles of the past don't match up. The story is on one hand interesting, on the other hand boring and unclear. If a little more attention was paid to illuminating everything happening around the main characters and not leaving everything to flashing pentagrams in front of the eyes, I would appreciate it more. Antrum, however, is trying too hard to be terribly serious, mystical, and mysterious, which rather harms it. It was watchable and at times I had unpleasant feelings due to mysterious characters in the forest, but it needed a little more work to leave the viewer with a slightly more fulfilling experience. (09.07.2020)

You are about to watch Antrum - the long-lost horror film from 1979, which is synonymous with its reputation for being a cursed horror movie that can kill people who watch it. The documentary-style prologue takes us into the history of this Satanic masterpiece, and the tragic events that took place a few times after it was initially shown. This is followed by the movie itself in its only surviving version. The recreation of the 1970s style retro aesthetic woven into it really works - the atmosphere and excellent soundtrack even accentuate this feeling in the movie. Unfortunately, however, Antrum is not as terrifying, as the frightening prologue would suggest. In fact, it is actually a fairly tame movie that does not have any explicitly violent scenes, so if you pick up any other arbitrary horror movie from the ‘70s, there is a really good chance you would be affected by that more than this supposedly cursed movie. The atmosphere that builds up during the movie is completely destroyed by the epilogue, which is tacked onto the end rather unnecessarily, and crushes the promising ideas presented in the previous events. Antrum is a joke best enjoyed by embracing that false authenticity. Well, I will be vigilant for a few days now so I do not have an "accident." [Sitges 2019] (08.10.2019)

It’s probably all made up; its creators would otherwise (among other “otherwises”) never have chosen a Hungarian cinema (which allegedly burned down) as supposedly the only place where the film was ever screened in 1988. But it’s a good (and not badly executed) idea to turn old trash material into an appealing genre movie with an occult demonic aura. Unless that old trash material wasn’t also filmed the day before yesterday. [Sitges FF] (08.10.2019)

The allegedly cursed 1979 film, whose only two festival screenings (in Hungary and Italy) ended in disaster and the death of several people, and even surviving viewers usually died within 24 hours, has now been miraculously found and supplemented with documentary materials in which film theorists speak about whether a movie can kill. The vast majority of this mockumentary thus deals with the deadly film called Antrum (about two siblings who camp in the woods and try to dig a hole into hell), the qualities of which, however, fail to match the impressive legend created by its creators. The film tries with questionable success to imitate cheap horror movies from the seventies, is inconsistent in its stylization and above all does not contain much that would have a sufficiently disturbing effect on the viewer (there is absolutely nothing scary at all in the film, and some aspects of the film are rather ridiculous). A strong motif of the film is the strength of one's own convictions, and the reason for watching it is clearly curiosity, but the willingness to believe in its authenticity and supernatural power just from watching it fundamentally weakens. (08.10.2019)