The Day of the Beast
The Day of the Beast
R | 23 December 1998 (USA)
The Day of the Beast Trailers

The story revolves around a Basque Roman Catholic priest dedicated to committing as many sins as possible, a death metal salesman from Carabanchel, and the Italian host of a TV show on the occult. These go on a literal "trip" through Christmas-time Madrid to hunt for and prevent the reincarnation of the Antichrist.

Reviews
Harockerce What a beautiful movie!
Marketic It's no definitive masterpiece but it's damn close.
Gutsycurene Fanciful, disturbing, and wildly original, it announces the arrival of a fresh, bold voice in American cinema.
Teddie Blake The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.
Claudio Carvalho The priest and professor of theology Father Ángel Berriartúa (Alex Angulo) has deciphered a code disclosing that the Antichrist will be born in Madrid on the Christmas day. In order to avoid the destruction of the world, he decides to go to Madrid on the Christmas Eve and commit as many sins as possible to sell his soul to the devil to destroy the Antichrist to save the world. He befriends and teams up with the death metal salesman José María (Santiago Segura) and finds a book written by the Italian Professor Cavan (Armando De Razza), who hosts a TV show on the occult. They kidnap Cavan to learn how to summon the devil and during an acid trip, they see the devil and Cavan decides to help the priest. Is the priest a lunatic or does the Beast indeed exist?"El día de la bestia", a.k.a. "The Day of the Beast", is a hilarious and full of action black comedy horror film. This is the type of movie that can be seen many times and the viewer will still enjoy it if he is fan of black humor and dark jokes. The cynical Alex Angulo is fantastic in the role of a priest committing many sins to attract the attention of the devil. The bizarre characters, including José Maria and Professor Cavan, are also very funny. My vote is eight.Title (Brazil): "O Dia da Besta" ("The Day of the Beast")
deletewindowson Sure, I'm a cynical old man. I've seen it all, believe me. I like to laugh but rarely get a chance to laugh in today's batch of crap films. I love this film. I laughed out loud a dozen times. One of the few times I miss the old days of sitting in a theater full of people all laughing to beat jeebus. No spoilers here! I won't say a word about the story. Just that I enjoyed this film immensely. The lead characters are fantastic. At the end of day, warm, funny, and quite touching. That makes two Spanish films that have really impressed me lately. This one, and REC. For different reasons of course. REC I found genuinely frightening the first time through. This one is genuinely hilarious. Two hooves.. er.. thumbs up!
Theo Robertson I'd only heard good things about this Spanish film " Instant classic etc " and went in to it knowing that it wasn't a full blown horror film . I'm guessing that most of the poor reviews on this page were by people who expected a full blown horror film and were disappointed by THE DAY OF THE BEAST being something it patently isn't ? However after seeing the movie I too was feeling some what let down too . Not by what the film wasn't but by what it is - a black comedy that ran out of steam The first third is excellent . Catholic priest Father Angel Berriartua decides if he commits enough sinful acts then he will meet the anti-Christ who will be born on Christmas Day in Madrid . In effect it's an anti redemption plot and there is much amusement to be had as he conducts a one man misanthropic war against passer bys . This sets up the introduction of two more characters Jose Maria a death metal salesman and Professor Cavan a TV host on the occult and at this point you think you'll be enjoying a sort of Spanish Catholic version of MONTY PYTHON as all sorts of anarchic tasteless anti establishment gags come to the fore as a sort of La Vida El Brian The bad news is that the plotting and story telling does indeed become anarchic but is also a bit too screwball . The tasteless biting black humour of the first third of the film disappears and we're subjected to more and more over the top humour . You can believe the situations of Father Angel taking place earlier in the film but when more and more characters take place the credibility disappears . Tight corners such as a shoot out with the police are resolved by very lazy scripting and perhaps the greatest sin the film commits is that it does become a film about redemption at the end
dushyant chaturvedi This is an awesomely funny take on the concept of the birth of the Anti Christ. A priest comes to know 2 days before Christmas that the Anti Christ will be born on the Christmas Day. It is the story of the two days when he searches for the devil on the streets of Madrid. Aiding him in this endeavor are a heavy metal fan and a fake clairvoyant who hosts TV show about the future. There are many ironic sequences like the search for the blood of a virgin. The scenes involving the family of the heavy metal fan are unbelievably hilarious. One of the few movies which I have seen recently where I was genuinely unhappy that the movie had to end because the experience was too freakin great. 4 out of 5 for this comic masterpiece from Spain. a must watch for the movie lovers who enjoy their foreign cinema.