American Antichrist Movie Review!
Some films are just pure all-out fun. Take American Antichrist by Denver bloke, Dakota Ray, this (and most of his flicks) is a prime example of what happens if you have a goth gentleman saving up some cash from his previous works and putting together a film. It’s dark, moody, edgy in a wink at the viewers comical way — it’s everything I love about trash cinema.
Not only that, Dakota knows the rule as set by The Cramps – sunglasses after dark (forget the Nancy Collins bullshit late ‘80s novel by the way). Remember that as we proceed into the night…
“Every time I look in the mirror, I see the face of God looking back at me.” narrates the obviously very shy serial killer who opens this set of stories. He pops his hoodie on and makes a trip out carrying a severed head in a bin bag which he casually swings against a few walls on his journey. After disposing of it he shows us what a stand he’s making against organized religion by stubbing a cig on the head of a Virgin Mary statue, then pushing the small figurine over. I completely lost it, so funny. Whilst years ago, some chaps in Norway were burning churches, this bad dude pushed over a tiny statue. I love it!
He heads inside to grab a stash of smack and injects himself whilst seeing a shadow of a demon on the wall. We gather by a newspaper article (this is set predictably in Sunnydale by the way) it didn’t go too well for him because his face is in the headline stating an overdose. Not helped I suppose by him using a messed up dirty needle that was sitting on the ground anyway.
Some random follower stands over his grave and cuts herself, bleeding all over the place, thus he rises once again. His clothes are nice and clean considering he just crawled out of the soil. Never mind the details, his first act in his rebirth is to stomp on some bird’s eggs obviously repelled by the new life via God or something. “Life is destroyed, not created.” Back home he takes a razor to his arm as a bit of metal blasts out. Afterwards he digs a skull up.
“Everyone just wants to fuck up my life.” narrates Crystal, a girl who we meet running out from rehab. This is the first of a handful of very short stories contained within. She’s been recommended to a dealer called Chris who turns out to be a skater bloke and he likes to wear high heels. After she fucks him for drugs, he gives her the number of a contact to head over to due to him wanting actresses, which turns out to be a man he gets his movies off. This is bad, trust me. Once she’s called and hung up, the masked man gives out a diabolical insane laugh.
Our main fella, The Antichrist, poses a bit, sniffs powder, pops a pill, trips out and showboats his evil for a while, then we’re into another chapter involving a murderous religious fanatic. All the while the movie is connected by a wandering street preacher sort.
“Everything holy chains us as I open a gateway to Hell!” It all concludes with vomiting upon a crucifix, and then a descent into absolute blue tinted pandemonium with some attempted stop motion animation as our main character has another drug trip.
The legions of Lucifer Valentine’s followers who find so many particles of themselves in the vomiting troubled misfits inhabiting his films, may do well flipping across the spectrum to Dakota. I am so happily reminded of Jim Van Bebber’s My Sweet Satan. It shows that lack of budget doesn’t take away sheer will. American Antichrist is nowhere near a perfect film, in fact that kind of adds to its vision. There’s such a broad sense of humour and of the over-exaggerated absurdity which is so refreshing.
Dakota has made, as of this writing, thirteen films and is something of an underground auteur performing as many tasks as possible and using creativity for his lack of cash. His use of lighting and locations (let’s not forget the doom sounding soundtrack oozing throughout this journey) holds down the film in a choke hold until it goes cold.
Could I go deeper proclaiming the film’s deep fascination with insects such as flies, ants, then of course the array of dead animals throughout portrays the vision of a bleak decaying society? All is dark, all is cold, and rotted. A necropolis housing lost souls. Then we must discuss the possibility that it all is just a series of hallucinations and acid trips our central character is having…
…Naah, to hell with all the deep stuff, American Antichrist is a great and spunky film and is well worth its running time, raising a few chuckles along the way, and incidentally not letting itself outstay its welcome.
Directed by: Dakota Ray | Written by: Dakota Ray | Produced by: Dakota Ray, Sebastian Oake | Cinematography by: Dakota Ray | Editing by: Dakota Ray | Music by: Fallow | Special Effects by: Dakota Ray | Cast: Dakota Ray, Larry Bay, Meg Lacie Brown, Nick Benning, Damien Rimmon, The Acid Jesus | Year: 2018 | Country: USA | Language: English | Colour: Color | Runtime: 49 min
