Narrating Armageddon: Antichrist Films and the Critique of Late Modernity

The recurrence of the figure of the Antichrist in mainstream horror films is a culturally significant development since its origins in the 1970s. This paper argues that Antichrist films can be read as products of contemporary risk society characterized by a widespread reflexivity towards the outcomes of the modernization process, a deep insecurity over class relations, and an ambivalence towards expert knowledge within late modernity. These themes are expressed in the films through techniques of inversion and defamiliarization that have the effect of representing a society fearful of its stability and with no clear vision of the way forward.