Occult Cinema and TV

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  • #40534
    Anonymous
    Inactive

    I must admit, I’ve always had a fascination with the occult and cults/ paganism..

    What are some of your fave shows (movies and TV) on the subject/s?

    As I’ve said before at this site, The Wicker Man is one of my all time favourite films. Now there’s a cult classic.

    There are too many for me list (I loved The Exorcist, The Omen 1 and 2, and Rosemary’s Baby) but fairly recently I loved seeing The Ninth Gate.

    Now many people panned this film, but I enjoyed how the books themselves sort of became the protagonist (its the books themselves that held my attention the most what with me being something of an antiquarian). I liked, it’s tongue-in-cheekiness (horror refs), the use of music, and its nods to classic noir (sometimes ridiculous).

    But I was also intrigued my Depp’s character’s spiritual journey. I could identify with his insatiable curiosity. He was an unbeliever, but it was a journey of spiritual awakening. He found “faith” on the way; faith that the world is more than it seems. All part of the plan as he was led and helped along the way by supernatural forces. It took a familiar spiritual quest, but where in most lit/films it involves someone finding God, in this it’s finding the Devil.

    #75149
    theFrey
    Participant

    I loved Dark Shadows. The years I watched it were when they went to the past. Occult Soap Opera, ya gotta love it.

    #75150
    Anonymous
    Inactive

    A only caught a bit of the original series in reruns… Entertaining! Have you seen (some of) both the original 60’s series and the “revival” one from 91?

    Another occult themed series that I’ve only caught a little of is The Collector featuring the Divine Miss Dubin. Unfortunately I didn’t catch her in it.

    Oh, and I really love lotsa vampire flicks.

    #75151
    theFrey
    Participant

    The original Dark Shadows aired on ABC-TV from 1966 to 1971. This is the one I saw. I understand Sci-fi had the syndication rights until 2003 and that it is also out in DVD.

    The weirdest thing? We were posting the other day about Fan conventions? They are having one ar the end of this month! Seems to be lots of stars showing up for it too. ๐Ÿ˜€

    http://www.darkshadowsfestival.com/page02.htm

    Ya know, I am miffed. They had merchandise. Even now they have yearly calendars. poot!

    #75156
    Anonymous
    Inactive

    I see the convention is taking place at the Ramada on Hollywood Blvd (aka Hotel California on the dirty Boulevard of Broken Dreams on the outskirts of the City of Fallen Angels) where the falling/fallen stars shine conventionally. Oh wait, I’m thinking of Sunset Boulevard. ๐Ÿ™‚

    Thanks for the info, and I just might get the DVDs — fond memories of that show.

    theFrey wrote:

    Occult Soap Opera, ya gotta love it.

    ๐Ÿ˜† Yeah.

    Buffy is another occult-themed soap — so why do I feel so unclean every time I watch it?

    #75165
    Sidhecafe
    Participant

    Logan,
    If you liked The Ninth Gate- you MUST read the book it is based on – “The Club Dumas”
    really good, I thought the movie wasn’t bad either. But I’m a sucker for old books- esp occult/alchemical ones.

    And I loved vampire movies too! Too many occult movies to mention really. Though I’d list:

    Interview with a Vampire
    Excalibur
    Merlyn
    The Seventh Sign
    and al the Buffy & Angel esp dealing directly with magic/occult

    (just to name a few that first come to mind)

    #75168
    corvina
    Participant

    Hi Guys

    Yes I liked Interview with a Vampire too, I think Anne Rice did a lot to put new ‘energy’ into the vampire myths, and she also came up with a workable retrofitted ‘history’ which I liked a lot.

    Another fave has to be ‘The Crow’. Now I thought the Brendan Lee film was excellent, but I also thought the TV series shown on scifi, (which was a departure from the graphic novel and the original film) initially seemed infuriatingly cheesy but was just venturing into interesting territory when the show was axed…a familiar pattern of events…

    I worked with crows for three years in Battersea Park London while I was doing my fine arts BA and MA’s at Chelsea. I got drawn into a very weird shamanistic/occult worldview which I simply would never have given the slightest creedence to if not for experiences brought about through my daily interactions with a large ‘murder’ (yes it really is a collective noun for carrion crows) of them on a daily basis. I didn’t want this stuff nor did I believe in it but it happened all the same. Since then I’ve tended to have had more time for ‘the gothic’.

    Besides the gothic creeps into a lot of scifi – ‘Alien’ and ‘Blade Runner’ have strong gothic elements, and lets face it Lexx is pretty gothic too!

    #75176
    Anonymous
    Inactive

    Thanks Sidehecafe, I was thinking of picking up The Club Dumas before, now I’ll definitely look for it. Would love to hear your other occult /alchemical book recommendations.

    Can’t believe I neglected to mention The Seventh Sign *slaps head* That’s a fave. Brilliant.

    Corvina, if you haven’t seen The Seventh Sign you might want to check it out. It has a chess game between Death and a knight of the Crusades, and I suspect it inspired Lexx’s 4th season episode, The Game.

    As for Vampire-themed movies: I like The Hunger; The Fearless Vampire Killers; Vampire’s Kiss; the Christoper Lee Dracula movies; Shadow of the Vampire; and of course the classic that inspired SotV, Nosferatu. I like German expressionist cinema, especially The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (which is pretty gothic).

    One series I really want to get my hands on is Ultraviolet

    I also like some zombie-type films, especially The Omega Man.

    Hellraiser 1 and 2 are guilty pleasures.

    Now I want a general religious themed thread since I want to talk about The Devils (and the book, The Devils of Loudon) and stuff like The Mission, Jesus of Montreal etc.

    Corvina: Wow, what an experience. Sounds incredible, but if pigs can fly at Battersea, accepting your strange experiences with crows is a walk in the park (just a Pink Floyd Animals ref for those who don’t know about the inflatable flying pig that got loose at Battersea Station nearby Battersea Park).

    I’m also interested in the gothic… (and I love Gothic architecture). Gothic novels etc. can be fun, but I often find them so pretentious and pompously solemn. Some take it so seriously, but it often feels so pseudo, I think. And I think some goths have given the gothic a silly face — cheer up! ๐Ÿ˜‰

    That gothic scene from Alien when the encounter that ship reminiscent of a cathedral is very powerful for me.

    #75180
    YOWAYYO
    Participant

    Interesting topic…

    “The Wicker Man”…I would have never known what this movie was about until I watched a ‘Top 100 Horror Movies of all time’ type show this past Halloween. It’s a 70’s flick (if I re-call) and it looked kinda low-budget but wow, the snipets I saw really had me wanting to see it. Unfortunately, the end was spoiled but it really doesn’t matter. Can’t wait to rent it but the spouse isn’t too keen on stuff like that. Guess I’ll have to wait till she’s outta town.

    Anyone see “The Believers” from the mid ’80’s? I saw it as a kid and being raised Catholic, it really had an impact on me (i.e. it scared the hell out of me.) It’s interesting how Catholicism has meshed with “paganism” in the Carribean and elsewhere. I guess the word Voodoo comes to mind but I guess that may not be entirely precise. A Tex-Mex buddy of mine in High School once confessed to me that his mom used to put a chicken egg (in some sort of mini-shrine) under his bed. I guess it was for good luck or to keep evil spirits away ๐Ÿ˜ฏ If it keeps the boogey man away, then whatever floats your boat, man.

    #75184
    theFrey
    Participant

    What? No one has mentioned Love at First Bite with George Hamilton? You know where Drac gets evicted from his Transylvanian digs and ends up moving with Refield to New York. Classic Vampire Flick. ๐Ÿ˜‰

    #75188
    corvina
    Participant

    Hi Logan well… what I found fascinating about the Battersea Park/power station connection was that Lexx Midsummers Nightmare was partly set there – well the Festival of Mograth at any rate. Now the scene was probably greenscreened later but I like the fact that Kai, Xev and Stan may have set foot within a stones throw of my crow feeding grounds and…at the same time (I worked there from 97 – 2001).

    But I digress…the Wicker Man is essentially pagan, it deals with pagan beliefs and a pagan world view, which, in turn is essentially based on humanities transition from hunter/gathereing to agriculture. Our entire civilisation is a product of an agrarian way of life. The theme turns up in classical greek tragedy – Euripides play ‘The Bacchae’ is a similar story. Then of course the Orestia by Aeschylus is really gothic, I mean the Furies are magnificent – sort think of the Wraith from Stargate Atlantis and you get the idea!

    I’ve always had a strong leaning towards pagan views but have never embraced modern paganism/wicca etc etc. It all seems, like modern goths, to be a little too contrived. Its a shame because in essence there is a very powerful aesthetic thread running through many wiccan rituals – like the casting of the circle. I picked up on this with my art, but had to walk away from it because of ‘new age’ associations which inevitably drag what truly is sublime into the ridiculous! This is a real shame. I’ve yet to address this artistically although I’m working on it.

    I would recommend (if you haven’t read it already) ‘The Triumph of the Moon’ by Prof Ronald Hutton – which really does justice to all the positive aspects and acheivements of ancient and modern pagans. This is a heavy weight but very sympathetic open minded history.

    Our present culture is permeated by pagan echoes, Xmas and easter being obviously christianised pagan festivals. Then there’s the intresting thread of the scarecrow which has nothing to do with frightening my favourite birds, but, occurred to me to be a remant of the pagan custom of returning some of the corn harvested to the field from which it was taken, in the form of a human figure, thus symbolically planting the seed of the next cycle – paganism is all about circles…and so we come full circle to the Wicker Man…

    The Time Prophet’s beliefs from Lexx are identical to the pagan view of eternal reoccurence….. the ‘wheel it turns around and round it makes an ancient rumbling sound’

    Thats enough before I bore you all….

    #75189
    corvina
    Participant

    oh yeah I forgot…The Devils another of Ken Russells romps! Brilliant sets designed by a young Derek Jarman – who’s films The Tempest (Forbidden Planet again), Jubilee all betray his fascination with Alchemy and Magick. Never seen the Devils, but I have driven past Loudon in France where the events are alledged to have taken place…odd place even from a 1/2 mile away it felt like the sort of place I’d not like to go..but then thats just me being irrational…

    #75491
    Anonymous
    Inactive

    Hardly boring; it’s very interesting, Corvina. Thanks.

    And I’m back! After a vacation and the inability to visit this site (save by remote proxy) for quite a while, suddenly 150 messages about penis enlargement and offers for pills for erectile dysfunction started popping up in my sad email account (email down at the same time) which can only mean Sad is back for me! As for the emails, I don’t know who has been suggesting online that I would be a good candidate for such treatment (surely they wouldn’t send me such spam if they didn’t think I’d be really, really interested ;)), but since performing the puppetry of the tallywhacker ritual with a hundred naked virgins (while dancing around a Maypole) in order to summon the Great Phallus of Babylon from the nether regions of the netherworld during the Beltane Fertility Festival, it’s working just fine. After suggesting that it was probably just due to lack of energy due to atouch of anaemia, the underwordly Willy advised an iron-rich diet of fresh goat’s blood. It has indeed invigorated me.

    By the way, I finally read Club Dumas while travelling. I really enjoyed it. I didn’t want to put it down (though may be that was due to my fairly newfound virility). The only real problem I had was the concusion; a bit anticlimactic and

    Spoiler for - highlight to view

    I’m not sure why the man who performed the ritual didn’t realise the 9th illustration was a forgery in all 3 books. I thought the last engraving in each book was signed by the publisher who was burnt at the stake (I don’t have the book handy, took it out from the library) and not L.F. I may have missed something. [/endspoiler]

    I really enjoyed the subjext matter — I love antiquarian books. Thanks very much for the recommendation, Sidhecafe. I really want to travel to Europe to check out the more prestigious libraries. I read a novel before with book restoration as a theme called The Sixteen Pleasures for school, and the info on that that it provided was what I enjoyed about the story.

    One rather devilish novel I really enjoyed was Humans by Donald Westlake. And a film, comedy I thought was great fun was Bedazzled with Dudley Moore and Peter Cooke. Haven’t bothered watching the remake.

    #75512
    corvina
    Participant

    Logan! Good to have you back and indeed to be back myself…been a little absent …trying to get Lyekka my little sailing boat up and running before the winds. At least she’s back in the water ….well now penis’s and paganism do go hand in hand… no onanistic punning intended… so it’s not suprising you’ve all those emails waiting.

    You’ve obviously invoked something there…it’s not at all like Charmed or Buffy..it’s all a little more subtle..but there’s really something to it. If you ever get to Europe and the UK let me know I’d love to take you to the places that aren’t ‘on the map’ and therefore haven’t been ‘tourissted’ to oblivion. Hey I can even show you the solictors office in Queens Gate that’s The Prisoners London house!

    #75514
    theFrey
    Participant
    Logan wrote:

    Dark Shadows…

    Thanks for the info, and I just might get the DVDs — fond memories of that show.

    theFrey wrote:

    Occult Soap Opera, ya gotta love it.

    ๐Ÿ˜† Yeah.

    Buffy is another occult-themed soap — so why do I feel so unclean every time I watch it?[/quote]

    Just noticed that they have the DVD’s at some of the Blockbusters Video Stores. I will have to have theSpouse get a few for me. ;D

    On a weirder note. One of my co-workers (a lovely devote man) mentioned that the only soap opera he ever watched was this weird show ‘Dark Shadows’ I emailed him the theme later that day. He wasn’t sure which was scarier, me knowing the show so well, or me having instant access to locations where the theme song could be downloaded. ๐Ÿ˜†

    We played it a few times in the office and a couple of other DS fans popped their heads over the cubicals wondering where the DS theme was coming from. ;D A whole gaggle of them where I work! What does that say about my employer I wonder? Or is it just that with so few channels available back them, that DS was an afternoon staple for lots of kids?

    #75524
    Anonymous
    Inactive

    Corvina: Good to see you here again. It’s nice to be posting again, though it’s really slow due to the remote proxies I’m using to get in and post. Just downloaded a program, and reset my port and proxy connections, since my ISP’s route to the site hasn’t worked. Look forward to the new server! I’ve missed spending time here.

    Ye gods, I love sailing. Think if I had a little sailing boat I might name it Look Far from Earthsea. We used to have a speedy dinghy that given the right conditions could break like the wind. Have fun! There’s nothing better than mucking about in boats, IMHO.

    I was planning on a trip to England this past summer, but as I didn’t have as much time as I would have liked, ended up just travelling down the Oregon, US coast. Probably will head over that way in the next year. Thanks for the offer, that would be great! ๐Ÿ™‚

    theFrey: I’m sure there are many, many people who took a shine to Dark Shadows, but they mostly, well, lurk in the shadows. ๐Ÿ’ก Playing theme music in the office is a delightful way to connect with people . Must try that.

    #75489
    theFrey
    Participant

    You know, looking back on it. Dark Shadows had to be the cheesiest thing since Kraft. But it was such enteraining cheese.

    I blush to think of the babysitting money I spent buying pulp magazines with interviews with ‘Quentin’ in them. ๐Ÿ˜ณ ๐Ÿ˜ณ My best GF at the time could just not understand it. But then I couldn’t understand Blue Suede or what ever that group was that she was so ga-ga over. ๐Ÿ˜€ We made a pathetic pair at the local newstand I can tell ya. ๐Ÿ˜†

    #75561
    lizard
    Participant

    Has anyone seen “Sean of the Dead”? Is it worth renting?, I think it’s a comedy.

    #75562
    theFrey
    Participant

    theBrother liked it, and yes it was a comedy he says. But me? I love the title! Of course one of theBrothers buddies is named Shaun, and I cannot resist calling him ‘Shaun of the Dead’ I am sure he has a last name that is not dead, but I don’t know it. ๐Ÿ˜†

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