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A priest, Padre Ángel (Álex Angulo), has managed to decipher the book
of revelation & this way made a startling discovery: It announces the
end of the world, Christmas Eve 1995, when the Antichrist is born in
Madrid. So Padre Angel, who has spent most of his life in a monastery,
decides to set out to Madrid, find the Devil to speak to him &
ultimately kill his offspring. But how can a good-natured, honest priest,
get in touch with the devil ?
Easy, he just has to commit incredible sins (even if the concept of
incredible sins culminates in minor shoplifting & hearing Heavy Metal
records backwards). Soon he has made a friend in tough looking but good
natured record vendor José Maria (Santiago Segura), who somehow feels
compassinate for the priest & decides to help him in his rather silly
endeavor - even if Padre Angel would in the course of the events puch his
mother (Terele Pávez) down some stairs to her death, & probably kill
Mina (BNathalie Sesena), the girl he loves, too ...
Padre Angel soon realizes they need help from a professional - &
thinks that professional is exorcist Cavan (Armando De Razza), who hosts a
TV-show on supernatural phenomena.
But when Padre Angel & José Maria try to win Cavan over for their
cause, he is less than willing to comply & more interested in shagging
lovely Susanna (Maria Grazia Cucinotta), so he has to be tied down &
his fancy appartment thrashed until he listens ... & helps them call
Satan - & Satan does really appear, if only for a short time.
Who does appear as well though is the police, called by Susanna who
believes the Padre & José Maria are kidnappers, & soon the 2 of
them & Cavan are on the run, in the course of which Cavan falls of a
building & breaks his leg ... & as soon as he's out of hospital he
makes up plans to transmit the birth of the Antichrist live on his show
... but he doesn't know exactly where the Antichrist is to be born - &
Madrid can be pretty big if you are looking for just one unborn little
Antichrist ...
Padre Angel & José Maria meanwhile are on the run, looking for the
Antichrist at occultists' lectures & heavy metal concerts alike, with
only José AMria's sawed off shotgun to defend them, but with little
success, & eventually, Padre Angel begins to doubt his mission ...
which is when Cavan has finally managed to read a few signs out of old
scriptures & compared them to a map of Madrid & especially a
certain constructin site ...
But at the constructin site, they find out they are not alone, some
thugs of the "Keep Madrid Clean"-movement - mainly a terror
organisation that delights in burning bums - have chosen the site to burn
a few more bums ... & it turns out they are led by The Devil himself.
Somehow, & at the cost of José Maria's life, our heroes can
overcome the devil, kill most of his thugs, & - most important of all
- the newborn Antichrist. The world is saved once more ...
But do Padre Angel & Cavan get their just rewards ? No, they end up
as bums while the world doesn't even know what almost hit it.
At times this is a wickedly funny satanic comedy, especially when the
Padre tries to convince others of his cause - with sometimes rather
unorthodox means -, however, once our trio of heroes has finally gathered,
about halfway through the movie, the film loses tension, the wicked comedy
& clever satire gives way to a more streamlined quest for satan-narrative,
with a predictable finale, that, while not particularly bad in any way,
fails to impress quite as much. This does of course not make El Dia de
la Bestia an essentially bad film ... it just could have been much
better.
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