El día de la bestia (1995)

User Rating:

7.5/10   

Director:

Álex de la Iglesia

Writers:

Jorge Guerricaechevarría (writer)
Álex de la Iglesia (writer)

Release Date:

23 December 1998 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Crime | Horror | Thriller

Tagline:

A devilishly dark comedy

Plot:

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...

Plot Keywords:

Christmas | Heavy Metal | Devil | Priest | Madrid

Awards:

15 wins & 10 nominations

Cast

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
Pololo	...	Abuelo terminal
Higinio Barbero	...	Satán

Also Known As:

Il giorno della bestia (Italy)
The Day of the Beast

MPAA:

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

Runtime:

103 min | USA:99 min

Country:

Spain | Italy

Language:

Spanish

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

France:-12 | South Korea:18 | Australia:M | Chile:18 | Germany:16 | Portugal:M/16 | Spain:18 | UK:18 | USA:R | Mexico:C

Filming Locations:

Aránzazu, Euskadi, Spain

Company:

Canal+ España

Goofs:

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

Movie Connections:

References "The Stand" (1994)

Awesome over-the-top horror comedy from Spain

Father Angel is a priest and a professor at a small university in Spain, and he's discovered that the Antichrist will be born in Madrid on December 25th so he's off to Madrid to commit all the sin he can to get as close to the un-blessed event as possible, to prevent it. Along the way he manages to pick up a a couple of cohorts, one being a rather dim-witted metal-head who works at a record store, the other being a TV talk show host that pretends to predict the future. Now, Father Angel is sincere in his quest but he also seems a bit naive and sees signs that are perhaps other than he thinks they are, but somehow, with his partners along, despite all the bumbling, it certainly does seem like he's on to something. A summoning is done, using available things like white bread instead of hosts and LSD instead of the preferred mushrooms, and a rather hurried search for virgin's blood also ensues. Meanwhile there's also a gang of creeps out to "Clean Up Madrid" by burning bums and all kinds of other festive goings-on. Of course, despite all his bumbling, Father Angel is perhaps correct, but it's a break-neck race to the finish to find the correct location of the birth and plot side-lines and the main story all collide at once to make a rather spectacular ending and then a rather quiet epilogue. This is at times quite hilarious in a dark comedic way, and Santiago Segura is great as the dim-bulb metal-head. If you're a fan of De La Iglesia and you haven't seen this, please get your mitts on it. Unfortunately it's not available in NTSC Region 1 (or 0) format at this time but given that most of his other stuff is, one can only hope for a decent release sometime soon. 9 out of 10.