Antichrist explores extreme emotions

Lars von Trier is a shit disturber. He helped found the Dogma cinematic movement, both a rigorous aesthetic and a genius way to draw international attention to Danish filmmaking, an industry that was not well-known at that point. As with every one of von Trier’s films, Antichrist is calculated to provoke strong emotions in its audience, but primary is its deft evocation of disquiet. A horror film about a couple’s dissolving relationship and descent into madness and metaphysics, it’s a gradual, creepy picture that only occasionally goes for visceral shocks. Except for one particularly unpleasant scene of self-mutilation, a viewing won’t make you want to scrub your eyeballs with bleach, but it might make you think about how nature is not your friend.