Lars von Trier's 'Antichrist' Gets U.S. Release Date

Wednesday

24Jun2009

Lars von Trier's 'Antichrist' Gets U.S. Release Date

Wednesday, June 24, 2009 at 5:57PM

One of the year's most controversial films is headed to a theater near you on October 23rd. That's the date Lars von Trier's Antichrist bows in New York and Los Angeles, several months after its debuts in most of Europe. In the UK, for example, the film opens uncut on July 24th.

Von Trier - whose work is never easy to digest, really - shocked audiences at Cannes with his new film, which stars Willem Dafoe and Charlotte Gainsbourg. He was diffident in press conferences about the reaction, and if nothing else, it was well-played publicity. The game was gobbled up by IFC for domestic distribution and has even inspired a video game spin-off.

If you're not on the coasts and you want to see Antichrist, you needn't wait past the 23rd of October, or even until then. IFC has a Video On Demand date of October 21st for the film, which is a very good strategy to reach cineastes in smaller cities where the film likely won't play. Of course, the one thing about VOD is that it's never properly marketed, so you never know the movies are available, but if they set it up right once, it might even work.

The 23rd is a good spot for the movie in theaters, opening against Saw 44, Amelia, and Astro Boy. I don't see a whole lot of carryover from von Trier's crowd to any of those movies.

Colin Boyd |

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