Antichrist trailer: Truth in advertising?

When the trailer for Lars von Trier's Antichrist first appeared last April, writers wondered whether it might have been a joke. Was it possible, Xan Brooks of The Guardian asked, that the waggish Danish auteur had made "a piece of genre hackwork"? Noting that I saw the film last month at Cannes, web editor John Dugan asked me if the trailer was accurate. It is. Although the preview doesn't really give you a sense of what the film is about—a couple going on a retreat (into psychosis?) after the death of their child, with therapist Willem Dafoe trying to psychoanalyze his traumatized wife (Charlotte Gainsbourg)—the clips are representative, and that same WTF quality prevails in the film. Is it an art movie, or is it a deliberately bad horror flick done as a prank? The answer may be: a little of each. But my guess is that when IFC releases the film (date TBD), it will get a more generous reception than it received on the Riviera. And yes, that is the fox who says "chaos reigns."