If you have a Shudder
(or AMC+) subscription, you will have the chance to see a very special film next month. If you dare. The platform, known for its huge catalog of horror movies of every kind, will include a 2018 found footage film in its catalog. The name? Antrum, or as some have labeled it, Antrum: The Deadliest Film Ever Made which is due to land on the streamer on February 24. Antrum is a two-part independent movie that was the passion project of filmmakers David Amito and Michael Laicini. They set out to produce a horror mockumentary about watching a movie that would kill you after you’d seen it. The result was a small film that sailed across the festival circuit in 2018 and drew the attention of everyone who saw it. Eventually, the directors signed a distribution deal that put the film on streaming platforms in 2020, and, at one stage, it stood in the #1 spot on Prime Video.
Antrum takes a wonderfully meta approach to the horror sub-genre, centering on a found footage film that has been described as “cursed.” As viewers, we are treated to an investigation about “Antrum,” a 1979 Bulgarian film that was submitted to festivals, but neither of them decided to show it. People associated with the film mysteriously die, and ultimately all copies are lost or destroyed. However, a documentary crew has found a damaged copy and decides to make a documentary about it. What could go wrong?
Religious imagery, subliminal content, and a nightmare-inducing soundtrack all follow in Antrum, and when the documentary crew finds that the movie may contain footage of a snuff film, they decide audiences need to see it. Enter the second half of this truly underrated mockumentary that is guaranteed to send shivers down your spine. The movie was acclaimed in the horror community as an original approach to films that blur the line between reality and fiction. It holds a 79% score on the Tomatometer on Rotten Tomatoes, but received a mixed response from audiences, landing 49% score on the Popcornmeter. Much like the foiund footage film in the story, Antrum has now been forgotten somewhat. But the movie being available on Shudder could change that.
The Truth Behind Some Famous “Cursed” Films
While so-called “cursed” films don’t exist (probably), it’s hard to deny the existence of some film productions eerily surrounded by inexplicable events that some have capitalized on. And the Shudder series Cursed Films is a great take on the subject. Poltergeist wasn’t cursed. The Exorcist wasn’t cursed. The Serpent and the Rainbow were never cursed. The whole situation with The Omen and the deaths surrounding that production? Understandably creepy and unnerving. Not a curse. Okay, maybe that one is a little hard to deny. But, really, these films were just difficult to produce for various grounded, human factors. Probably. Maybe…
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The 15 All-Time Scariest Moments in Found Footage Horror Movies
The found footage subgenre has become one of the most popular in horror. Let’s look at the scariest moments in the subgenre.
Antrum used a marketing ploy that has worked well in the past, and David Amito and Michael Laicini used this approach with their small found footage film. And it worked, with Antrum managing to draw the attention of the horror community, whose viewers and critics recognized there was something special about the “deadliest film ever made.” It didn’t kill them, but at least it made them look. No doubt it will do it all over again when it lands on Shudder on February 24, 2025.
Antrum: The Deadliest Film Ever Made
- Release Date
-
October 14, 2018
- Runtime
-
95 minutes
- Cast
-
Nicole Tompkins
, Rowan Smyth
, Dan Istrate
, Circus-Szalewski
, Shu Sakimoto
, Kristel Elling
, Lucy Rayner
, Pierluca Arancio
, A.J. Bond
, Nathan Fleet
, Brock Fricker
, Assen Gadjalov - Main Genre
-
Horror
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