6. Antichrist (2009)
Directed by Lars von Trier (of whom I have yet to see a bad movie), this tale of growing insanity stars Willem Dafoe as 'He' and Charlotte Gainsbourg as 'She' - a grieving couple who have lost their young son Nick. He fell out the window while they were having sex. 'She' collapses at the funeral and spends roughly a month in hospital, floating in and out of consciousness. 'He' is unsatisfied with her psychiatric care and takes her away to a woodland cabin where he wants to do his own psychotherapy on her. This backfires on him when 'She' becomes more disturbed and manic in therapy sessions. The environment around the cabin grows more strange echoing 'She's' mental state. 'He' finds her thesis on gynocide. It doesn't make much sense but it seems to come to the conclusion that all women are inherently evil. Repulsed by this, 'He' confronts 'She' who runs into the woods and starts masturbating under a tree where 'He' has half hearted sex with her. Scared that 'He' is going to leave her, 'She' crushes his testicles with a woodblock and then masturbates him until he ejaculates blood. To prevent him from leaving, 'She' bolts in a large stone into his leg. This is very painful for 'He'. Several hours later 'She' is full of remorse and they go back to the cabin. 'She' has a flashback to Nick's death - to where she is having sex and watches him fall out of the window without doing anything. Whether this is the way things really happened or whether a manifestation of her guilt is unclear. 'She' snips off her clitoris whilst masturbating, screaming like a banshee. 'He' manages to find the wrench to get the sone weight of his leg. 'He' strangles 'She' to death and puts her body on a funeral pyre. Many people will find Antichrist repellant and obnoxious because of the acts of sexual violence but I can see how 'She' was driven to madness through the loss of her child. 'He' should never have attempted to impose his own idea of how to cope with grief. 'She' has obviously been driven to mental illness that goes beyond the grief she felt at her son's loss. 'He' is arrogant enough to think he knows better and subjects her to hardcore psychotherapy that she can't deal with. 'She' would have been okay if she had been left in a psychiatric hospital rather than being pitched into an isolated wood cabin with menacing nature encroaching upon her. Feeling tremendous sexual guilt over her sons's death, 'She' severs her clitoris and mangles her husband's testicles. 'She' then manages to completely crack up and tries to kill 'He' who finally puts her out of her misery by strangling her. To be honest, it was probably the kindest thing to do at this stage. Never has grief been portrayed so raw and disturbing as in von Trier's film.