‘Day of the Beast’ Delivers Ho-Ho-Horror for the Holidays

Alex de la Iglesia’s “The Day of the Beast” takes place as Christmas Eve swiftly approaches, but it abounds in gore rather than conventional holiday cheer. For horror fans, however, it’s a welcome present, a blisteringly audacious, headlong nonstop thriller of unflagging inventiveness and outrageous dark humor.

A priest, Father Angel (Alex Angulo), a professor of theology, is talking intensely in a church with one of his superiors, saying anxiously that he’s got to go out and do all the evil he can. Further explanations are muffled by the tolling of the church’s bell, and not long after, the older priest meets a shocking fate.

Father Angel believes his study of scripture has yielded the terrifying warning that the anti-Christ will be born in Madrid before Dec. 25 dawns. He sees no way but to connect with Satan himself if he is to stave off the apocalypse. Fate brings him into contact with a record store clerk, Jose Maria (Santiago Segura), a sweet, courageous guy who looks like a member of the Hells Angels, and then with an immensely popular TV guru, the self-styled psychic, Professor Cavan (Armando De Razza), a rakish type in black leather with a wicked-looking goatee.

The way in which De La Iglesia brings this highly unlikely trio together and propels them into increasingly dangerous and mind-boggling adventures is never less than awesome and amusing, its moments of savagery fast and furious, undercut by humor. And if De La Iglesia has lots of fun sending up TV shamans he also evokes a strong sense of the eternal struggle of good and evil; as scabrous as it gets, this film could only come from someone rooted in ancient Roman Catholic culture.

De La Iglesia puts his cast through some exceedingly rigorous paces, and all his actors come through with panache. Its hard-rock soundtrack is just right, as are the sooty hues of Flavio Martinez Labiano’s terrific color camera work, including many complicated and venturesome sequences shot in the heart of Madrid, decked out in holiday decorations and thronged with last-minute shoppers. Horror pictures rarely win prestigious prizes, but “The Day of the Beast” managed to walk off with six Goyas, Spain’s Oscars.

* MPAA rating: R, for strong, brutal violence, language, drug use and brief nudity. Times guidelines: The film is not for children or the faint-of-heart.

‘The Day of the Beast’

Alex Angulo: Father Angel

Armando de Razza: Professor Cavan

Santiago Segura: Jose Maria

Dana Chaifetz: Amy

A TriMark Pictures release. Director Alex de la Iglesia. Producer Teresa Font. Executive producer Andres Vicente Gomez. Screenplay by De la Iglesia and Jorge Guerrica Echevarria. Cinematographer Flavio Martinez Labiano. Music B. Lena. Art directors Jose Luis Arrizabalaga and Biaffra. In Spanish, with English subtitles. Running time: 1 hour, 44 minutes.

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