El día de la bestia (1995)

A basque priest finds by means of a cabalistic study of the bible that the anti-christ is going to be born on Christmas day in Madrid. Helped by a heavy-metal fan and by the showman of a TV... See full summary »

Director:

Álex de la Iglesia

Writers:

Jorge Guerricaechevarría, Álex de la Iglesia

Stars:

Álex Angulo, Armando De Razza, Santiago Segura

15 wins & 11 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Álex Angulo	...	Cura (as Alex Angulo)
Armando De Razza	...	Cavan
Santiago Segura	...	José María
Terele Pávez	...	Rosario (as Terele Pavez)
Nathalie Seseña	...	Mina
Maria Grazia Cucinotta	...	Susana
Gianni Ippoliti	...	Productor
Jaime Blanch	...	Toyota 1
David Pinilla	...	Toyota 2
Antonio Dechent	...	Toyota 3
Ignacio Carreño	...	Toyota 4
Saturnino García	...	Sacerdote Anciano (as Saturnino Garcia)
El Gran Wyoming	...	Nuevo Cavan (as Gran Wyoming)
Pololo	...	Abuelo Terminal
Higinio Barbero	...	Satán

Storyline

A basque priest finds by means of a cabalistic study of the bible that the anti-christ is going to be born on Christmas day in Madrid. Helped by a heavy-metal fan and by the showman of a TV esoteric program, he will try to invoke the devil to find out the place of birth and kill the baby.

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Plot Keywords:

christmas | devil | priest | heavy metal | catholic priest | 

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Taglines:

A devilishly dark comedy

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Genres:

Action | Comedy | Crime | Horror | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for strong brutal violence, language, drug use and brief nudity

Details

Country:

Spain

Language:

Spanish

Release Date:

23 December 1998 (USA)

Also Known As:

The Day of the Beast

Filming Locations:

Aránzazu, Euskadi, Spain

Box Office

Budget:

€2,100,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

$6,479 (USA) (25 December 1998)

Gross:

$15,324 (USA) (1 January 1999)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Canal+ España, Iberoamericana Films Producción, Sociedad General de Televisión (Sogetel)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

103 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Dolby SR

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

There was a claim that the story plagiarised the unpublished novel "La luz (The light)", written by Tomás Cuevas, sent to (and sent back 2 years later) the company in which Alex de la Iglesia worked at the time. This claim has been defended by a 20 minute amateur documentary called "El lado oscuro del clan Almodovar (The dark side of Almodovar's clan)", in which a distorted voice lists proofs and coincidences movie-novel to defend the accusation of plagiarism. Said claim was rejected in court and up to this date there is no conclusive evidence of it.

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Goofs

The last scene takes place nine months after Christmas, but the flowers and trees in the park show that it's early spring.

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Crazy Credits

Jaime Blanch's, David Pinilla's, Antonio Dechent's and Ignacio Carreño's characters are listed as "Toyota". These characters were replaced in later drafts of the scripts as "assailants". In the movie, they are called "Limpia Madrid", but credits still call them "Toyota."

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Connections

Referenced in Drag Me to Hell (2009)

User Reviews

A darkly funny adventure film... with a d...evil twist

This interesting film from Spanish director De la Iglesia is a road trip that is fun and action packed, as it is obscure. A great premise taken to the extreme, in which a servant of god, has to get in touch with the evil side, in order to save the world. The comic relief comes in Chema, a rock-store clerk, who, along this priest takes this trip to it's ultimate consequences.