My worst nightmares have come true. The Wicker Man will be in theatres again.
Not the movie starring Edward Woodward.
A remake.
Good God.
Now, you might think at first that I'm upset over this because The Wicker Man is an exploitation-film mishmash of various Pagan rites and beliefs that casts Pagans as devious, deviant sociopaths (decked out in twee faux-Victorian togs, for some reason).
But no. That's just the tip of the iceberg. The real reason I shudder at the thought of a Wicker Man retread is that it was a really, really bad movie. I mean, I'm all for a creepy British thriller that borders on the silly: I'm bummed that Children of the Stones isn't available in Canada yet. But c'mon...an island full of retro weirdies who mechanically carry out rituals plucked straight from The Golden Bough, for no apparent reason? With Britt Ecklund's booty thrown in to keep people from falling asleep in the theatre? And the Equalizer marching woodenly through it all without really noticing that everything is just a bit...effed up? I know this movie has a cult following that puts Rocky Horror folks to shame, but really, people. It's Children of the Corn meets Hair.
And the remake isn't on a better path. Sure, it's got a decent supporting cast, including Ellen Burstyn and Molly Parker. It has a veteran director/playwright at the helm (one of my personal faves, I'll admit). It certainly has a fatter budget than the original, which could have put the word "shoestring" to shame.
But they've used the original screenplay by Anthony Shaffer (best known for his Agatha Christie scripts, and the totally decent two-man show Sleuth), which - as a I mentioned - is just the scariest bits of The Golden Bough laced with some generic T&A. The story isn't particularly suspenseful or mysterious, since we know from the git-go that these people are secretly old-school Pagans. We just wait around for two hours while the copper plays catch-up.
The part of the clueless copper has been taken by Nicholas Cage, who all by himself is way creepier than an islandful of psychopathic Pagans.
The visual and emotional punch of the original film's climactic scene - perhaps the only worthwhile scene in the entire film - will be dulled considerably by the viewers' exposure to years of Burning Man festivals.
And the remake was directed by, of all people, Neil Labute. I love Neil Labute. As the master of tragi-comic, psychosexual drama that he is. I do not understand why such a talented Mormom misanthrope would want to touch this goofy piece of sh** with a yardstick.
But, alas, the deed is done. Another generation will watch The Wicker Man and thank God the Pagan way of life was persecuted into oblivion.
Showing posts with label movies. Show all posts
Showing posts with label movies. Show all posts
Monday, June 12, 2006
Monday, June 05, 2006
6/6/06: A Cinematic Perspective
Tomorrow, on the dreaded June 6, 2006, two movies will be released that present diametrically opposed - yet eerily similar - religious viewpoints. The paradox is all the more interesting, falling on a date that provokes such a wide range of reactions from people: Total apathy to stark, raving fear.
The big-budget release is a 100% fictional horror movie that paints organized Satanists as the enemy of mankind, even (potentially) its ultimate destroyer. It's a remake, and though the original film was part of a series that fleshed out the aims of the Satanists, I have a feeling this movie will be a stand-alone work. Meaning a new generation of filmgoers will see nothing but the scare-mongering, creepier-than-hell first installment of the story. The one that reinforces just about every rumor and lie ever told about Satanism.
The second film is a spin-off of a speculative documentary, hence supposedly more grounded in fact than the horror remake. The documentary and the movie seek to demonstrate that there is no evidence Christ ever walked the earth, that his life story is just an amalgamation of previous legends about heroes that were murdered and magically resurrected (Osiris, Orpheus, etc.). The documentary was self-indulgent and derivitive. The movie might be better. But I was dismayed to learn that it follows the same religion-as-conspiracy pattern popularized by The Da Vinci Code. In fact, it sounds like a knockoff of TDVC: A woman searching for her missing father discovers that he had stumbled onto a Christian cover-up of Christ's non-existence. Meaning the film essentially props up the idea that high-level Christians have formed some kind of sinister, subterranean cabal to despatch anyone who discovers that their religion is built on sand. Sounds a bit like those rumors and lies about Satanists and occultists, doesn't it?
The point is, religious intolerance is religious intolerance. Whether you're trashing a mosque because you're fed up with a handful of Muslim terrorists, making an inane horror film that lampoons religious Satanism, or artily implying that Catholics still like to whack anyone who questions their worldview...you're being a jerk. It's one thing to seriously, cautiously question religious tenets that you don't really understand, and quite another to hype your summer movie with scary billboards and 666 stamps. We can say that The Da Vinci Code and The Omen and the above-mentioned films of Brian Flemming open up dialogue and minds, but at base we all know this is about mocking and degrading the other guy for entertainment.
You want respect? Give respect.
The big-budget release is a 100% fictional horror movie that paints organized Satanists as the enemy of mankind, even (potentially) its ultimate destroyer. It's a remake, and though the original film was part of a series that fleshed out the aims of the Satanists, I have a feeling this movie will be a stand-alone work. Meaning a new generation of filmgoers will see nothing but the scare-mongering, creepier-than-hell first installment of the story. The one that reinforces just about every rumor and lie ever told about Satanism.
The second film is a spin-off of a speculative documentary, hence supposedly more grounded in fact than the horror remake. The documentary and the movie seek to demonstrate that there is no evidence Christ ever walked the earth, that his life story is just an amalgamation of previous legends about heroes that were murdered and magically resurrected (Osiris, Orpheus, etc.). The documentary was self-indulgent and derivitive. The movie might be better. But I was dismayed to learn that it follows the same religion-as-conspiracy pattern popularized by The Da Vinci Code. In fact, it sounds like a knockoff of TDVC: A woman searching for her missing father discovers that he had stumbled onto a Christian cover-up of Christ's non-existence. Meaning the film essentially props up the idea that high-level Christians have formed some kind of sinister, subterranean cabal to despatch anyone who discovers that their religion is built on sand. Sounds a bit like those rumors and lies about Satanists and occultists, doesn't it?
The point is, religious intolerance is religious intolerance. Whether you're trashing a mosque because you're fed up with a handful of Muslim terrorists, making an inane horror film that lampoons religious Satanism, or artily implying that Catholics still like to whack anyone who questions their worldview...you're being a jerk. It's one thing to seriously, cautiously question religious tenets that you don't really understand, and quite another to hype your summer movie with scary billboards and 666 stamps. We can say that The Da Vinci Code and The Omen and the above-mentioned films of Brian Flemming open up dialogue and minds, but at base we all know this is about mocking and degrading the other guy for entertainment.
You want respect? Give respect.
Sunday, May 07, 2006
Find the Hidden Picture
One of the artists accused of hiding "occult horror pornography" in his work (see my post, "Da Vinci's Other Code") is Steve Erspamer, a Catholic artist who mostly designs filler for religious publications. I've posted about Erspamer at my regular blog, blueapples.
Friday, April 21, 2006
666 Billboards
Black billboards and sky banners with the message "6 + 6 + 06: You Have Been Warned" and "6 + 6 + 06: The Signs Are All Around You" have been popping up in major cities (see a photo here), freaking people out. A woman in Daytona Beach phoned the FBI after seeing one. I don't think I'd react as strongly, since I grew up in Mennonite country with hand-lettered "GOD IS NOT MOCKED" signs planted in fields, but I can understand the unease.
I also understand that this is probably a promotional campaign for the remake of The Omen, which will be released - you got it - June 6. It stars Liev Schrieber and Julia Stiles. See the trailer here.
Incidentally, Brian Flemming's feature film The Beast (www.thebeastmovie.com) will also be released on this date. Flemming's documentary The God Who Wasn't There (www.thegodmovie.com) poses the theory that Christ didn't exist, period. I've seen it and will post a review soon.
I also understand that this is probably a promotional campaign for the remake of The Omen, which will be released - you got it - June 6. It stars Liev Schrieber and Julia Stiles. See the trailer here.
Incidentally, Brian Flemming's feature film The Beast (www.thebeastmovie.com) will also be released on this date. Flemming's documentary The God Who Wasn't There (www.thegodmovie.com) poses the theory that Christ didn't exist, period. I've seen it and will post a review soon.
Tuesday, March 28, 2006
Da Vinci's Other Code
Priests Become Perverts Because of...Art?
A new documentary, Rape of the Soul, posits an odd theory that occult/sexual imagery in centuries-old religious art has helped create an atmosphere of evil within the Catholic Church, leading to the sexual molestation of youngsters by priests. According to the director, subversive imagery is still used in the Church - even in children's books. The film is directed by Michael Calace, a devout Catholic who wants to expose the shameful legacy of "embed art" within the Church. From the Silver Sword International website: "SSI has announced that its story rights to the recently uncovered religious artwork scandals have now been completed into a feature film documentary for release.The highly inappropriate imagery that is being distributed by trusted organizations has caused the demand for expert analysis and education on the subject, which has affected a vast multitude of churches and millions of people internationally.The stunning images and deceptive techniques, which were primarily aimed at children, is clearly identified, and includes the investigations utilized to uncover the scandals, resulting in a crucially engaging motion picture." Hmm.
I've no doubt that subtle imagery can influence us on a subconscious level, especially if we're bombarded with it on a regular basis. And Calace is hardly the first person to point out the strange use of erotic imagery in religous art. In his book The Sexuality of Christ in Renaissance Art and In Modern Oblivion, Leo Steinberg noted Renaissance artists' preoccupation with Christ's genitalia. The late University of Chicago professor Ioan Couliano explored such ideas in depth in his book Eros and Magic in the Renaissance. From the book description at Amazon.com: "Renaissance magic, according to Ioan Couliano, was a scientifically plausible attempt to manipulate individuals and groups based on a knowledge of motivations, particularly erotic motivations. Its key principle was that everyone (and in a sense everything) could be influenced by appeal to sexual desire. In addition, the magician relied on a profound knowledge of the art of memory to manipulate the imaginations of his subjects. In these respects, Couliano suggests, magic is the precursor of the modern psychological and sociological sciences, and the magician is the distant ancestor of the psychoanalyst and the advertising and publicity agent". Basically, Couliano contended that the Italian upper classes manipulated the masses through liberal use of sexual imagery in art, fashion, and public displays.
But do really old paintings hanging in churches and the Vatican spur priests to become pedophiles? Highly unlikely. I think this director should have stuck to exposing the hidden messages in these artworks, rather than using them to explain decades of sexual deviance. The Rape of the Soul website is rather strange, too. It's advertising a supposedly serious film that excoriates long-dead artists for sneaking naughty stuff into their work...but the website itself has a ghoulish cartoon full of popes' skeletons and dead trees (with a clap of thunder for effect) on its homepage; looks like an ad for an anime horror movie.
I'll post more on Rape of the Soul when I know more about it. I'm curious to know which artworks contain all this interesting stuff.
E. Michael Jones, conservative Catholic founder of Culture Wars magazine, has different thoughts about horror movies, fiction, and art. In his book Monsters from the Id: The Rise of Horror in Fiction and Film (Spence Publishing Company, 2000), Jones argues that horror "is an unconscious backlash against the Enlightenment and the evils of secular humanism...the moral order, when suppressed, reasserts itself as an avenging monster." He draws connections between Enlightenment ideals and the disastrous love affair of Mary Godwin and Percy Shelley, Dracula and the 19th-century fear of syphillis, contraception and drive-by shootings. Sex is to blame for pretty much every social ill, in Jones's view: The exploitative and exploited Marian visions of Medjugorje, Bosnia, are somehow the result of the sexual revolution, the homosexual is the "culture of death's ideal citizen", and Bahaus architecture is a symptom of sexual immorality. Somewhat like Couliano and Calace, Jones believes that today's leaders of media, insdustry, and politics manipulate the masses with sexual imagery.
When not battling the evils of architecture and birth control, Jones writes songs a la Bob Roberts, such as "I'm Voting for Skull and Bones."
Humorous aside: Check out these before and after pics of the cover for a Christian self-help book called After You've Blown It. "Embed imagery", indeed!
A new documentary, Rape of the Soul, posits an odd theory that occult/sexual imagery in centuries-old religious art has helped create an atmosphere of evil within the Catholic Church, leading to the sexual molestation of youngsters by priests. According to the director, subversive imagery is still used in the Church - even in children's books. The film is directed by Michael Calace, a devout Catholic who wants to expose the shameful legacy of "embed art" within the Church. From the Silver Sword International website: "SSI has announced that its story rights to the recently uncovered religious artwork scandals have now been completed into a feature film documentary for release.The highly inappropriate imagery that is being distributed by trusted organizations has caused the demand for expert analysis and education on the subject, which has affected a vast multitude of churches and millions of people internationally.The stunning images and deceptive techniques, which were primarily aimed at children, is clearly identified, and includes the investigations utilized to uncover the scandals, resulting in a crucially engaging motion picture." Hmm.
I've no doubt that subtle imagery can influence us on a subconscious level, especially if we're bombarded with it on a regular basis. And Calace is hardly the first person to point out the strange use of erotic imagery in religous art. In his book The Sexuality of Christ in Renaissance Art and In Modern Oblivion, Leo Steinberg noted Renaissance artists' preoccupation with Christ's genitalia. The late University of Chicago professor Ioan Couliano explored such ideas in depth in his book Eros and Magic in the Renaissance. From the book description at Amazon.com: "Renaissance magic, according to Ioan Couliano, was a scientifically plausible attempt to manipulate individuals and groups based on a knowledge of motivations, particularly erotic motivations. Its key principle was that everyone (and in a sense everything) could be influenced by appeal to sexual desire. In addition, the magician relied on a profound knowledge of the art of memory to manipulate the imaginations of his subjects. In these respects, Couliano suggests, magic is the precursor of the modern psychological and sociological sciences, and the magician is the distant ancestor of the psychoanalyst and the advertising and publicity agent". Basically, Couliano contended that the Italian upper classes manipulated the masses through liberal use of sexual imagery in art, fashion, and public displays.
But do really old paintings hanging in churches and the Vatican spur priests to become pedophiles? Highly unlikely. I think this director should have stuck to exposing the hidden messages in these artworks, rather than using them to explain decades of sexual deviance. The Rape of the Soul website is rather strange, too. It's advertising a supposedly serious film that excoriates long-dead artists for sneaking naughty stuff into their work...but the website itself has a ghoulish cartoon full of popes' skeletons and dead trees (with a clap of thunder for effect) on its homepage; looks like an ad for an anime horror movie.
I'll post more on Rape of the Soul when I know more about it. I'm curious to know which artworks contain all this interesting stuff.
E. Michael Jones, conservative Catholic founder of Culture Wars magazine, has different thoughts about horror movies, fiction, and art. In his book Monsters from the Id: The Rise of Horror in Fiction and Film (Spence Publishing Company, 2000), Jones argues that horror "is an unconscious backlash against the Enlightenment and the evils of secular humanism...the moral order, when suppressed, reasserts itself as an avenging monster." He draws connections between Enlightenment ideals and the disastrous love affair of Mary Godwin and Percy Shelley, Dracula and the 19th-century fear of syphillis, contraception and drive-by shootings. Sex is to blame for pretty much every social ill, in Jones's view: The exploitative and exploited Marian visions of Medjugorje, Bosnia, are somehow the result of the sexual revolution, the homosexual is the "culture of death's ideal citizen", and Bahaus architecture is a symptom of sexual immorality. Somewhat like Couliano and Calace, Jones believes that today's leaders of media, insdustry, and politics manipulate the masses with sexual imagery.
When not battling the evils of architecture and birth control, Jones writes songs a la Bob Roberts, such as "I'm Voting for Skull and Bones."
Humorous aside: Check out these before and after pics of the cover for a Christian self-help book called After You've Blown It. "Embed imagery", indeed!
Tuesday, January 31, 2006
The Real "Emily Rose" and Vodun Bunk
The Fatal Exorcism of Anneliese Michel
The Exorcism of Emily Rose is the fictionalized story of a German college student named Anneliese Michel. In the autumn of 1973, she was exhibiting strange behaviour at the University of Wurzberg (she was, like "Emily Rose", 19); lashing out, refusing to eat, throwing tantrums. She was epileptic, but Anneliese's parents consulted a priest instead of a doctor, and the priest recommended exorcism. The bishop reluctantly approved this decision, and two priests were assigned to perform the rite of exorcism on Annaliese - making this (as the trailer for Emily Rose blares) an official Catholic exorcism. The priest who first recommended exorcism, Adolf Rodewyk, was not part of the process, and the advice he gave in his 1963 book Possessed by Satan went unheeded: Clerics should look for medical explanations for "possession" before assuming the worst. Rodewyk's POV is commonly held by today's clerics, but proponents of possession and Hollywood producers insist on turning stories like Anneliese's into simplistic science-vs.-faith fairytales in which cold, ruthless rationalists undermine the beliefs of Everyman at the expense of both.
The exorcism of Anneliese didn't begin until official permission was granted, and went on for several months. It was 1976 and Anneliese was 23 before the process ended - with her death. She had refused to take (or had been denied) water and nourishment for so long that she wasted away to 70 pounds, and died without having seen a doctor.
The priests and her parents were charged with negligent homicide. The priests were found guilty in 1978, but were sentenced only to six month suspended prison sentences for allowing someone in their care to starve to death. To its credit, the German Bishops' Conference ruled that an exorcism could henceforth be performed only if a physician was present.
The symptoms of epilepsy are nearly identical to the "symptoms" of supposed demonic possession.
Audiotapes were made of Anneliese's exorcism. In addition to the usual sounds of possession (growling, clicking, hissing), she spoke in the voices of the various spirits who inhabited her body: Hitler, Judas Iscariot, a murderous Jewish doctor, etc. The tapes are revealing. The accent used for Hitler differed dramatically from his real one, and none of the spirits revealed any knowledge that couldn't be gleaned from textbooks and the Bible. ("Cries of a Woman Possessed: German Court Hears Tapes in Exorcism Death Trial" by Michael Getler, Washington Post, April 21/78, available online here).
Other Sources:
How about Demons?: Possession and Exorcism in the Modern World by Felicitas D. Goodman (Indiana University Press, 1988)
The official The Exorcism of Emily Rose website (www.whathappenedtoemily.com)
The Skeleton Key and Vodun Bunk
Director Iaian Softley's film starring Kate Hudson, The Skeleton Key, is the latest in a looong tradition of films that capitalize on the evil uses of Vodun ("voodoo") magic. I Walked With a Zombie and Wes Craven's The Serpent and the Rainbow (based on a nonfiction book of the same name) are two notable others. In each of these films, the basic premise is Science & Reason vs. Magic & Belief. A skeptic wanders into a hotbed of Vodun activity thinking that magical spells and curses can't possibly harm anyone, and ends up menaced by sinister Vodun practitioners and/or a legion of diabolic supernatural forces. In the end, he/she is forced to admit that Vodun magic is real. The Skeleton Key isn't any different; in the trailer, Kate Hudson's character chants to herself, "It isn't real, it isn't real...", then changes her tune to, "It's all real."
Vodun magic is effective - when it involves the powerful drugs and altered states of consciousness employed by its priests. I don't believe that its practitioners are actually possessed by the loa. And I don't believe that most Voudon magic is practiced with malicious intent, as these movies would have us believe. As with other forms of magic, it's usually practiced with the aim of bringing luck and fortune to practitioners - not death and misery to their enemies. To imply that Lousiana Vodun magicians or Haitian priests are more evil, more duplicitous than the rest of civilization is patently racist, superstitious, and ignorant.
The Exorcism of Emily Rose is the fictionalized story of a German college student named Anneliese Michel. In the autumn of 1973, she was exhibiting strange behaviour at the University of Wurzberg (she was, like "Emily Rose", 19); lashing out, refusing to eat, throwing tantrums. She was epileptic, but Anneliese's parents consulted a priest instead of a doctor, and the priest recommended exorcism. The bishop reluctantly approved this decision, and two priests were assigned to perform the rite of exorcism on Annaliese - making this (as the trailer for Emily Rose blares) an official Catholic exorcism. The priest who first recommended exorcism, Adolf Rodewyk, was not part of the process, and the advice he gave in his 1963 book Possessed by Satan went unheeded: Clerics should look for medical explanations for "possession" before assuming the worst. Rodewyk's POV is commonly held by today's clerics, but proponents of possession and Hollywood producers insist on turning stories like Anneliese's into simplistic science-vs.-faith fairytales in which cold, ruthless rationalists undermine the beliefs of Everyman at the expense of both.
The exorcism of Anneliese didn't begin until official permission was granted, and went on for several months. It was 1976 and Anneliese was 23 before the process ended - with her death. She had refused to take (or had been denied) water and nourishment for so long that she wasted away to 70 pounds, and died without having seen a doctor.
The priests and her parents were charged with negligent homicide. The priests were found guilty in 1978, but were sentenced only to six month suspended prison sentences for allowing someone in their care to starve to death. To its credit, the German Bishops' Conference ruled that an exorcism could henceforth be performed only if a physician was present.
The symptoms of epilepsy are nearly identical to the "symptoms" of supposed demonic possession.
Audiotapes were made of Anneliese's exorcism. In addition to the usual sounds of possession (growling, clicking, hissing), she spoke in the voices of the various spirits who inhabited her body: Hitler, Judas Iscariot, a murderous Jewish doctor, etc. The tapes are revealing. The accent used for Hitler differed dramatically from his real one, and none of the spirits revealed any knowledge that couldn't be gleaned from textbooks and the Bible. ("Cries of a Woman Possessed: German Court Hears Tapes in Exorcism Death Trial" by Michael Getler, Washington Post, April 21/78, available online here).
Other Sources:
How about Demons?: Possession and Exorcism in the Modern World by Felicitas D. Goodman (Indiana University Press, 1988)
The official The Exorcism of Emily Rose website (www.whathappenedtoemily.com)
The Skeleton Key and Vodun Bunk
Director Iaian Softley's film starring Kate Hudson, The Skeleton Key, is the latest in a looong tradition of films that capitalize on the evil uses of Vodun ("voodoo") magic. I Walked With a Zombie and Wes Craven's The Serpent and the Rainbow (based on a nonfiction book of the same name) are two notable others. In each of these films, the basic premise is Science & Reason vs. Magic & Belief. A skeptic wanders into a hotbed of Vodun activity thinking that magical spells and curses can't possibly harm anyone, and ends up menaced by sinister Vodun practitioners and/or a legion of diabolic supernatural forces. In the end, he/she is forced to admit that Vodun magic is real. The Skeleton Key isn't any different; in the trailer, Kate Hudson's character chants to herself, "It isn't real, it isn't real...", then changes her tune to, "It's all real."
Vodun magic is effective - when it involves the powerful drugs and altered states of consciousness employed by its priests. I don't believe that its practitioners are actually possessed by the loa. And I don't believe that most Voudon magic is practiced with malicious intent, as these movies would have us believe. As with other forms of magic, it's usually practiced with the aim of bringing luck and fortune to practitioners - not death and misery to their enemies. To imply that Lousiana Vodun magicians or Haitian priests are more evil, more duplicitous than the rest of civilization is patently racist, superstitious, and ignorant.
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