A priest finds out through his study of the bible that the antichrist will be born on Christmas Day. He tries to commit as many sins as possible to summon the Devil and thus find out the place of the second coming so that he can kill the newborn.

A surprise hit in its native Spain, Day of the Beast is an entry in a genre I despise- comedy horror. But, with the truly dark material on offer here and the tone of the whole film, how could I resist?

I love that Day of the Beast is serious in tone whilst depicting the most diabolical (pun not intended) events. The gallows humour works brilliantly well. The film could have been terrible if it was played for laughs or got so silly that it lapsed in pantomime or self-parody. Thankfully this doesn’t happen.

The tone is set right from the film’s opener with the leading character confiding in a fellow priest his findings and plans but to find that his confidant is then crushed to death by a huge stone crucifix in the church they’re both in.

Funny, irreverent and just a little bit dark.

4 out of 5 stars