10 Shocking Horror Movies Where THIS Happened

Antichrist is the first part in Lars Von Trier's 'Depression' trilogy, this should give you a clue of what you are heading into. Depression isn't exactly the word that springs to mind on first viewing (there probably won't be a second) because, be warned, this film is both touching and profoundly horrific.

Antichrist is artistically bewildering (Satanic acorns, talking animals) and perhaps even gratuitous but there is a message here from Von Trier on dealing with grief.

A (nameless) couple (Willem Defoe and Charlotte Gainsbourg on award winning form) have lost their child in a tragic accident. This happens, importantly, whilst they make love and the themes of guilt experienced through sex feature heavily throughout this film. In the interests of recovery, he, a psychotherapist, suggests they retreat to their remote house in the forrest, Eden, where they both might feel more inclined to heal.

After a series of increasingly aggressive sexual episodes, her desperate attempts to stem the anxiety, she repeatedly attacks her husband and in a moment of extreme psychosis, now believing her very gender to be evil, she performs auto genital mutilation with a pair of scissors, racked with guilt from the sensation of physical pleasure.

Analysis of this film will never stop and despite the graphic and metaphorical nature of the presentation, those brave enough to watch beautifully made film will no doubt form their own interpretations of how we deal with loss, this is merely VonTrier's way of expressing his own.