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Night 4: Antrum - Not All Dogs Go To Heaven | 13 Nights of Halloween
20 Plays1 month ago
Tonight we’re digging into Antrum: The Deadliest Film Ever Made (2018) — a film wrapped in urban legend and cursed cinema mythology. Marketed as a “lost” 1970s film that supposedly killed its audiences, Antrum leans on its reputation as the “most dangerous movie ever made.” But does it actually deliver the scares, or is it all smoke, sigils, and no fire? We break down the setup, the Blair Witch–style marketing, and why the idea of Antrum is scarier than the film itself. Folk horror thrives on myth, ritual, and rumor — and Antrum wants to live there. But does it earn its place? ✨ Be part of the conversation! Submit your own score here: 👉 https://tr.ee/iGtZ-DpOO6 📚 Want more horror? Check out our books on Amazon: 👉 https://a.co/d/bUtniBd 🎧 Check out our friends at Zencastr and get 30% off your first 3 months of Zencastr Pro: 👉 https://zen.ai/theaveragereviews 📖 Enjoy $5.00 off your first purchase when you use Tim Umpleby’s code “TIMOTHYREADS” at checkout: 👉 https://pangobooks.com/TIMOTHYREADS 👻 Don’t forget to LIKE, COMMENT with your score for Antrum, and SUBSCRIBE for more horror deep dives as we march toward Halloween night! #Antrum #13NightsOfHalloween #FolkHorror #TheAverageReviews #CursedCinema
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Transcript
Introduction to Antrim: Legend of the Deadliest Film
00:00:33
Speaker
Welcome back horror family. We are four nights deep into the final 13 nights of Halloween and tonight things get cursed. I'm Jonathan.
00:00:45
Speaker
And I'm Tim. And unlike some of the films we've been covering this season, tonight's pick comes wrapped in legend. We're talking about Antrim, the deadliest film ever made.
00:00:58
Speaker
Now, this one dropped in 2018, but the whole hook is that you're not just watching a movie, you're watching a dangerous movie. The framing says that Antrim is a lost film from the 1970s, unearthed and restored, but with a curse attached.
00:01:14
Speaker
The legend claims that screenings of this movie led to fires, deaths, and mysterious accidents. And the movie itself? It's about a brother and sister who head deep into the woods to dig a hole to hell, literally.
00:01:29
Speaker
They're trying to save the soul of their dead dog, and along the way, they encounter strange symbols, rituals, and a creeping sense that reality isn't quite right.
00:01:41
Speaker
Which makes it a perfect fit for our folk horror theme. You've got the isolation, the ritualistic imagery, the occult underpinnings, and the sense of stumbling into something ancient and unforgiving.
00:01:52
Speaker
Even the idea of the film itself being cursed taps into that folklore angle, modern myth-making through cinema. And whether or not you buy the curse, there's no denying that Antrim builds a fascinating atmosphere.
Initial Impressions and Expectations
00:02:06
Speaker
It's low budget, grainy, and feels authentically lost, but layered with occult sigils and strange and interruptions that make you wonder if you should even be watching.
00:02:20
Speaker
So tonight, no guests, no excuses. It's just us, you, and maybe something scratching at the edges of the frame. Let's dig deep, open the hole and see if we come out the other side.
00:02:33
Speaker
This is Antrim, the deadliest film ever made. All right. So i don't want to okay. I'm just not going to, let's just get into this. Okay. um Again, this is a first time watch. Many of these full horror movies are a first time watch as I've as I've talked about because it's not really a go-to genre for me. I don't love this genre necessarily.
00:03:01
Speaker
But this one was... This one was one of the ones I was most looking forward to because that whole idea of it being the deadly film ah kind of hooked me.
00:03:16
Speaker
i And it's it's marketed that way. It is not like the plot of this is you're watching a fake movie about this fake movie.
00:03:30
Speaker
No. Everything sells it as like this is a cursed film. People have died watching this film and you're about to see it. um So I was kind of hyped for it.
Plot Analysis and Coherence Issues
00:03:43
Speaker
I was ready to get a little disturbed. I was ready to be uncomfortable. um The trailer on Shudder at least looked fairly interesting. I was curious.
00:03:56
Speaker
And even the buildup at the beginning of the story, i was like, okay, okay. I mean, it was fake found footage. I got that. My wife did check.
00:04:07
Speaker
partway through the intro because she was starting to get a little nervous. Like, are we going to die from watching this? I'm like, no. She Googled, but she Googled, she was like, is this real? And I'm like, no, this is not real. And she didn't believe me. So she had to Google it, of course.
00:04:21
Speaker
um That setup is the best part of the film. And then we get to the film itself, which about a little boy trying to save his dead dog soul from hell.
00:04:36
Speaker
Relatable. I get that. Good on him. And then I have no idea what happened the rest of the movie. They're digging a hole. They're doing rituals. A Japanese guy shows up. They find like some hillbillies screwing a dead deer carcass. That part was so weird.
00:04:52
Speaker
What the fuck? Yeah. And then burning people in a Baphomet, cast iron thing like and I didn't I didn't I didn't care for the story I did not care for the story I think what sandwiched it was the best part and the story of antrim itself the movie that we're supposedly seeing isn't intriguing whatsoever.
00:05:23
Speaker
I don't know what happened. i can't I can't tell you exactly. i saw i read some reviews online and they seemed like a bit of a stretch to make sense of what we saw. But that that's my thought, Jonathan.
00:05:40
Speaker
so I'm starting this one off harsh because, man, this is one of the few that I finished and said, well, I can't get that time back. That's fair,
Unique Premise vs. Flawed Execution
00:05:50
Speaker
man. Like, for me, i didn't really know anything about this film prior. I just knew it was on our list, and I did not do any kind of pre-research watching any trailers or any of that.
00:06:01
Speaker
um So I was confused at the start with the whole documentary part of it, and I was like, okay, okay, that's part of the movie. And I was like, where is the movie itself? And then once you get into it, then, yeah, things get kind of lost in Wonderland.
00:06:17
Speaker
It seems like... even though you're outside looking in, it seems like you're seeing a lot of a little boy's imagination more so than anything because of what the kid is going through. So that's about what he's experiencing with the loss of their dog. And it's just, you know, asking about whether his dog has gone to heaven. His sister's like, no, because he did something bad.
00:06:39
Speaker
You know, I mean, you need I can say it's definitely a unique story. ah In that, you know, there's so much surrounding it with what's going on as far as the documentary process of it. Yeah.
00:06:53
Speaker
When they're explaining about how dangerous this film is and all the stuff that's happened. But, golly, man, like, it just ah seems so much gets lost in weirdness, bullshit, and got kind of bored through part of it.
00:07:08
Speaker
which which is kind of weird I say that despite my score for it because that I found it to be so unique because of the type of story and what goes into it when you actually get into the lost footage part of it.
00:07:21
Speaker
Okay. Yeah. i think I think for me, I would have to give it the most credit here on the premise of that the cursed film idea and kind of sandwiching a real movie in between two parts of this documentary i don't i mean the story itself is simple and it's repetitive and then they just be like we're in the fourth layer and like how the hell do you know that you're in like what is going on so yeah i get all right scoring it story uh i'm gonna give it a two on story and that is for framing this as a cursed film is the only thing
00:08:08
Speaker
making this okay and keeping it from being bad in my opinion because
00:08:18
Speaker
we we don't even i think we he symbolically saved his dog soul at the end but then the movie abruptly ends with him his sister about to kill him and you don't like that the ending bothered me i was like either just kill him or don't don't just leave it open-ended like that. But yeah, I'm a two. I think it was okay.
00:08:43
Speaker
The darker facets of it, of the actual footage itself and the the creepiness and the the demons and the people in the background running around through the woods while they're running and freaking out and the sister and how her panic leads to this paranoia after everything that she explained to her little brother about Cerberus and all this other stuff. And then her hearing these chains at the end and like having that gun and freaking out despite like, you know, and with all of the weird shit that just went through with the weird fucking backwards hillbillies and shit.
00:09:16
Speaker
Like I said, it's it's a unique story. I'm not going to say it's compelling, but it has interesting notes to it. But I feel like there was more that you got out of it from the documentary aspect and their explanation of things with the philosophy and the occult symbols and all that background.
00:09:34
Speaker
So... um I went with the four on this part of it.
Technical Critiques: Sound, Editing, and Effects
00:09:39
Speaker
Okay. I'm not going to be so great with the rest of it, but I feel like it's four for just how unique the plot is itself. You're allowed. I'm kind of dancing around my like my overall thoughts on this movie encompass why I scored things the way I did, so I'm trying to dance around my overall thought, and I'll get to it at the end.
00:09:59
Speaker
um When it comes to characters, we basically have two we have nathan the younger brother and orally his older sister nathan is the one who's upset about their dog maxine uh and orally basically we find out fakes this ritual to save the dog's soul and tells nathan at some point like hey i was faking all this to get you to stop having nightmares and
00:10:30
Speaker
then we find out that he has actually been talking to this spirit that she said she made up and so he's encountered something darker that is luring them this way and then i guess from anything you could surmise that like he lures them to their deaths i don't know i i don't know what the two um hillbilly characters are i don't know what they mean don't know where they came from. They're just out in the woods, Satanists, and they're more comic relief than anything else.
00:11:05
Speaker
ah Other than, like, I genuinely found some of it a little bit funny, but it wasn't supposed to be. But yeah, the Aurelise, the older sister, plays the guide.
00:11:20
Speaker
She presents the grimoire, which apparently she made herself ah
00:11:30
Speaker
i I'm not sure there's much of an arc here for either of them. Aurelie shows a bit of regret at the end when she starts to cover up, tear down the ritual stuff that she's made, cut start to fill back in the hole like she regrets doing this, bringing her brother down the down this road.
00:11:52
Speaker
But that's
00:11:55
Speaker
that's it that's it i don't know you can shed some light on it for me well i i definitely wasn't favorable on this part because when it comes to character arcs like it doesn't really go anywhere it just kind of goes in the downturn despite the good intentions um and even though she made everything up sometimes it doesn't matter what you what you put together sometimes it's just the intent the spirit of it and what you attract with what you're with what that intent is more so yeah, and you like solid spell casting ritual.
00:12:27
Speaker
And I think kind of touches on that part, but It's commendable that she wants to help her little brother, but the way she's going about is really fucked up. the Yeah. There's some stuff that just doesn't make any sense. Like you said, like the hillbilly guys, I guess it provides some sense of tension and contrast with having antagonists and protagonists, but still...
00:12:51
Speaker
wasn't great and like and what with the japanese guy trying to commit seppuku out in the woods where the hell yeah come in like where's he why is why did they have him at all like that just made no sense whatsoever just some weird shit that they stumbled upon in the woods seeing some guy who's about to kill himself which you see the guys tore up because of something to do with family maybe he made some grave error maybe there's an accident maybe he killed them on an accident and Or who knows?
00:13:18
Speaker
it's it's There's no story to explain any part of that guy and is just there as fodder for the hillbillies, apparently. Once, you know, Orly and Nathan see the suitcase that the guy had and the dolls on the ground by the Baphomet thing.
00:13:35
Speaker
I just, I didn't get that part of it and it served no real purpose. I mean, anything could have been in that thing on fire without even having that guy involved in the story at all. But, don't know, can I get sidetracked here, but No, I totally agree. I was like, oh, this guy must be important later. And then it was not.
00:13:54
Speaker
It's just one of ah many weird things that they see in the woods and can't explain. And there is no explanation for. And just what the hell, man? And everything with the sister, like even though she made all this stuff up in this book and then like admits later that it's just bullshit.
00:14:10
Speaker
You know the kid like buys into it so hard. And all the stuff that he sees in it's just crazy and doesn't just doesn't really go anywhere to explain anything.
00:14:25
Speaker
Like when, like with, when, when they're freaking out, trying to run away from the hillbillies after like escaping the cages and shit, like what happens with him in the water? Like you don't see a presence of anything. You see grab him. No explanation of why he's in the water.
00:14:37
Speaker
Don't even hear anything. He just disappears. And then she's in the water, freaking out, trying to find him. how did it all go so fucking sideways and there's no sense of growth. There's no arc. It just, she tried to do something to help him. Shit didn't work out.
00:14:53
Speaker
And then they ran into some weird circumstances out in the woods. And then it alludes to what you assume is her killing her own brother at the end. who And don't know, just didn't really do much for me.
00:15:07
Speaker
I agree. The story doesn't do much for the characters. They don't really, like they're pretty much one dimensional. We have a brother and a sister digging a hole in the woods and they encounter weird stuff and there's not much depth to that other than the emotional story about like it's the boy's dog and he doesn't hold the dog accountable for what the dog did to him. He is still torn up about the loss of the dog.
00:15:33
Speaker
um But yeah, I agree. There's not much of an arc here. i As for character arcs, I gave it a one. I think it's... it's bad and not because it's a like a negative trajectory I just think it is the story doesn't service the characters at all it doesn't make me really sympathetic for either one of them the boy more so because of his attachment to the dog and his motivation for doing this but there's no lesson
Acting and Direction: 70s Aesthetic Failures
00:16:01
Speaker
learned in that there's no story of illusion in that at the end of him like
00:16:07
Speaker
you know what maybe I shouldn't have dug a hole to hell for my dog like there's none of that for it other than like I said I think he symbolically saves his dog when he saves that husky that's in the trap and I think that's symbolically ah stretch but like that that doesn't do it for me I think I think the character arc is pretty bad on this one yeah I agree I surprised I didn't go lower. I gave it a two in in character r
00:16:40
Speaker
I think that's fair. i think that's fair. ah Music and sound design. So this is one that the movie tells us its secrets at the very end if you stick around for the credits. And i actually think that's to its detriment.
00:16:56
Speaker
But the film uses... it kind of has classic folk horror sounds. But they, I can't remember what it,
00:17:15
Speaker
let me see if I can find what it was called. Like they use specific kinds of sounds and frequencies to make the viewer unsettled during the viewing experience.
00:17:26
Speaker
And there's all kinds of distortion, ambient sounds, and dissonant elements that are added to this to make you uncomfortable.
00:17:38
Speaker
I think they even added some distortion on the vocals and stuff to make it sound like a 70s film, like an older, poorer audio quality film.
00:17:51
Speaker
i It felt gimmicky to me. all of it felt gimmicky to me i did not feel i wanted to feel uneasy i was going into this movie i was pretty optimistic for the first 30 minutes and then i'm going nothing is happening and i was wanting it to pick up and i just kept thinking nothing is happening so making me feel uneasy it failed to do with the sound And all the other elements were just, and this will go to editing and special effects too, felt like gimmicks to make it seem like I'm watching ac cursed film instead of actually watching a cursed film, if that makes sense. so
00:18:34
Speaker
that's like the music. I don't remember it. I don't remember it. I just remember the entire audio experience, this being designed to feel like,
00:18:48
Speaker
like it was a older film. And that came across as gimmicky. Right. like I understand their intention with the sound, with it being lost and restored.
00:19:06
Speaker
But some of the pops and the dead silence parts, despite its intention and what it's supposed to evoke feeling-wise, was just more annoying for me. um And I think it kind of took away from the experience for me.
00:19:22
Speaker
You know, I mean, yeah, you got the woods sounds, all the natural stuff that's out there.
00:19:29
Speaker
But it doesn't really, don't know, I'm being very glib with this. The music doesn't do much for me. Like I say, it does set us a tone in certain parts where it's trying to be creepy and mysterious.
00:19:44
Speaker
But nothing that's really lasting or has really the effect that I think it should have had. Yeah.
00:19:53
Speaker
I mean, like said, the music parts of it that weren't distorted and messed up as part of a restored film, it did set a tone so I can give it that. And it just was kind of blah, whatever.
00:20:07
Speaker
Not overly effective, not something really noticeable either. like said, it was just really annoying more so with all the pops and this and that distortions. I just don't go for that. It just annoys me because I want a clear, I need a clear listening experience for for stuff. And I just, I can't follow that.
00:20:26
Speaker
Well, so here's the, this is an excellent example of an episode coming up on 13 nights of Halloween. ah We have talked about how, um Blair Witch Project kind of set the tone for found footage movies. And this is not found footage, this is a found film.
00:20:44
Speaker
But that same kind of atmosphere is what they're going for but the blit witch did it naturally by shooting on some slightly outdated cameras using the equipment that was there this felt like they used modern equipment and went back and tried to edit it to sound old and it comes across as fake like you said it takes you out of the experience instead of submersing you in the experience i i i'm gonna give it
00:21:16
Speaker
I'm giving it a two on the okay, because I think some of what they were trying to do in using audio frequencies to unsettle is unique.
00:21:27
Speaker
I think that is a commendable effort. I just think they failed in the execution of it. So that's where I'm giving a two for the sound. i I'm mid ground. I set it at three. It's okay.
00:21:43
Speaker
All right. so editing and special effects this is another one it goes very hand in hand with the sound design here it's kind of got two parts we have mockumentary found footage style opening kind of setting up the curse of the film And even though the acting's a bit choppy in some of those scenes, I thought that was the most effective part of the movie.
00:22:08
Speaker
It's making me like, all right, I'm about to see something wild. And then i don't. um But then we have the actual Antrim film.
00:22:19
Speaker
So we go from interviews, archival footage, and then to a degraded print of ritual stuff happening in the woods.
00:22:32
Speaker
uh the effects are practical like we said the demons in the woods for all we can see they're like people in black suits running among the trees it's it's an it's effective they used it pretty well i like that um probably the coolest thing and i think the whole reason the film got made is that giant baphomet statue is pretty cool it's a cool design uh i think somebody either made that or found that and they were like we need to make a movie about this entire thing and then somebody was like i i have a farm you can come put it out here and shoot at the farm and they're like okay done um and that was the extent of it i don't get the subliminal frames were pissing me off
00:23:20
Speaker
ah Not just the scratches of whatever was going on there, but there were ones with text and they don't tell you what the text was at the end. They tell you what the sigils were, but they don't tell you what the ones with text. And I tried on my little Roku remote to back it up and forward and back it up and forward and just enough to read it. And I missed it every time because it is so fast.
00:23:42
Speaker
It was so annoying. I'm sure I can look online, but I just don't care enough at this point. I was hoping it would have some effect on the end, but instead i was more curious. I wasn't unsettled by it. I was more curious about what it actually said then than being unsettled by it.
00:24:02
Speaker
And other thing, hated it. hated Was... hated it wise inserting the black and white footage of the like couple that's kidnapped and tied up and thrown in the basement something there's just a couple random shots of them throughout that serves no purpose other than to make you uncomfortable i guess i was gonna rag on that in direction yeah ah yeah i hated it in editing like why did we put that in there ah we put it in there to like subliminally message and mess with people
00:24:39
Speaker
But it all just felt much like we said for music and sound design. It felt a little gimmicky. It felt forced. It didn't feel naturally uncomfortable that I was watching something. It felt like. Yeah,
00:24:54
Speaker
it's not the story, I think. Yes. And then there was like, I'll get into that in the in the direction more.
Cultural Impact and Marketing Comparisons
00:25:03
Speaker
But yeah Oh, and I guess I guess those guys were cannibals.
00:25:09
Speaker
Yeah. Backwoods cannibals, yeah. Still, just out of nowhere, that it didn't work for me. the movie Like I said, the movie's slow. It's boring as hell for the the entirety of the film.
00:25:24
Speaker
It finally started to like go somewhere in the last 10 seconds when you think she's going to kill her brother. You're like, oh, things are picking up. And then it's over. And it's like, mm-hmm.
00:25:35
Speaker
also thank god it's over but we were finally getting somewhere with something and nothing happened yeah i know the editing and special effects the special effects were fine for a low budget film that's that's what i'll say on that one The special effects were minimal, um even with the costuming of the so-called demons running around in the background in the woods and everything.
00:26:00
Speaker
It just feels like they were trying to make a nod to early film, like they did at the very start, when you're seeing all the old school black and white from the early 1900s, whenever film first started. I think it was such a bad film star. It started probably earlier than that.
00:26:16
Speaker
but Well, the original camera was late 1800s, film didn't really become a thing until like 1918 movies. yeah see i was going to say like 1920, yeah. Yeah. But it seems like they were trying to take that idea of like how they represented evil entities and the costuming from those black and white films and making that a standard as part of the evil entities in the woods that's following them.
00:26:43
Speaker
So, I mean, that was okay. the The stop frame squirrel demon. Oh, yeah. Weird, which is right on the screen behind you right now, actually. i I forgot about he was actually cool. he was one of my favorite parts of the movie. I don't know what it was about, but I enjoyed him that this just the stop frame squirrel was just really odd and her being like, Oh yeah, that's a demon. Don't let him trick you. You take these sticks there to wands and we'll, we'll, we'll manage them away from us or whatever.
00:27:15
Speaker
And then they get to start frolicking with sticks after this weird stop frame square. It's a freaky, weird, messed up squirrels. I mean, that's something for a special effect. I suppose that it's okay.
00:27:26
Speaker
Um, you get the blood on some branches in the woods that don't really explain anything. What's going on.
00:27:35
Speaker
So the effects, there's not really much in the way of special effects, I feel, because most of it's just straight shooting and just darkness and shadows. All of that dead body, though, there was no explanation of that.
00:27:48
Speaker
None. No part of it ever came back again later, even though it's in such close proximity to their tent. You'd think that come they would have found it and been like, oh, God, what is this? Well, oh know it would have led to the story of what's going on in those woods, maybe to some degree, but no, nothing further on that.
00:28:04
Speaker
um The editing for it was okay, but yeah, the the pops from the scratching of everything that's etched in the film. was kind of annoying that there was so much of it.
00:28:17
Speaker
um I don't think they should have been so heavy handed with it. And you they even said at the end that they that the symbol of Astaroth was shown 170 times throughout the film It's like, who really needs it that much?
00:28:32
Speaker
But whatever, didn't make it. It's not for me to say, only for me to critique and shit on. So, yeah.
00:28:44
Speaker
It's excessive. It's excessive. Yeah, I just, it all felt gimmicky. And I would, now that you mentioned it, that squirrel is my favorite part of the movie because it is a creepy little squirrel buddy.
00:29:00
Speaker
That squirrel was nuts. But the... Yeah.
00:29:08
Speaker
um now I'm looking at it now in the reflection. But then, yeah, we pan away and there's like this this corpse leaning against the tree. And we never find out any... I was like, oh, this is definitely a sign of things to come. And it's not. It's just a corpse next to a tree that we never see again.
00:29:26
Speaker
It's never referenced again. i feel like that's how this movie goes. Most of the time you never see stuff again. You never reference it again. And that's that's it. We never see the squirrels again. We do see that stick...
00:29:39
Speaker
she waved at the wand at the end he does use the wand against the man to try to get him to go away and i was like oh there's that but yeah uh so the editing and special effects i want to give credit to using all practical effects that we could see keeping it super basic super kind of like what you said and i think some of what we saw at the beginning was uh George Millet Millier he's French I'm not going to say it right but the classic filmmaker um some of that was his stuff and he was ingenious with a lot of the stuff he did and there's little nods to that in this film I actually thought the scariest scene in the entire movie
00:30:26
Speaker
The one that i was like, oh, that gave me chills because there was one scene and it was the scene when it like cut to black for a while. And then the face of like the demon just slowly materialized and was just a little bit brighter than the rest of it.
00:30:44
Speaker
And it was just silent and he was looking at you and you were looking at him and it's just like, what is going on? I am uncomfortable now. And then it moved a little bit and I was like, okay, that best scene in the whole film had nothing to do with anything going around it it was just a good a good effect so um i'm giving some credit to the practical effects the nods to silent movie effects back way back in the day but the editing ah editing on this is overkill gimmicky
00:31:19
Speaker
garbage that made me more annoyed than immersed. I'm giving it I'm giving it an okay because I appreciate the practical.
00:31:31
Speaker
It's an okay.
00:31:36
Speaker
I'm a two. Yep. Two. Two.
00:31:40
Speaker
All right. We're moving right along because i i don't I don't want to spoil my score for you. That's okay. It's such an unenjoyable film for the most part. Yeah, I don't want to... Listeners, if you enjoy this film, please tell us why. ah to To be honest, I see why no one signed up to talk to us about this film, why no one was interested in this one.
00:32:06
Speaker
i It doesn't surprise me now. I thought for sure. But if we get onto the script... Written and directed by David Amito and Michael Licini.
00:32:18
Speaker
this It's super minimalistic. I guess there's symbolism about grief in here. Sure. ah It's more atmosphere than anything.
00:32:29
Speaker
um The script is thin. It's thin. There's no line in here that stands out as memorable in my brain.
00:32:40
Speaker
The most memorable scene of the entire thing, because I thought this was when stuff was going to get crazy and then it didn't, was when the sister is like, I made it all up.
00:32:51
Speaker
It's fake. And then the brother was like, oh, well, I've seen him. That was the best bit of writing in the entire thing. Everything else was honestly just meh, meh.
00:33:07
Speaker
it It didn't make me care about anything whatsoever. no' I'm so apathetic about the entire thing right now. This is one of the worst reviews we've done. Like, one of the lowest scores we're given a movie.
00:33:19
Speaker
I agree. i think I could have written a better story about this just around the Baphomet statue and the the farm with all the abandoned cars and what goes on there versus trying to save a dog's soul or stop a brother's nightmares.
00:33:39
Speaker
this This is just kind of all over the place with everything in the woods and like just so much of it didn't really make sense in a lot of parts to me. I just don't know, man.
00:33:49
Speaker
I, I, I, no, I, I think what you said, a lot of it doesn't make sense. A lot of it doesn't make sense. It's not explained thoroughly enough.
00:34:00
Speaker
It doesn't let, like I said earlier, how do we know they've gone to the next level of hell or whatever? They'll just be like, we're in the next level. And there's no justification as to how they figured that out.
00:34:12
Speaker
Any signs for the audience whatsoever. I'm sure. I'm sure some some dork online has gone through and like found every subliminal message and written about why this is genius. But I'm not that patient. I don't want to do that.
00:34:27
Speaker
Yeah, there's there's no sense of movement along any ritual process that leads them to going from one stage to the next. Aside from just the part where you see the book open saying, you know, stratum, whatever, me caris this and that and such and such.
00:34:47
Speaker
I just, I don't like the way they set it up, dude. Oh my God. All right. So, oh, go ahead. The dialogue itself, there's not much that's memorable versus what you remember. The thing that stood out the most to me was like when they were in the tent and Nathan's telling her that her feet stings. She's washed her feet and and she tries to tell him to like brush his teeth, but he doesn't want to do it.
00:35:09
Speaker
And then then they start talking about Cerberus and now you won't come after you if you're not smelly. And which you scares him into going to brush his teeth and then seeing the ah representation, I guess, of the ferryman Charon and some woman in the boat on the lake.
00:35:26
Speaker
just kind of going around which doesn't really explain anything and then there's no process or anything that goes don't know dude it's yeah no I I totally forgot about that scene because it was so abstract but then I remember thinking when she he gets up to brush his teeth and do what she said so he doesn't stink she does not wash her feet and I was like oh Cerberus is gonna get her later because she didn't clean her feet and then no that's not what happens That's not how it goes.
Final Thoughts: Lessons from Antrim
00:35:58
Speaker
It's her with some chains from a trap, freaking her out because she's all messed up and traumatized from two dudes, you know, a butcher and a dead deer humper trying to, like, roast them in a Batman statue. Yep.
00:36:15
Speaker
ye yeah so uh when it comes to numbering this i gave this script a one i think it is pretty bad it is pretty bad at justifying just about anything that we see on the screen the best thing it does at justifying is why this little boy is interested in digging a hole to hell that is the only thing it justifies well enough
00:36:40
Speaker
i man maybe i was too too kind on this i gave it a two for the script
00:36:47
Speaker
you're you're loud you're allowed and I I was getting more annoyed as we talked about it so the acting this is one that it is hard to come down too hard because as we've said they don't have much of a script the story kind of hard to follow uh Nicole Tompkins plays Orly Rowan Smith plays Nathan
00:37:14
Speaker
uh I think they do a good job with what little they have i cannot complain about either one of them i think the boy kind of plays this wild eye as you can see here as he's looking at the grimoire he looks like he's thoroughly invested in what is going on trying to save his dog's soul i believe that i believe it the sister as well they weren't too bad um the cannibals like I said I thought they were funnier than they were supposed to be I thought they were kind of the comedic relief in the film because they were just over the top ridiculous and we have the best shot in the film is wasted on following that cannibal all the way through his barn in his underwear as he's like dancing it doesn't mean a thing but it's the best shot in the film but
00:38:08
Speaker
is pretty restrained I think they feel genuine i don't have a whole lot more to say like I don't have too many complaints but I'm also not telling you like their performances are so powerful you need to see it like that's not happening either so The acting itself, I can give props on because it seemed more genuine in the moment with the boy's faith in what his sister is trying to help him with in their intention to save the dog. So her fear, realization of what they're getting into as things get crazier and her panic.
00:38:50
Speaker
you know, and trying to keep her brother safe and out of harm's way from these two twisted assholes in the woods. And then just her own paranoia and fear at the end when she hears the chains, but she's in the tent with that gun in her hand, just, you know, slowly waiting and waiting as it gets closer.
00:39:10
Speaker
So I got to give credit on that part. um The Japanese guy, What was that about him? Still don't get that whole point with the point of him being there was, but it felt like there was some sense of authenticity in what he was trying to do in his own grief one of whatever trauma he's dealing with or sense of repentance.
00:39:33
Speaker
Even though she like tries to tell him to stay quiet, not doing anything him still blurting out like a little asshole. just like annoying kids, you know, tend to do just ruining his whole moment and him just speaking in Japanese, most of it not understanding anything.
00:39:46
Speaker
I'm not sure if there's even any subtitles to go with it that would give any indication as to what he's saying. I didn't bother. I didn't care enough to try and look at it. Yeah, I didn't either. In English speaking films, I hate subtitles that it just it ruins it for me. It's something in a different foreign language.
00:40:02
Speaker
Cool. Then I'll take the subtitles in this whatever. But His sense of genuine, like, I'm sorry, you know the little bit of English that you get out of the guy, it's commendable in that sense. And more so than anything, the documentarian aspects of it seemed more real and believable because it seemed more natural in those in the early, like the beginning and the after parts of the documentary explanation stuff.
00:40:33
Speaker
Other than that, it is what it is. I still think they did okay acting-wise, so I can't really bash on that too hard.
00:40:43
Speaker
I'm with you there. i actually gave the acting a three because I don't think anybody here was bad. I think they made the most of what they had. I think if they had a more fleshed out script and a stronger story, they could have also delivered on those elements.
00:41:00
Speaker
I just don't think they had that in this, and I'm not going to hold that against them.
00:41:05
Speaker
So i'm I'm a three on that. I was being nice, I guess. and I went four on it. right That's fair.
00:41:15
Speaker
So the direction then, here we go. This is where yeah so where I'm about to poop on it. Jim picked the hell out of it.
00:41:25
Speaker
So it's dual directed David Amito and Michael Licini. hi
00:41:34
Speaker
I hated it. I hated it. Every, every choice they made outside of the mockumentary stuff. Once we got into Andrum, it's like these guys have never watched a 70s movies, 70s movie before.
00:41:50
Speaker
and based their movie on what they thought a movie from the 70s would look like because i watch a lot of 70s movies i'm on tubi a lot and i watch a lot of 70s movies and even big budget 70s movies which antrim would not have been uh don't look like this they look worse usually um And not big budget as in like major box office movies, but I'm talking more budget than what a movie like Antrim that's supposedly real, an occult film would have had in the 70s.
00:42:33
Speaker
um There's something about the way that the Antrim portion is shot that is extremely modern.
00:42:44
Speaker
It looks super modern and then it looks like they went back and put a grainy filter On top of all of it, and they made it grainy. They messed with the color to make everything a little bit more orange, more brown.
00:43:00
Speaker
And like, oh, yeah, that looks like a 70s movie. And it doesn't. It doesn't. Most it, like, Satan's Cheerleaders. I'm not even sure that's a 70s movie. That might be an early 80s.
00:43:12
Speaker
But honestly, I was thinking of that movie while watching this one. um Satan's Cheerleaders on Tubi. Check it out. It's 77. It um it doesn't look as good as this movie does.
00:43:30
Speaker
It strangely looks better than this one because it's less art house and more just like a low budget schlocky horror film. But the things they do...
00:43:44
Speaker
These close-ups that we see frequently were not that prevalent in this style of film in the 70s. I've watched a lot. I don't see it a lot. there's There's pretty wide shots. They're getting a lot of characters in.
00:44:00
Speaker
We're not getting that kind of that kind of attention on a lot of stuff. Now i I'm, I'm Tim picking because I know that exists, but you know, if we're talking Rosemary's baby, that's a different boat. I'm talking a low budget movie like this would not look like an art student was trying to make something significant.
00:44:23
Speaker
And that's ultimately what I feel about the, the entire direction of this film is I feel like the movie Antrim within was uh, Basically ah college project that somebody made and they were like, ah, cool. We have this idea. We're just going make our first movie.
00:44:41
Speaker
And they go out and they just make this and it's like an hour and 10 minutes long. and actually an hour long and so then they decide that you know what we need 20 minutes the beginning and 10 minutes at the end to make it a full hour and 30 minute feature and so they're like what if we framed it as like the deadliest movie ever made because we don't really have much of a story here we just have this kind of art house student project that we made that looks like it could be a 70s film and then they framed it as the deadliest film ever made to try to generate some hype for it because there was no hype any other way that's that's that's what I feel like the direction is I I hated it I hated it so much because it doesn't feel like a 70s movie it feels like a modern movie made to look like a 70s movie and that bothered me a lot
00:45:37
Speaker
It's like at least watch 10 70s movies before you attempt to make one that is supposedly a 70s movie. but I don't know. I got i got mad at it. Or at least use camera equipment from the 70s.
00:45:51
Speaker
That can't be that expensive now. It's probably on an antique shop somewhere. Gotta be affordable. Yeah, film it on a Super 8. Do that. For me, man it it felt like it was it was filmed with like 90s daytime TV camera and then filters on top of that, almost like a daytime TV special kind of footage kind of view.
00:46:13
Speaker
Yeah. um And like said, when it comes to the direction of stuff, like there are so many parts that didn't make sense that didn't really do much for you. Like earlier when you mentioned like those flashbacks of like the couple in whatever tiled basement or whatever thing.
00:46:28
Speaker
What purpose did that serve? It didn't really connect to anything nothing other than a flash of hysterical murder, I guess. But like, we don't know who those people are. We don't know if there's any connection to Orly because I mean, I don't believe they have any connection to Nathan as a child.
00:46:46
Speaker
Yeah. You know, like what was that supposed to be for? i did who who first Who or what was that for? It didn't do anything at all. I think it is just meant to make the viewer uncomfortable.
00:46:57
Speaker
Yeah. Yes. Make the viewer uncomfortable. Instead, it just made me mad when each time it clipped in, we got a little bit more footage. And I was like, oh, we're actually going to like, maybe these people are in that pit and they're going to find some people the cannibals have buried underneath.
00:47:16
Speaker
And, you know, they're digging this hole to hell and they're actually going to find this couple that's being tortured in the basement out in the woods. I don't know, but that's more coherent than what we actually got. So it it made no sense. I was mad at that, too.
00:47:31
Speaker
in Like what you see in the background, a lot of like those weird overhead shots and weird angles, I don't know, just didn't sit well for me either. Like you said, with like how they're trying to do something, but it doesn't really feel like seventies film and like camera styles and angles that they would normally use for that time.
00:47:49
Speaker
Just felt really out of place. Uh, man, don't know. If it feels like a modern move movie. Um, I gotta just overall, overall, the film annoyed me more than anything else. And so I have to give the direction a one. i thought the direction was bad.
00:48:11
Speaker
I looked up these directors to see if they've done anything else, and thankfully, no. so ah Probably for a good fucking reason. sure I hate, I mean, i am normally not, normally we don't crap on movies. We don't.
00:48:28
Speaker
We try to find the good in all of them, but guys, I genuinely finished this movie, and I wanted my time back. I just with her made up a cultist bullshit and then you see these hillbillies in the woods with their Baphomet cooker like I I would have liked to see more context as to what they were doing in what their whole set was with any kind of like Satanist occultist whatever it is that they were doing with with that Baphomet statue.
00:48:58
Speaker
and there was no real connection between the two of the hillbillies weird occult shit and what they're doing just so fucking random happenstance it felt like it felt like filler again to meet a full length because the hillbillies never really come back to the circle where they're digging and other than the kids wander into the hillbilly yard and then they wander back to where they're going but the hillbillies never leave that yard so it's just kind of bizarre Well, mean, except for when they come to their campsite and then pop them for the little boy being done with his stick. Oh, what you think she would have like held onto his hand and made him stay in fucking place. But no, she just totally lets him go loose like an idiot, which so stupid.
00:49:43
Speaker
Like, why would you not hold on to him? And I'm making sure you got a hand on his mouth cause you know that kid's fucking loud mouth already. it just Yeah. So dumb. And then like, how are we supposed to know right away that the guy's using trank darts? Because it looks like a regular rifle.
00:49:57
Speaker
Pop, the kid goes down. Pop, she goes down. You're assuming they both got shot. Yeah. then they wake up, they're okay. Like, that's I don't know, this seems so dumb. No, I thought they both got shot. And then I thought, oh, again, I was like, oh, this is where a movie gets interesting. And then it didn't.
00:50:12
Speaker
Again. yeah I'm glad that they got shot and died. you know Because, I mean, dude, who wants to see some guy banging a dead deer? That's just gross. that was That's another point that I'm just like... It's a shock factor, I guess. It served no real purpose other than a shock factor.
00:50:30
Speaker
It is gross and stupid and made me mad. ah Did you give your score for Direction? A two. two um probably should have gone lower. but Trying to be nice, I guess. I'm a nice guy.
00:50:43
Speaker
so cultural significance then ah this movie has a favorable critics score on Rotten Tomatoes which surprises me yeah it does tap into that cursed film kind of found footage area even though it's not entirely found footage but I feel like it is definitely trying to be the modern Blair Witch and failing miserably to do it where the Blair yeah where the blair witch successfully created like a a website that pretended it was a real movie this one is trying to do something similar but by this point we've already had the blair witch so you're not an original idea in that department um i do think it's marketing around it is better than the movie itself uh it does ultimately a lot of reviews and
00:51:41
Speaker
articles online say it under delivers but on the deadliest movie ever, but ever made. I saw one article that was pretty mad and called it deceptive advertising, like straight up false advertising because it is advertised as the deadliest film ever made, but there are zero deaths connected to this film.
00:52:06
Speaker
That's all fabricated. So it's all false advertising. And there they were like, it's pretty, it's a pretty deceptive thing to do because this is, this is a community where like Faces of Death is a movie that many, some believe is real.
00:52:23
Speaker
I always thought it was real. um Like real snuff videos that are of, I don't want to say treasured, but like,
00:52:37
Speaker
they're part of the community of the horror community, whether you like them or not. And then this is like, Hey, this is a deadly film with deaths connected to it. And it's not, it's all made to get you to watch it and to deceive you.
00:52:51
Speaker
So i'm i'm torn on, on the cultural significance, but ultimately i think I think I'm okay with where I landed because my hype going into this movie was pretty high.
00:53:05
Speaker
i I'd seen, a lot about this deadliest film ever made and i was very intrigued by it and this is the one this is the one on our full core list that i was probably looking forward to the most and boy did it let me down man
00:53:28
Speaker
man if anything yeah it lends to the genre of folk horror and
00:53:36
Speaker
kind of found footage or found film, as you said earlier. i think if anything, the the major significance that it has is that it shows you what not to do more than anything.
00:53:49
Speaker
And that's, i think, the biggest impact it has. you watch this or any other filmmakers who wanna try to follow this kind of thing, watch this and be like, yeah, I don't wanna do that. yeah So that's that's the greatest impact there ah that i I feel it has.
00:54:05
Speaker
I went a one on this part. Just one. okay I almost went zero, but I'm like one, cause it you not to do stuff like this.
00:54:16
Speaker
That's fair. I actually gave it a two because i was, I was like I said, I was hyped for this movie. The marketing that I'd seen online had me intrigued and I was curious and ultimately I was deceived. So I'm mad about that.
00:54:33
Speaker
Uh, but okay. Out of 10.
00:54:40
Speaker
i wasn't as entertained as I was hoping to be by far. Uh, ah
00:54:48
Speaker
I gave it a six, but after we've talked about it, I feel like it deserves a five. Okay. Hey, you, you are more generous than me. I'm going to add up my total.
00:54:59
Speaker
Um, you're more generous than me. I finished this movie and I was mad at this movie. So i was mad that it wasted my time, mad that nothing happened, mad that I was lied to about the deadliest film ever made.
00:55:15
Speaker
And ultimately, i never want to see this movie again. oh Good thing I didn't watch any other stuff prior to this. I'd be in the same boat as you. Yeah. So ultimately, my my entertainment level out of this was, i gotta you know what, i gotta come up I'm going to come up to a three because the first 20 minutes when it is setting up everything,
00:55:43
Speaker
i was intrigued i was like oh yeah let's get into this i'm ready to watch antrum like you piped it up people died fires all this stuff people spontaneously combusted in their seats during this movie let's get into it and then it was the biggest waste of time ever so ultimately i'll give it a three because they hyped it really well in those first 20 minutes I think the mockumentary portions at the beginning and end were more interesting and more entertaining overall than the actual Antrim film itself.
00:56:16
Speaker
Oh, said highly i would 100% agree with you on that one. So what's your total, Jonathan? um After my slight change, I'm at a 25. think it's of the lowest scores I've ever had overall.
00:56:29
Speaker
I am at 17, which is definitely one of my lowest scores. Yeah. Which that takes us to a two stars out of five or 21 out of 50 for this one.
00:56:45
Speaker
ah And yeah, that that to me... Sadness. Yeah, that to me feels fine because it's technically not the worst made thing I've ever seen.
00:56:56
Speaker
not I wouldn't say it's objectively bad. ah For me, I thought it was pretty bad. But i can see why some people might enjoy elements of it. So I can't say it's objectively bad.
00:57:10
Speaker
It's not... It's just not for me at all whatsoever. I feel bad for you that you got so hyped and were so let down. Dude, I was. was hyped. feel bad for you.
00:57:21
Speaker
It's okay. Sad trumpet time. Uh-huh.
00:57:27
Speaker
nice Nice setup, nice delivery. ah that I was, but you know what?
00:57:37
Speaker
It is what it is we we're We're getting there.
00:57:45
Speaker
All right. You have any final thoughts on it? ah Don't waste your time, people. I mean, if you really want to waste time, then this is something you waste time with. because it'll be easy to just not focus on and just let play in the background while you pay attention to other shit and not care.
00:58:03
Speaker
Put it on the fall asleep too because it's boring as hell.
00:58:09
Speaker
It is not my movie whatsoever. i will probably never see this movie again and I will be fine doing that. Absolutely.
00:58:20
Speaker
There is an outro in the Google Doc if you Oh, let's see here. But ultimately, so far, this is, I believe this is night four of 13 Nights of Halloween.
00:58:36
Speaker
And as you can see so far, I'm not the biggest full horror fan. This movie is perhaps my lowest score. I don't see much being lower than this one, in all honesty.
00:58:48
Speaker
This one is pretty, pretty low
00:58:54
Speaker
That's fair, but I'm ready whenever. Go for it. All right. So that wraps up Antrim, the deadliest film ever made. Honestly, it doesn't even come close living up to the height.
00:59:09
Speaker
Yeah, it it feels like it wanted to capture the same setup as Blair Witch had. ah This is real. You should be scared. But outside of the cursed film angle, it doesn't have much of anything going for it.
00:59:23
Speaker
Exactly. Take away the fake legend and you're left with a movie that's more interesting in idea than in execution. ah The occult symbols, the grainy 70s aesthetic, yeah the faux history.
00:59:36
Speaker
It's clever packaging, but when it comes to actual scares, there aren't really any. Still, i give a credit for being an interesting experiment or a college project.
00:59:47
Speaker
Folk horror thrives on myth. rumor and old world terror and antrim at least plays in that sandbox even if it never builds a castle so if you watched it let us know what you thought did it work for you is cursed cinema or did it leave you cold like it did us uh drop your score for antrum over on our instagram and stack it up against ours And hey, if you're craving something with some more substantial chills this October, check out my latest book, Like, Comment, Survive. It is found footage meets YouTube ghost hunters.
01:00:24
Speaker
All the, well, not all the things Antrim wanted to be, but there's more scares in it. So grab a copy now on Amazon. Yay. All right.
01:00:35
Speaker
So make sure you like, to subscribe, and share because we're only getting darker as the season continues. Tomorrow night, we're headed back into the heart of folk horror with another nightmare you can't shrug off.
01:00:48
Speaker
This is The Average. Where the real review happens with your friends.