The family maid, Irene, hires a local mystic to attempt an exorcism, but the possessed Ippolita exposes him as a con artist and expels him from her room. He goes to his brother for help, but Ascanio insists there's nothing he can do without permission from higher-ups in the Church.
Sinibaldi dismisses the notion of demonic possession, believing the phenomena is entirely scientific, but Massimo maintains there's no other explanation. She displays incredible telekinetic powers, and is only subdued by the sound of church bells. Ippolita regains the ability to walk, but the possession causes her to dissociate, during which time she seduces and murders a tourist, and has incestous sex with her brother.Įventually, Ippolita is fully possessed during a celebratory dinner with her family. The memory of her past life causes Ippolita to be possessed by the spirit of her ancestor, who entered a covenant with Satan before her death. Using hypnosis, Sinibaldi causes her to relive the suppressed memories of her namesake ancestor, a witch who was tried by the Inquisition and burned at the stake.
Sinibaldi determines that Ippolita has strong extrasensory perception and believes that her disorder is caused by unconscious memories of past lives. He tells her there's little he can do, but recommends a secular parapsychologist named Marcello Sinibaldi. Ippolita visits her uncle Ascanio, a Vatican cardinal, for help. Having been reliant on her father since the accident, Ippolita has developed severe attachment issues, aggravated when she learns that Massimo has begun a relationship with a woman named Greta. Doctors have diagnosed the paralysis as psychosomatic, stemming from Ippolita's mental trauma rather than a physical injury. Lars Von Trier is back in his hypnotic visual style and mindfuc*ing storytelling, and this is where he is best! Not a film for the mainstream audiences, but I recommend it if you have an open mind and want something new and different, and have (almost) as much sense as Americans.Ippolita, the adult daughter of wealthy Rome aristocrat Massimo Oderisi, has been paraplegic since a car accident at age 12 that also killed her mother. The film does not give any answers and is rich on symbolism - guess one could call it "experimental horror-drama". I guess you have to have an open mind when watching this. It's a fantastic work of art, the cinematography by Anthony Dod Mantle is amazing and the whole feel of the film is both beautiful and scary at the same time. I loved the film!!! When I left the theater I didn't know quite what to think, but it grows and becomes better and better. What? Okay, there's more blood than in "Hannah Montana" but if "Antichrist" is a sick and gory film, I don't know what you would call films like "Ichi The Killer", Naked Blood", "Inside" and "Audition"? There is more blood/gore in "Se7en" than in "Antichrist" (or maybe the same amount), so I don't know what all the fuzz is about.
"Uhhh it's so brutal, violent and extremely gory". First of all - I don't know why everybody keeps saying this film is a gore fest. And you don't have to come from Denmark to like "Antichrist" (though it is a very constructive statement), I'm guessing there is one or two people from Russia or Poland who likes the film also. If I don't like an American film I don't go out and bash on reviewers from America and then state that Danes have more sense - what's that all about? Sense of what? Personally I don't think it makes much sense making movies like "American Pie" or "Hannah Montana", but hey, they produce the films anyway - maybe because they have more sense. Some like it and some don't, no matter what country they are from. That has nothing to do with "Antichrist" as a film. Americans have more sense thankfully, and do not call everything art simply because the director is foreign." I have no idea why it should matter where the other reviewers are from. Perhaps you have to be Danish to appreciate the horrific torture pornography, who knows?. First I have to make a comment to cynibun from United States who wrote "And if you look at the previous reviewers they are from Denmark, where the director is from.