Film

The Day of the Beast

Name: The Day of the Beast
Genre: Horror, Comedy, Action
Released: 1995
Cast: Álex Angulo, Santiago Segura, Armando De Razza, Terele Pávez, Nathalie Seseña

A Spanish cult film of jaw-dropping audacity: a defrocked priest, a metalhead record-store clerk, and a fraudulent TV mystic tear through Madrid hunting the Antichrist with hammers, chainsaws, and boundless blasphemy. It's genuinely funny, genuinely grotesque, and genuinely alive—a movie that swings for the fences and connects.

TMDb rating

3.6

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you relish splatter-soaked black comedy where piety and profanity share a bed, and an earnest hero's cheerful incompetence keeps the carnage funny rather than merely nasty.

Skip it if you want grim horror with restrained jokes, since this one piles on gore and loud, frantic comedy whose manic energy can wear thin.

What it asks of you: A brisk 104 minutes that barely pauses, stacking stunts, sermons and set pieces at speed, so you're swept along rather than settling into it.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

Evil Dead II1987

Same delirious energy: slapstick gore, wildly inventive kills, and a protagonist too stubborn to die. Bruce Campbell's physicality mirrors the manic desperation of *Day of the Beast*'s trio.

But Stops making logical sense after the midpoint. If plot coherence matters to you, you'll be frustrated.

Braindead1992

Peter Jackson's pre-*Lord of the Rings* masterpiece: cartoonish violence, genuinely disturbing imagery, and a deadpan protagonist drowning in literal gore. The same commitment to excess.

But The gore is relentless and graphic. Not squeamish-friendly, and the humour doesn't soften the body horror.

Withnail & I1987

British cult classic with the same misfits-on-a-chaotic-mission structure and quotable dialogue. Anarchic, funny, and populated by characters you'd never expect to like.

But Essentially a hangout movie. If you need plot momentum and payoff, the rambling structure will feel aimless.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from The Day of the Beast

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Possession1981

Both films weaponize transgression and visual extremity to explore spiritual collapse and the failure of institutions (marriage, the Church). Both are gleefully obscene in service of actual ideas.

Andrzej Żuławski's avant-garde fever dream: a disintegrating marriage, Lovecraftian body horror, and genuine philosophical terror lurking beneath the grotesquerie. Hypnotic and deeply unpleasant in the most valuable way.

But Aggressively slow, visually baroque, and emotionally draining. It's challenging in ways that deliberately alienate. Some will find it pretentious; most will find it exhausting.

Re-Animator1985

Horror-comedy about a mad scientist bringing the dead back. Gloriously unhinged, committed to its absurdity, with practical effects that still shock and amuse in equal measure.

But The tone is deliberately campy. If you want horror to scare you, the winking will undercut it.

From Dusk Till Dawn1996

Tarantino's script, Rodríguez's direction: criminals, vampires, and a preacher's daughter in a Mexican roadside bar. Stylish, clever, and genuinely violent in ways that feel earned.

But The middle section is a pretty generic vampire shoot-out. After the setup, it relies on spectacle over idea.

The Toxic Avenger1984

Troma's midnight-movie masterpiece: chemical accident, revenge, and a hero who is genuinely grotesque. Low-budget ingenuity meets sincere weirdness and unironic heart.

But The production values are intentionally cheap. If slick filmmaking matters, the DIY aesthetic will feel like a shortcoming.

Tremors1990

Perfect B-movie filmmaking: monsters in the desert, a locksmith and a drifter against impossible odds, genuine laughs and real tension trading places. Pure craft in service of fun.

But Straightforward adventure. It's all surface charm—no thematic depth or daring underneath.

Attack the Block2011

Young London gang members versus aliens: smart, funny, socially aware. Works as sci-fi action and as social commentary without ever choosing between them.

But The South London dialect is thick. Subtitles help, but if you're not attuned to it, dialogue clarity will suffer.

Bad Taste1987

Both are outsider films from talented directors operating outside studio restraint. Both weaponize low-budget practical effects and genuine creative liberty to make something that feels dangerous.

Peter Jackson's unhinged debut about alien cannibals invading New Zealand: made for next to nothing, it has the feral ingenuity and commitment to absurdist violence of *Day of the Beast*, with zero cynicism.

But Genuinely crude—the FX are homemade, the humour is juvenile, and the plot is basically an excuse for mayhem. It predates Jackson's technical mastery and you feel it.

Suspiria1977

Both films pit protagonists against metaphysical evil hiding in plain sight. Both treat visual style and transgressive imagery as inseparable from meaning, not decoration.

Dario Argento's operatic nightmare: a woman enters a prestigious dance academy that's secretly a coven. Chromatic saturation, unsettling sound design, and murder as art. Visually and aurally unlike anything mainstream.

But The plot is gossamer-thin and actively incoherent. It's pure *mood and aesthetic*—if you need narrative logic, you'll spend two hours frustrated.