10 Confusing Horror Movies You Need To Watch Twice To Understand

Like Don’t Look Now, Antichrist centers on a married couple who relocate in an attempt to reconnect after losing their child. In typical Lars von Trier fashion, it’s an even more graphically violent, explicitly erotic, and thematically intangible statement.

Charlotte Gainsbourg stars as She, the mother of the deceased toddler who’s brought to a cabin in the woods (Eden) by her therapist husband – Willem Dafoe’s He – to overcome her grief and fear of nature. Over time, she develops more manic and destructive tendencies while he becomes progressively domineering yet helpless.

By the end, the pair indulge in numerous acts of sadomasochism and sexuality (such as genital mutilation), all the while growing further apart as they witness startling allegorical visions. There are decomposing animals, a tree made out of entwined corpses, and an abundance of other bafflingly unsettling imagery.

At the time, von Trier was suffering from severe depression, so it’s only natural that his downcast outlook permeates the proceedings. In addition, the trek is understandably shrouded religious symbolism and quandaries related to the intersections between misogyny, misandry, patriarchy, and feminism.

Brutal, philosophical, and disturbing, Antichrist is not for the faint of heart, and it’s unquestionably impenetrable without repeated scrutiny.