Sympathy for the Devil

The Devil is, by definition, the Other, an alterity, someone else, exterior to us. It's a part of our shadow, the part of ourselves we don't wanna see. In Antichrist, Charlotte Gainsbourg, finally, plays a woman who discovers her shadow self during her therapy work. Without any borders, her shadow self takes all the place and she becomes a violent, monstruous version of herself.

In this perspective, being "possessed" by a demon can be seen as a metaphor. Characters who are possessed by someone or something evil are a representation of our own inner monster. Isabelle Adjani plays wonderfully on this frontier between the inner monster and true evil. Her rendition of the character is somehow believable, even when she goes completely crazy in trance. There are no special effects in these scenes of possession, just a work on movement, intonations and the use of a moving camera.

The most terrifying thing about hell isn't the torture, whips, chains or other violent scourges. It's the idea that we'll be trapped in the shadow, in the zone of all our worst fears, all our worst memories. In Hour of the Wolf, Bergman creates the strong ambiance of a dark world in our world. It's a world of the fantastic, a place where reality is altered by strangeness and unknown fears.