THE DAY OF THE BEAST (1995)
Alex de la Iglesia is rapidly becoming one of my favorite filmmakers in the solar system (Jupiter's Zepo-099 is nipping at his heels, it's worth mentioning). I have only seen three of his works, but all of them are practically perfect. Okay, that might be hyperbole. I see that I gave 2013's Witching & Bitching four Z'Dars. If this were a full review of The Day of the Beast, I'd slap five Z'Dars at the bottom of it. Iglesia spins style and impudent humor around a tale of a priest committing sins in a bid to invoke Satan. He wants to sell his soul to the devil and seeks favor from legitimate Satanists so that he can slay the son of the Antichrist at his birth ceremony.
There is a lot going on here, which I'm finding is somewhat of a staple in Iglesia's chiffonier of wild cards. Despite the busy storyline, Beast hangs together quite nicely. It never feels like too much. You would definitely jam this picture into the horror section of your make-believe video rental, but as with the bulk of Iglesia's joints, it acts as a genre kaleidoscope. There are bursts of action, moments of monster magic (get a load of Goatman), and above all, strokes of comedy that are actually funny. The script is sharp, and dare I type it, brainy! Metalheads will love the references to death metal bands. One of the characters owns and operates a record store...dude, "awesome" doesn't do it justice. I guess you could say the same for The Day of the Beast. Watch it pronto!
No comments:
Post a Comment