It was quite by chance that I watched El Día de la Bestia (Day of the Beast) last night. FilmFour aired it as part of their extreme cinema series. It's written and directed by Álex de la Iglesia, a popular Spanish filmmaker who's created such films as Acción Mutante (Mutant Action), and more recently, 800 Balas (800 Bullets).
With a title like Day of the Beast I was expecting schlock horror, and my finger was hovering over the remote expecting to switch channels within a couple of minutes. In fact I put the remote down quickly. The plot revolves around Basque theologian, Padre Padre Ángel Beriartúa, (Álex Angulo) who's discovered via his biblical research that the the date of the birth of the Antichrist is hidden in the bible. Of course, he discovers that the Antichrist is going to be born in a couple of days: before dawn on Christmas Day. The Padre decides that the signs point to Madrid as being the beast's birthplace, and he sets off to save the world. He believes that if he sells his soul to the devil, then he can discover the precise birthplace of Satan's child, and destroy it. Upon arrival in Madrid, the priest teams up with José María (Santiago Segura), a straggly-haired death metal punk who does a lot of drugs. José latches onto the priest in a protective role as the Padre searches Madrid for a sign of the forthcoming Apocalypse. Father Beriartúa, decides that a TV psychic, Prof. Cavan (Armando De Razza), knows the correct ritual he must enact in order to sell his soul to the devil, so he turns up at his door wielding his faith, and an ability to get belligerent.
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