As films like "Perdita Durango" prove, Spanish director Álex De La Iglesia is a specialist for macabre humor. One of his earlier films, "El Dia De La Bestia" aka. "The Day Of The Beast" of 1995 is a perfect example for this director's talent, a macabre and hilarious black horror comedy that entertains highly from the beginning to the end. A catholic priest (Álex Angulo) goes to Madrid in order to prevent the birth of the Antichrist, which he believes to take place there on Christmas Day. In order to find the exact place where the Antichrist is to be born, the kind-hearted priest is forced to commit 'Sins', and furthermore associates with the surprisingly friendly Death-Meal lover and Satanist Jose Maria (Santiago Segura)... Angulo and Segura both fit very well in their roles, especially Angulo is very hilarious as the priest. Armando De Razza is furthermore great, and hilarious as Cavan, a hypocritical TV psychic. Director De La Iglesia did a great job making this film a hilarious Horror-comedy and still maintaining a dark and somehow gloomy atmosphere. If you like satirical Horror, make sure not to miss "El Dia De La Bestia", and enjoy 100 minutes of macabre humor and originality. Highly Recommended!

Alex de la Iglesia met Jose Guerricaechevarria in the early 90's, which led to their first short film, Mirindas Asesinas, in which a normal man becomes a killer. They've worked together ever since, particularly on the Pedro Almodovar produced Accion Mutante, a story of handicapped people fighting back in a post-apocalyptic future. He followed that movie with this one, which won 6 Goyas - think Oscar in Spanish - including Best Director.

Father Angel Berriartua (Alexa Angulo, Pan's Labyrinth),a priest and professor of theology, confesses to another priest that he is about to commit as much evil as possible. The other priest is shocked until he explains why, but before he can help, a large cross crushes him.

His mission takes him to Madrid, where he meets heavy metal fan, record shop clerk and Satanist Jose Maria (Santiago Segura, who has made the Torrente, el brazo tonto de la ley film series that parodies Stallone' Cobra). Jose helps Angel find a place in his mother's boarding house and continue his path toward evil, which guides him to steal a book by occult TV show host Professor Cavan.

Jose and Angel decide to kidnap the Professor and force him to teach them how to sell their souls to the devil. Why? Angel has decoded that Bible and learned that the Antichrist will be born at midnight on Christmas Eve. If he sells his soul, the Devil will trust him and allow him to witness the birth, which will allow him to sneak in and kill the Antichrist, saving the world.

The ritual will need the blood of a virgin, which is no easy feat in modern Madrid. Luckily, Mina, who lives in Jose's mother's boarding house, is one. As Angel draws her blood, he's surprised by Jose's mother, who ends up killing herself with a shotgun by accident. No matter - the threesome instead burns a piece of paper chaos magic style, takes LSD and finishes the ritual. Cavan jokes that it's all a farce until a goat appears and the devil taunts them in a message, saying that he knows Angel's plan.

Do they find the devil? You bet. A movie this insane totally needs a nearly nude gigantic Satan wandering the rooftops, ready to chuck people off to their doom. Even crazier, most rituals showed in the films are real Satanist rituals and weren't altered at all. Or so they say.

After the movie's moderate success in the US, de la Iglesia sold the rights for an American remake, which he was going to direct. It never happened, nor did his opportunity to direct Alien: Resurrection. However, he did direct his next movie, Perdita Durango, in the U.S.

Man, we totally missed this in our Christmas movies and in our heavy metal movie spotlights, but I'm so happy that this movie is finally on our site.

I had never heard of this before, I didn't read reviews or thoughts or anything about this movie and I didn't even read the small texts on the cover of the box...This could have gone very wrong but instead of that it became 100 minutes of pure fun. So, now I'll do my best to recommend it to as many other people as possible. "El dia de la Bestia" was made in Spain, or the new great home of horror these days. Spanish directors proved themselves a lot lately and I think this guy, Alex De La Iglesia , deserves some extra credit. This guy obviously is a big lover of horror and the whole cult atmosphere around it. In a genius kind of way, he mixes a lot of appropriate elements in his movie like heavy metal music and fortune-telling. Angél is a priest who just translated a disturbing writing. He found out that the Antichrist himself will be born on Christmas day of 1995. In Madrid, because all the signs of apocalypse looks like it. To avoid this horrible event that would mean the end of the world, he has to face Satan himself. So, he travels to Madrid and commits a lot of sins, which is pretty funny to watch. He meets a heavy-metal freak (sorry : Death Metal!) and a fortune-teller who fooled many people by faking an exorcism. But when all preparations are set, Satan doesn't show up ! Did they make a mistake ? One thing is certain, they have to hurry because Christmas is only one night away... It wouldn't do much if I named all the actors of this movie because their names don't ring a bell. But, I can say they're all very good actors and they clearly did their best work in this film. Like I said before, this film contains a lot of humor but it never spoofs the genre. There's always a lot of respect present and I think that's a great achievement. Also, I would have thought there was a lot more gore in this film. To my surprise, the gory scenes are very limited and overall short. Gorehounds be advised because the cover and the title may make you think it's one big blood fest. Good film, nice change, great fun...highly recommended if you need a break from all the typical nowadays slasher-films.