Antichrist

Danish downer Lars Von Trier says, a bit defensively, that he was depressed when he made "Antichrist. " No kidding, Lars. The prologue exposes us to a horrifying domestic tragedy in excruciating slow motion, during which some paperweights are knocked over (that's not the tragedy) - little sculptures with peculiar names. Despair. Grief. Pain. They turn out to be the titles to the movie's three movements, and Von Trier is not kidding, as you'll see if you stick around to see, say, a naked Willem Dafoe get whacked in the groin by a log. The movie has not been a hit with critics, but it has been a big hit at festivals that cater to horror buffs and fans who wear cargo shorts and are young and male and don't go out much and when they do, like to see people tortured with rusty tools.

During a recent trip to Ireland, I heard what sounded like some pretty solid geographical information on a radio talk show. I was astonished. I'm used to radio talk shows in America, after all, where the sort of thing you're likely to hear is an accusation that Bill Clinton had his fourth-grade teacher rubbed out because she gave him only an A- in citizenship. I was driving down a highway near Galway, wondering why the Irish hadn't chosen to show their independence of the English by driving on the right-hand side of the road.

BOISE, Idaho - An Idaho man accused of firing an assault rifle at the White House believed he was Jesus and thought President Obama was the Antichrist, according to court documents and those who knew him. At one point, he suggested to an acquaintance the president was planning to implant computer tracking chips into children. Oscar Ramiro Ortega-Hernandez, 21, was charged Thursday with attempting to assassinate the president or his staff. He is accused of firing nine rounds at the White House last Friday night - one of them cracking a window of the first family's living quarters - when Obama and his wife, Michelle, were away.

PERUVIAN WITCH DOCTORS WARD OFF BIRTH OF ANTICHRIST Peruvian witch doctors held a ritual at Lima's main maternity hospital to ward off the arrival of the Antichrist on yesterday's much-feared "6-6-6" date. Eight cloaked shamans from the Andes scattered petals around pregnant mothers, plunged knives into red devil dolls, and danced around skulls, snails, goats' feet and snake-skins to the astonishment of staff and patients. "Their chants and their loud maracas sounds annoyed the pregnant women a bit," said nurse Sania Patrol.

Barry Jacobs Philadelphia With what's going on in Iraq and with terrorists and al-Qaeda, if they don't get us first, maybe the environment would. When people are disillusioned with their leaders, those leaders could run to the ends of the Earth and have no place to hide. They will have to deal with the environment, mental health, social problems, and war. And they will either do it now, at a lesser cost, or will be forced to do it later by political will. There has got to be enough hope to contradict all the negativity.

BOISE, Idaho - An Idaho man accused of firing an assault rifle at the White House believed he was Jesus and thought President Obama was the Antichrist, according to court documents and those who knew him. At one point, he even suggested to an acquaintance that Obama was planning to implant computer tracking chips into children. Oscar Ramiro Ortega-Hernandez, 21, of Idaho Falls, was charged yesterday with attempting to assassinate the president or his staff. He is accused of firing nine rounds at the White House Friday night - one cracking a window of the first family's living quarters - while Obama and the first lady were away.

Piously acted, stiffly directed, and infused with a view of world politics that might charitably be described as delusional, Left Behind puts a Christian spin on the standard-issue Hollywood catastrophe movie. It wastes little time in proving that memorable drama is more apt to come with a fist raised defiantly to the heavens than a knee bent in devout genuflection. Based on the highly successful evangelical novel by Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins, Left Behind tries to graft a fundamentalist reading of the Book of Revelation onto a conventional end-of-the-world thriller.

Ted Daniels' third-floor office overlooking Larchwood Avenue in the University City section seems an unlikely perch from which to witness the End of Time. Soft spring light streams into the book-lined room filled with African masks, wooden model ships, charcoal-colored prints of cityscapes, piles of newspapers, newsletters and magazines and other flotsam and jetsam from an academic career spent chasing myths and folklore. Daniels would perhaps prefer to watch the end of this thousand-year period, the second millennium, from a Jerusalem apartment overlooking the Dome of the Rock, a famous Muslim shrine in the midst of the Jewish and Christian Holy Land.

Let's imagine that Mitt Romney released a television advertisement in Iowa describing himself as "a Mormon leader. " Reporters would descend like vultures upon Romney, the front-running Republican in the Iowa presidential caucuses, asking if he embraced Mormon doctrine on marriage, alcohol and everything else. So why isn't anyone questioning Mike Huckabee about Timothy LaHaye? Huckabee, whose advertisements proclaim that he is a "Christian leader," trails Romney by a mere 4 percentage points in the latest Iowa poll.

TORONTO - Kirsten Dunst has a confession to make. When Lars Von Trier contacted her - first by e-mail, then by Skype - about a part in his new film, Melancholia , she said yes, immediately. "But it was funny," Dunst recalls, "because when Lars offered me the movie, I wasn't completely sure which character he wanted me to play. There are two girls. And I was like, 'I'd love to do it! I'd love to do it!' "And I remember getting off the phone and thinking which one?

BOISE, Idaho - An Idaho man accused of firing an assault rifle at the White House believed he was Jesus and thought President Obama was the Antichrist, according to court documents and those who knew him. At one point, he suggested to an acquaintance the president was planning to implant computer tracking chips into children. Oscar Ramiro Ortega-Hernandez, 21, was charged Thursday with attempting to assassinate the president or his staff. He is accused of firing nine rounds at the White House last Friday night - one of them cracking a window of the first family's living quarters - when Obama and his wife, Michelle, were away.

BOISE, Idaho - An Idaho man accused of firing an assault rifle at the White House believed he was Jesus and thought President Obama was the Antichrist, according to court documents and those who knew him. At one point, he even suggested to an acquaintance that Obama was planning to implant computer tracking chips into children. Oscar Ramiro Ortega-Hernandez, 21, of Idaho Falls, was charged yesterday with attempting to assassinate the president or his staff. He is accused of firing nine rounds at the White House Friday night - one cracking a window of the first family's living quarters - while Obama and the first lady were away.

TORONTO - Kirsten Dunst has a confession to make. When Lars Von Trier contacted her - first by e-mail, then by Skype - about a part in his new film, Melancholia , she said yes, immediately. "But it was funny," Dunst recalls, "because when Lars offered me the movie, I wasn't completely sure which character he wanted me to play. There are two girls. And I was like, 'I'd love to do it! I'd love to do it!' "And I remember getting off the phone and thinking which one?

Danish downer Lars Von Trier says, a bit defensively, that he was depressed when he made "Antichrist. " No kidding, Lars. The prologue exposes us to a horrifying domestic tragedy in excruciating slow motion, during which some paperweights are knocked over (that's not the tragedy) - little sculptures with peculiar names. Despair. Grief. Pain. They turn out to be the titles to the movie's three movements, and Von Trier is not kidding, as you'll see if you stick around to see, say, a naked Willem Dafoe get whacked in the groin by a log. The movie has not been a hit with critics, but it has been a big hit at festivals that cater to horror buffs and fans who wear cargo shorts and are young and male and don't go out much and when they do, like to see people tortured with rusty tools.

Let's imagine that Mitt Romney released a television advertisement in Iowa describing himself as "a Mormon leader. " Reporters would descend like vultures upon Romney, the front-running Republican in the Iowa presidential caucuses, asking if he embraced Mormon doctrine on marriage, alcohol and everything else. So why isn't anyone questioning Mike Huckabee about Timothy LaHaye? Huckabee, whose advertisements proclaim that he is a "Christian leader," trails Romney by a mere 4 percentage points in the latest Iowa poll.

The Omen, along with Rosemary's Baby and The Exorcist, is one in the terror trinity that redefined horror films during the era when Nixon and Ford led the free world. As to why the spawn of Satan was so pervasive then, let's just say that sympathy for the devil was not only the name of a Rolling Stones song. At the time, Roger Ebert noted that "what Jesus was to '50s movie epics the devil is to the '70s. " A little late for the millennium, but just in time for 06-06-06 this week, Beelzebub's boy has come back.

The Omen, along with Rosemary?s Baby and The Exorcist, is one in the terror trinity that redefined horror films during the era that Nixon and Ford were leaders of the free world. As to why the spawn of Satan was so pervasive then, let?s just say that sympathy for the devil was not only the name of a Rolling Stones song. At the time, Roger Ebert noted that "what Jesus was to ?50s movie epics the devil is to the ?70s. " A little late for the millennium, but just in time for 06-06-06, Beelzebub?s boy is back.

"Religion is the last taboo on television," says David Seltzer, the creator and co-executive producer of NBC's limited-run series Revelations, which continues at 9 tonight. "Sex fell. Politics fell. This is the last taboo. " Seltzer fixed upon what may be the most lurid and controversial chapter in the Christian canon: the final book of the Bible, which foretells the end of world. In this six-part mystery-thriller, a renegade nun (Natascha McElhone) and a Harvard scientist (Bill Pullman)

Barry Jacobs Philadelphia With what's going on in Iraq and with terrorists and al-Qaeda, if they don't get us first, maybe the environment would. When people are disillusioned with their leaders, those leaders could run to the ends of the Earth and have no place to hide. They will have to deal with the environment, mental health, social problems, and war. And they will either do it now, at a lesser cost, or will be forced to do it later by political will. There has got to be enough hope to contradict all the negativity.

No sooner had the pandemonium begun on Sept. 11 than Jo Walker felt the End Times might be at hand. "Unfortunately, it's written in the Bible, about destruction and chaos like this," Walker said as she watched office workers fleeing Center City that noonday. Walker, a Baptist from West Philadelphia, was standing along the Benjamin Franklin Parkway witnessing the noisy exodus of traffic. She and a coworker, Jacqueline Martin, a Pentecostal Christian from Sicklerville, Camden County, could only shake their heads.