A wheelchair-bound woman loses her faith after a faith-healing statue fails to restore her legs. Satan lends a hand by possessing her, helping her walk, and throwing her the high-hard one. This leads to an infernal pregnancy, and lots of profanity and drooling.

The Antichrist was one of the demon/possession flicks made to capitalize on the popularity of The Exorcist, and for a rip-off flick it’s a good one. It’s not that similar a story, in some ways the plot is stronger. Instead of a little girl getting possessed for no good reason, here we have a definite chain of events that all follow in a reasonable way, save the ending which isn’t nearly as good.

The annoying part is the little imitations that added nothing at all to the flick. There was no reason in the world The Antichrist had to have a falling-down-stairs scene, green puke, or a head-turned-backwards scene. Completely unnecessary, just blatant “look, we’re like The Exorcist” foolishness. These can be ignored easily.

The movie builds really slow, as was the way it was done at the time, and it really works. You’re so lulled by the slow drama unfolding that when Satan really kicks in, it’s real jolt.

The biggest problem with the flick is the stop, go, stop feeling you get all through it. Every time something’s happening that gets you into the flick, the next scene is going to be slow and unexciting. This isn’t terrible, but the flow of the film hurts it more than anything else, some editing or a little work on the way the story unfolds could have helped immensely.

The understory may be about sexual repression and the oppression of women by the church, with Satan being sexual freedom, and the woman being crippled by her needs and inability to satisfy them without guilt. She revels in her freedom, but becomes evil. The sad part is the happy ending also means the woman embraces her “less-than” place in society, and again her sexuality takes a back seat in the anti-fem world of organize religion.

Just the same, a good flick that fans of blasphemy and Satan will love. Not much violence, no gore, just an intense story with lots of drooling, foaming and puking. Also for a flick about a virgin that does her brother and Satan, and wants it with her dad, curiously little nudity.

5 out of 10 Jesus's with huge erections