Produced by Black Lava Entertainment and Scared to Death, Antithese (Austria, Germany - 2017) is a horror short film written and directed by the duo of Jonas Sommer and Thomas Binder, the latter a director, producer as well as founder of the Austrian extreme label Black Lava Entertainment.
Of the duration of about thirty minutes, Antithese is an easily forgettable product given the poverty of means but especially of ideas with which it was shot. The trailer and stills circulating on the net more than a year ago raised hopes for a worthwhile and blasphemous product about occultism. Expectations, these, terribly shattered by the reality of the facts.
With Antithese we are faced with a weak homage to The House by Sam Raimi. A terrible tribute in almost every respect, even from the acting point of view. The film does, however, feature, in the finale, decent special effects (by Jonas Sommer) and a very brief sequence of impact (relating to the protagonist's dream/hallucination). It deals with a kind of ritual (by the way, already immortalized in the inviting and misleading trailer) in which a naked woman is completely bathed in blood.
Directing in fact is another filmmaker namely Martin Faltermeier. The bloody vision the latter gives the viewer is unprecedentedly beautiful and, for that very reason, contrasts with the shoddy frame built around it. For this, the part directed by Faltermeier would deserve further investigation.
The plot is as follows: Stephen (Günther Brandl) is a writer who leaves town with his wife Mia (Miriam Fontaine) to devote himself to writing a new project: a book on occultism. His studies, however, lead him to fall victim to a spell. The writing of the text in fact fuels a strange malaise that, unbeknownst to him, afflicts his wife. Later Stephen will realize that the woman is possessed by a demon that he himself will be forced to idolize or fight.
In the cast: Günther Brandl (Necrophile Passion), Miriam Fontaine, Melody Bayer, Martin Faltermeier, Nicole Lauer, Julia Straßer, Jonas Sommer, Thomas Binder.
