Film Review: The Day of the Beast (El dia de la bestia, 1995)
In the last decades of 20th Century Hollywood was trying to exploit increasing millenarianist sentiments among its Christian audience by producing films dealing with upcoming Apocalypse. Its example was followed, with varying degree of success, by other cinema industries. This included Spain where The Day of the Beast, 1995 black comedy directed by Alex De La Iglesia, became a big hit.
The protagonist is Father Angel Berriartua (played by Alex Angulo), quiet Catholic priest from Basque Country and professor of theology. He has spent almost entire life studying Bible and trying to find hidden coded messages about the Apocalypse. His research led him to conclusion that the Apocalypse will begin with the birth of Antichrist, which is to occur on December 25th 1995 in Madrid. Father Angel is determined to prevent this from happening so he travels to Madrid in order to find and kill the demonic baby. The main problem is that he beforehand must conjure the Devil, but such practical aspects of the occult aren’t his forte. So, in desperation, he is forced to find people who are true experts. One of them is Jose Maria (played by Santiago Segura), owner of the records store and fan of heavy music, but even his deep knowledge of hidden Satanist messages in songs’ lyrics isn’t enough. Two of them decide to kidnap Professor Cavan (played by Armando De Razza), self-styled expert in parapsychology who is a star of late night television show.
In the very brief bit effective opening scene De La Iglesia quickly shows the what kind of film is going to deliver and that standard Hollywood rules will not applied. The result of his efforts is mix of extreme violence, gore, black humour and biting satire with Catholic Church and believers in the occult becoming the equal targets. De La Iglesia even takes time to take a stab at more contemporary targets – like the rise of far right violence in the mean streets of European cities and ruthless Berlusconi-like tycoons taking over media. Most of the audience, however, won’t pay much attention to mostly subliminal attempts of social and political criticism and it would be more thrilled with the way De La Iglesia imagined what would happen if someone would take certain segments of Bible literally, often leading to absurd and funny situations.
De La Iglesia was fortunate to have trio of talented comedians in his cast. Alex Angulo, known mostly for working in Almodovar’s films, is brilliant as quiet and seemingly harmless clergyman who is forced to take shotgun and fight evil in extremely violent way. The Day of the Beast also represented first major role for Santiago Segura, who would later become great star of Spanish and European cinema. Here he plays seemingly intimidating metalhead who is actually kind-hearted and good natured man. Italian actor Armando De Razza is also good in the role of charismatic media figure who is actually a pathetic charlatan. The rest of the cast isn’t particularly known, with possible exception of Italian actress Maria Grazia Cucinotta, star of Il postino who plays Cavan’s girlfriend but is, due to blonde wig, not so easily recognisable.
The Day of the Beast also benefits from the cinematography by Flavio Martinez Fabiano and heavy metal soundtrack, which effectively create dark atmosphere of the megalopolis at the eve of Apocalypse. Near the end De La Iglesia loses bit of inspiration and finale isn’t that effective nor funny. But even with that, The Day of the Beast is very good film that should be recommended even to those viewers who aren’t too enthusiastic about mix of horror, comedy and religious themes.
RATING: 7/10 (++)
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