Alex Angulo stars as Father Cura, a seemingly meek priest who figures out the exact date the Antichrist will be born. (Wouldn’t you know it? It’s Christmas Eve!) He then sets out on a quest to commit as many sins as possible so he can renounce God and invoke Satan. Once he finally has drawn the Devil out, the priest can kill the Antichrist. Along the way, he gains assistance from a beefy metalhead (Santiago Segura) and a charlatan TV psychic (Armando de Razza) who aid him in his goal of stopping the Apocalypse.
The Day of the Beast is a strange, sometimes charming, sometimes frustrating experience. Director Alex de la Iglesia (who would go on to make the classic Dance with the Devil) laces the film with a satirical edge as he pokes fun at the church and the media in equal measure. Some of this is amusing, but the movie spins off on one too many tangents and/or side quests that really prevent it from kicking into overdrive.
One thing you can say for The Day of the Beast is that it’s unpredictable. You never quite know what zany misadventure our priest hero will get himself into, and you’re never sure how exactly he’ll get himself out of it. That’s part of the fun. There are times when it resembles a Terry Gilliam movie as its madcap characters continually run into one oddball predicament after another. Unfortunately, it can’t keep up the energy of the early scenes, as the flick slowly sort of peters out before the climax. The final confrontation also leaves a little something to be desired, but there’s enough blackly humorous moments and strange goings-on here to keep you invested more often than not.
It helps that the three leads have a lot of chemistry together. Angulo is fun to watch as he slowly morphs from a man of the cloth to a bumbling Bible-thumping, shotgun-toting avenger. Segura is also good as the loyal, but lowbrow sidekick. De Razza has some fun moments too as the fake TV psychic who eventually comes around to the idea of fighting evil for real.
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