Film Review: ANTRUM (a.k.a. Antrum: The Deadliest Film Ever Made) (2018)

ANTRUM (a.k.a. Antrum: The Deadliest Film Ever Made) ***** Canada 2018 Dir: David Amito, Michael Laicini. 95 mins

Found-footage just got a make-over! I remember watching Cannibal Holocaust and The Blair Witch Project and both of these films made me feel anxious. I don’t think I have felt this much anxiety during a viewing of any horror movie as I had experienced while watching Antrum.

It’s the premise… you might die if you watch this! I don’t think it helped after ten minutes into the movie my other half said “sod this I’m not taking any chances, if you want to die watch it”

You don’t really need that at 2am in the morning! But I soldiered on with coffee and braved it with lights off in the living room, Antrum, is a feature length film deemed to be shot in the late seventies, the film is said to be cursed and those that watch the film will be cursed upon viewing it! The film is about a young boy and his older sister who go on a journey to dig a hole directly to hell to bury their recently deceased dog to bring back its spirit. So the marketing for this horror movie literally is if you watch this film you will die!

When the film initially played the festival circuit in the US in 2019, viewers were made to sign a waiver stating if they died due to a result of watching the movie the makers would not be held responsible! That itself is shit your pants time right there! I would have told my friends I’m off to get a Pepsi then get the nearest taxi home and get into bed with my Horlicks! Either way that’s some killer marketing for an indie film right here!

What we get with Antrum is a film of three parts, first we get a documentary style intro with filmmakers and film festival runners talking about the deadliest film ever made which is Antrum. We are told that a movie theatre in Budapest that was hosting a screening of the film burnt to the ground and in doing so it killed over 86 people who were in attendance of the screening. After this a curse followed the film around even film festival programmers who watched the film would die! We are told that a film company has tracked down a lost print of this horror film!

This makes you wake up and get the coffee on boil before you settle in to watch the main film, as the film’s opening credits roll I feel my pulse increase and already begin to slide down the chair, I take a deep inhale of breath and prepare for some crazy shit on screen, not sure of what I will be watching how sick the film will be or just how messed up this piece of art is going to be, or maybe it’s the premise that what I’m about to watch may kill me!

The main film itself is set to look like its filmed in the seventies and does a good job of this without giving away spoilers this is a thrill ride into something sinister, something dark that will haunt you long after you turn off the TV. Then we cut back to more documentary footage as we are told just what we have been watching and just how Antrum is the deadliest film ever made!

This is a tricky one if I give anything else away it will spoil it, but if you are a horror fan you will adore this movie, there was a lot left unexplained and you will ponder certain parts of the film, three days on and I’m still thinking about this movie.

In my opinion Antrum is a ground breaking masterpiece in horror cinema. The film was visually stunning the overall aesthetic was like no other, it had elements of one of my favourite films Walkabout, The Wicker Man and a whiff of John Carpenter’s Cigarette Burns…But this film truly is a beast of its own!

It was filmed beautifully with amazing colourization, the boy looked like he was straight out of a late 1970’s Italian horror. I think Antrum was an experience like going on a ghost train, which is something we don’t have anymore and to be able to have that experience in the comfort of your own home with Antrum was amazing.

I was lucky to be given a screener of this film but you can check it out now on both video on demand and Blu-ray.

So will you die if you watch Antrum?

I don’t think this is proven nor has anyone died directly as a result of watching this film. Granted I haven’t checked but this is what I believe to be true, or at least hope so!

Antrum is a modern horror masterpiece.

Review by Tony Newton

ANTRUM IS AVAILABLE ON AMAZON