There’s a subgenre of horror that deals with cursed films. My favorite is John Carpenter’s Cigarette Burns, one of his contributions to the Masters of Horror anthology. In Antrum: The Deadliest Film Ever Made, I found something which didn’t quite hit Carpenter’s mark, but which I can nevertheless highly recommend.
A documentary preamble opens the movie. Interviews with film historians and people involved with screenings of the film (which went horribly wrong) are well done, though I recall one guy who was a little too giddy and I wonder if he had to do multiple takes to keep a straight face.
Yet Antrum pulls out all the stops to get us to suspend our disbelief as to the knowledge that this is a pure work of fiction; and it kind of works. I don’t want to spoil the effect by giving too much direct information, but before the preamble was over, I was amused to find myself experiencing that state of mind I came to associate with reading Lovecraft’s best work or psyching myself out as a teen with that faux copy of the Necronomicon which one was likely to find in the New Age section of their local bookstore.
Did something move in that shadowy corner? What’s that sound? If I turn my gaze slowly toward it I’ll—ah! What was that!
Antrum is the tale of a young boy whose dog must be put down because it bit him. He asks his mom if the dog will go to Heaven. His mom says no, Maxine did a bad thing and will go to Hell.
This opening dialogue is itself chilling and sets the tone for the unfolding story, which has all the hallmarks of a nightmarish folk tale told through the lens of a 1970s B movie. The filmmakers did a great job, for the most part, of matching the stylistic elements from the period—and here I want to make a no-spoilers cryptic remark to watch out for a certain squirrel!—but there were some, ahem, dead giveaways that this was a retro piece.
Nevertheless, it sells you enough to keep the disbelief suspended, and that is no small feat in a modern digital world—insert simulation theory here—where the only thing we know for certain is nothing is an accurate representation.
The boy’s older sister decides to take him along on an adventure into the woods, where they will dig a hole to Hell in the hope of finding Maxine. Though the sister is humoring the boy out of love, sinister events unfold.
To recapitulate: first, the documentary element of this film was well done, and second, the film within the film also hits its mark, keeping in mind that it was supposed to come off as campy exploitation art…
…which happened to kill everyone who ever watched it.
So, dear reader, if you’re reading this as a posthumous account, I’ll give you some details about my encounter so you can judge for yourself whether Antrum is a risk you are willing to take. I watched it on the night of 6/21/2024, bathed in the light of a full moon on the first day after the summer solstice, on barren ground, seated on a goat amidst a decrepit copse…
Nah. Just kidding. I was on the easy chair in my living room.
MAD explored cursed object films, including Antrum and Carpenter’s masterpiece Cigarette Burns, in this podcast, so check it out along with this article I did on Talk to Me, another excellent cursed object film.
Check out Antrum: The Deadliest Film Ever Made too. If you dare!
You can also peruse our facebook page and group, as well as my own page, where I regularly post Horror to Culture related material.
As a final remark, I want to make it clear, as per Bluth 198:9, that all dogs do, in fact, go to Heaven!
