Staying in the Christmas spirit, here is a pitch-black, Christmas-themed comedy from Spanish director, Álex de la Iglesia. MadeMade reviews in 1995, “Day of the Beast” was a giant hit in its native country winning six Goya’s (equivalent to an OscarOscar reviews) including Best Director, Best New Actor, Best Special Effects and Best Sound. It’s a nice Christmas story detailing a Catholic preist and his mission to kill the AntichristAntichrist reviews on Christmas in a most blasphemous manner. It’s a great movie that doesn’t get mentioned much when talking about good horror, or Christmas horror for that matter.

Father Angel (Álex Angulo) is a Catholic priest in Madrid who has spent a chunk of his life studying the books dealing with the prophesized Apocalypse. Through his research, he has discovered that in just a few days, on Christmas, the Antichrist will be born in Madrid. The problem is that Angel doesn’t know where in Madrid the birth will take place. To learn this secret location, Father Angel begins committing sin after atrocious sin hoping to fool the Devil and be granted entry into his inner circle and be allowed to attend the event so that he can ultimately kill the infant.

Assisting him in this dangerous task is the oafish, death metalhead José María (the perfectly cast, Santiago Segura) and Cavan (Armando De Razza), a television psychic who hosts a Jerry Springer-ish show about the supernatural. The fate of mankind is now in their hands as they search Madrid, from the bustling shopping district to the back-alley underbelly,  in a race against time to kill the Antichrist before dawn. For if they fail at their task, the Antichrist’s reign will begin and the end of mankind will begin.

If you have never had the pleasure to watch “Day of the Beast” you really need to fix that problem. This is a delight for any horror lover or fans of dark comedy. It’s in the same comic vein as “Re-Animator” or “Evil Dead 2″ with some action scenes reminiscent of early Peter Jackson stuff. Within the first five minutes an incident occurs that sets the tone for the rest of the film and is ample warning to the viewer what they are getting into. The first portion is the most comedic dealing mostly with Father Angel committing sins around Madrid while hunting for signs of Satans little helpers. It’s humorous and involves a bit of social commentary on how the pious view “sinners” and paint them in some mighty, broad strokes.

The rest of the film is the action orientated bastardization of the Three Wise Men told in the BibleBible reviews as Angel, Cavan and Jose get into one crazy situation after another as Father Angel interprets what may or may not be signs leading him to the manger of Satan’s spawn. Some notable scenes are a drug infused ceremony to invoke Satan that leads to disturbing results, the trio scaling the outside of a high-rise while on acid, a superbly shot altercation between Father Angel and a shotgun toting landlady, a Christmas Eve massacre in a crowded shopping district with the Three Wise Men in attendance, and inside a death metal club where Father Angel pisses off the wrong people. My point being is that there is rarely break in the action leading up to the final showdown between GoodGood reviews and EvilEvil reviews.

But what I loved most about “Day of the Beast”  is that throughout the entire movie you are never sure if what is happening is actually happening. Is Father Angel insane? Are the supposed signs nothing but coincidence? Divine InterventionDivine Intervention reviews nothing but pure luck? The ambiguous nature of it all leaves it entirely up to the viewer to decide whether Father Angel and his co-horts are truly experiencing what they think they are, or if it is all simply in their heads. I have my theory on that and would love to discuss it with anyone else who has seen the movie.

The awards this film won are not surprising and I recommend watching the DVD to truly experience the excellent audio\visuals and not downloading it to watch on your laptop with the shitty speakers. But unfortunately this does not have a US release that I know of and I hear the DVD that is available is sub-par. But no matter which route you go, you cannot go wrong with this film and I highly, highly suggest you give it a shot. I’m giving “Day of the Beast” 4 Satannica Demo tapes out of 5.

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