Arthur Kennedy
John Arthur Kennedy (February 17, 1914January 5, 1990) was an American stage and film actor known for his versatility in supporting film roles and his ability to create "an exceptional honesty and naturalness on stage", especially in the origi ...
Ennio Morricone
Ennio Morricone (; 10 November 19286 July 2020) was an Italian composer, orchestrator, conductor, and trumpeter who wrote music in a wide range of styles. With more than 400 scores for cinema and television, as well as more than 100 classica ...
and
Bruno Nicolai
Bruno Nicolai (20 May 1926 – 16 August 1991) was an Italian film music composer, orchestra director and musical editor most active in the 1960s through the 1980s.
While studying piano and composition at the Santa Cecilia Conservatory in Rome, ...
. It is widely regarded as a cash-in on ''The Exorcist'', a similarly-themed and widely-successful American film released the previous year. It is considered a
cult film
A cult film or cult movie, also commonly referred to as a cult classic, is a film that has acquired a cult following. Cult films are known for their dedicated, passionate fanbase which forms an elaborate subculture, members of which engage ...
.
Plot
Ippolita, the adult daughter of wealthy Rome aristocrat Massimo Oderisi, has been
paraplegic
Paraplegia, or paraparesis, is an impairment in motor or sensory function of the lower extremities. The word comes from Ionic Greek ()
"half-stricken". It is usually caused by spinal cord injury or a congenital condition that affects the neural ...
since a car accident at age 12 that also killed her mother. Doctors have diagnosed the paralysis as
psychosomatic
A somatic symptom disorder, formerly known as a somatoform disorder,(2013) Vatican
cardinal
Cardinal or The Cardinal may refer to:
Animals
* Cardinal (bird) or Cardinalidae, a family of North and South American birds
**''Cardinalis'', genus of cardinal in the family Cardinalidae
**''Cardinalis cardinalis'', or northern cardinal, the ...
, for help. He tells her there's little he can do, but recommends a secular parapsychologist named Marcello Sinibaldi. Dr. Sinibaldi determines that Ippolita has strong extrasensory perception and believes that her disorder is caused by unconscious memories of past lives. 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. The memory of her past life causes Ippolita to be possessed by the spirit of her ancestor, who entered a covenant with
Satan
Satan,, ; grc, ὁ σατανᾶς or , ; ar, شيطانالخَنَّاس , also known as Devil in Christianity, the Devil, and sometimes also called Lucifer in Christianity, is an non-physical entity, entity in the Abrahamic religions ...
before her death. Ippolita regains the ability to walk, but the possession causes her to dissociate, during which time she seduces and murders a tourist, and has incestuous sex with her brother.
Eventually, Ippolita is fully possessed during a celebratory dinner with her family. She displays incredible telekinetic powers, and is only subdued by the sound of church bells. Dr. Sinibaldi dismisses the notion of demonic possession, believing the phenomena is entirely scientific, but Massimo maintains there's no other explanation. He goes to his brother for help, but Ascanio insists there's nothing he can do without permission from higher-ups in the Church. 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. Ascanio’s own exorcism likewise fails, as the demon rebukes the Cardinal for turning Ippolita away when she asked for help It reveals that Ippolita’s ancestor renounced him in her dying moments, preventing him from taking her soul, and now intends to finish its original goal through Ippolita’s body.
The Vatican authorizes Father Mittner (implied to be the reincarnation of the original Ippolita’s executioner) to carry out a formal exorcism. The demon tries to stop him through all manner of psychic manifestations and telepathy, revealing that the incestuous child of Ippolita and her brother will be his son; the Antichrist. Mittner prevails and Ippolita flees the house, her father and brother in pursuit. She reaches the Colosseum, but is felled by the sound of church bells, allowing Massimo to force her hands against an iron cross and finally expelling the demon and its child from her body. Restored, Ippolita’s helps her brother up and walks off with her father as the sun rises.
Cast
Release
''The Antichrist'' was released on November 22, 1974 in Italy. It was released in the United States in 1978 by AVCO Embassy Pictures under the title ''The Tempter''.
Reception
From contemporary reviews, Geoff Brown ('' Monthly Film Bulletin'') stated that "admirers of carbon-copy cinema—if any exist—will be well pleased with Alberto De Martino's ''The Antichrist''" noting that it managed to emulate '' The Exorcist'' more closely than the Italian film ''
The Devil Within Her
''I Don't Want to Be Born'' is a 1975 British horror film directed by Peter Sasdy and starring Joan Collins, Ralph Bates, Eileen Atkins, and Donald Pleasence. Its plot follows a woman who gives birth to a child that appears to be demonically ...
''.
In retrospective reviews,
AllMovie
AllMovie (previously All Movie Guide) is an online database with information about films, television programs, and screen actors. , AllMovie.com and the AllMovie consumer brand are owned by RhythmOne.
History
AllMovie was founded by popular-cult ...
gave the film a negative review, noting that "long stretches of not a lot happening are supposed to create suspense, but all they do is delay the inevitable finale, which was the original audience's entire reason for being there since they knew it was going to include elements of '' The Exorcist''." The review concluded that ''The Antichrist'' "probably was intense, but that intensity has diminished over the years" and that the film was "for Italian horror collectors only."