A devilishly dark comedy/horror movie about a priest who moves to a big city where happens fantastic as well as horrifying deeds . Frightening and twisted film by the king of black comedy , Alex De La Iglesia . Outrageous movie with odd characters , touches of amusing humor , surreal imagery and thrilling plot . Alex De la Iglesia is an excellent and outlandish Spanish director , he had much success as "Accion Mutante" , " La Comunidad" , "Perlita Durango" , ¨Crimen Ferpecto¨ , among others . Here deals with a Basque reverend (Alex Angulo who gives an engagingly subtlety to his strange role) finds by means of a Cabalistic study of the bible that the anti-Christ is going to be born on Christmas day in Madrid . The priest searches for clues among the lyrics of 'death metal' and the city's human detritus . There the reverend , a theological inspired madman , befriends a heavy-rocker young (Santiago Segura brings funny acting as a record-shop assistant and HM fan) and both of them confront numerous terrifying adventures . They kidnap a famous TV psychologist (Armando De Razza) and then caught up in an impeding cataclysm . Meantime , somewhere out there , El Diablo is waiting to be born . This is a full-on surreal terror movie that blends thrills , a lot of fun , suspense , tension as well as an intriguing script full of underlying seriousness , horror , comedy and embarrassing situations . Packed with scenes of fantastic nature , robust humor , this story is a exciting as well as frightening , as we follow the strange situations of a peculiar couple whose destination is dictated by terrible events . Good acting by the starring couple , Alex Angulo and Santiago Segura , who will soon discover that the Antichrist will be born on Christmas Day and then forced to face dangerous happenings . The narration is so filled with quirk characters , crazy violence mixed with diabolic elements and an underlying sense of horror , and it is so excessive and plenty of surprises, one can't help but keep watching, much as it is over the top in many an occasion . Alex De La Iglesia has created a good picture here that in all honesty is very difficult to categorize in terms of genre , as there's a little bit of gruesomeness , quite a lot of horror , a good deal of suspense and a host of amusement ; but it does not fit into any one genre very well at all, in truth this is one of the things that makes it nice . Álex De la Iglesia claims the story's origin was the image of a apparently harmless man doing horrible things . De La Iglesia reigns in his style this time around and gives an utterly watchable takedown of horror/comedy that certainly delivers a few madly inspired moments . During shoot, crew and specifically Álex De la Iglesia received various death threats from so-called satanist groups . Acting personnel all do excellent work in bizarre roles , but special notice needs to be made for Alex Angulo giving an enjoyable acting along with Terele Pavez as an unsettling landlady . Excellent plethora of secondaries as Jaime Blanch , Maria Gracia Cuzinotta , Saturnino Segura , Natalie Seseña , Antonio Dechent and De La Iglesia usual's : Antonio De La Torre , Enrique Villen , Manuel Tafalle and El Gran Wyoming as Nuevo Cavan , among others . Interesting screenplay Alex De La Iglesia and Javier Guerricaechevarria who usually work united . Excellent special effects by Reyes Abades and great production design , including the neon "Schweppes" sign on which the protagonists are hung from is at number 41 of the Gran Via in the heart of Madrid, Spain . Atmospheric as well as glamorous cinematography by Fabio Martinez Labiano with a good camera work . Suspenseful and thrilling musical score , the soundtrack flows great with the film in every way, and creates fantastic atmospheres in every moment , including satanic sounds by Def Con Dos . The motion picture was well directed by De La Iglesia . He's a cool director has got much success as ¨Accion Mutante¨ ,¨Dying of laughter¨ or ¨Muertos De Risa¨ , ¨Baby's room¨ , ¨Oxford murders¨ , ¨Balada Triste De Una Trompeta¨ and ¨Perdita Durango¨ is probably the weirdest Javier Bardem film ever made . And of course 'La Comunidad' obtained the unanimous praise of both the critics and the public and results to be a lot of fun, especially for those who enjoy surrealist humor , it won several Goya prizes and a turning point in his meteoric career ; from then on he became his own producer, beginning with '800 bullets' (2002) through the Pánico Films company . Winner of several Goyas (Spanish Oscars), however his movies have not yet reached box office in USA, but he has strong followers , as his films have a kind of comic edge to them . Nonsense, ridicule , laughters , absurdity , disturbing scenes and many other issues ; you can find everything in this flick . ¨The day of the beast¨ captures the essence of the best Álex De La Iglesia, a filmmaker who, at this point in his own story, is respected and admired worldwide and has the most committed fans in the film universe . This is without a doubt a thrilling and enjoyable movie to be enjoyed for terror buffs and Alex De Iglesia fans.

Sure, I'm a cynical old man. I've seen it all, believe me. I like to laugh but rarely get a chance to laugh in today's batch of crap films. I love this film. I laughed out loud a dozen times. One of the few times I miss the old days of sitting in a theater full of people all laughing to beat jeebus. No spoilers here! I won't say a word about the story. Just that I enjoyed this film immensely. The lead characters are fantastic. At the end of day, warm, funny, and quite touching. That makes two Spanish films that have really impressed me lately. This one, and REC. For different reasons of course. REC I found genuinely frightening the first time through. This one is genuinely hilarious. Two hooves.. er.. thumbs up!

I'd only heard good things about this Spanish film " Instant classic etc " and went in to it knowing that it wasn't a full blown horror film . I'm guessing that most of the poor reviews on this page were by people who expected a full blown horror film and were disappointed by THE DAY OF THE BEAST being something it patently isn't ? However after seeing the movie I too was feeling some what let down too . Not by what the film wasn't but by what it is - a black comedy that ran out of steam The first third is excellent . Catholic priest Father Angel Berriartua decides if he commits enough sinful acts then he will meet the anti-Christ who will be born on Christmas Day in Madrid . In effect it's an anti redemption plot and there is much amusement to be had as he conducts a one man misanthropic war against passer bys . This sets up the introduction of two more characters Jose Maria a death metal salesman and Professor Cavan a TV host on the occult and at this point you think you'll be enjoying a sort of Spanish Catholic version of MONTY PYTHON as all sorts of anarchic tasteless anti establishment gags come to the fore as a sort of La Vida El Brian The bad news is that the plotting and story telling does indeed become anarchic but is also a bit too screwball . The tasteless biting black humour of the first third of the film disappears and we're subjected to more and more over the top humour . You can believe the situations of Father Angel taking place earlier in the film but when more and more characters take place the credibility disappears . Tight corners such as a shoot out with the police are resolved by very lazy scripting and perhaps the greatest sin the film commits is that it does become a film about redemption at the end

being a horror films fan when i went through IMDb users good rating i thought this would be a good horror movie for sure , but believe me i would like to warn all the horror fans that if u r intending to download this movie u better kick ass ... its one of the most worst horror film / film in any way and all the way .the name el DI DE la ... gives a big kindaa impression but its a hell to watch this fu****g movie . it shows nothing according its name there is no such beast and even nothing at all....i don't understand why these morons gave huge high rating and good comments ? so its a total waste of time ....... i would like to rate - 0 / 10