If you are looking for dumb horror movies with no substance then you have come to the wrong place. However if you are truly interested in the real meaning of the word OCCULT then you will definitely appreciate the many "hidden" messages behind the cinematic jems I have listed here. Each one of these movies holds a wealth of information for those of you with eyes to see and a brain analyze the many messages behind these films. Many of these movies can be ordered online though Amazon.com.
Enjoy: MerlinRavenSong )0(
Editorial Review: From acclaimed horror writer Clive Barker's Books of Blood comes a tale of devastating fright. Rawhead Rex is a demon, alive for millennia, trapped in the depths of hell, and waiting for release. He is held by an ancient seal, imprisoned for centuries in a barren field near the hamlet of Rathmore, Ireland. In time, this gruesome legacy has been forgotten, dismissed as an odd pre-Christian myth until Tom Garron decides to plow the field his ancestors knew better than to disturb. The seal is broken and an unspeakable evil is unleashedd - on a rampage of blood and lust. Howard Hallenbeck, an American historian, discovers on the stained glass windows of a local church a series of scenes illustrating the reign of terror of Rawhead Rex. But the one piece of glass depicting the defeat of the monster is missing. Howard is desperate for an answer - for Rawhead Rex is on the loose, and he is insatiable! David Dukes, Kelly Pipe -Amazon.com
Stargate is a 1994 American adventure[3]-military science fiction film released through Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) and Carolco Pictures. Created by Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich, the film is the first release in the Stargate franchise. Directed by Roland Emmerich, the film stars Kurt Russell, James Spader, Jaye Davidson, Carlos Lauchu, Djimon Hounsou, Erick Avari, Alexis Cruz, Mili Avital, John Diehl, French Stewart, and Viveca Lindfors. The plot centers around the premise of a "Stargate", an ancient ring-shaped device that creates a wormhole enabling travel to a similar device in a universe. The film's central plot explores the theory of extraterrestrial beings having an influence upon human civilization.
The film had a mixed initial critical reception, earning both praise and criticism for its atmosphere, story, characters, and graphic content. Nevertheless, Stargate gained a cult following and became a commercial success worldwide. Devlin and Emmerich gave the rights to the franchise to MGM when they were working on their 1996 film Independence Day (the rights to the Stargate film are currently owned by StudioCanal, with Lions Gate Entertainment handling most distribution in terms of international theatrical and worldwide home video releases); however, MGM retains the domestic television rights. -From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
In the tradition of Urban Legends and Final Destination, Donnie Darko is an edgy, psychological thriller about a suburban teen coming face-to-face wit his dark destiny. Jake Gyllenhaal leads a star-filled cast (including Drew Barrymore, Noah Wyle, Jena Malone, Patrick Swayze and Mary McDonnell) as a delusional high-school student visited by a demonic rabbit with eerie visions of the past - and deadly predictions for the future. This "excitingly original" (Entertainment Weekly) nail-biter will keep you on the edge of your seat until the mind-bending climax.
The Entity is a 1981 film starring Barbara Hershey as Carla Moran, a California woman who was tormented by an unseen entity.
The film is based on the life of Doris Bither who claimed to have been assaulted by an invisible spirit(Incubus).
There is also a novel of the same name written by Frank DeFelitta (first published in 1978), which provides a more detailed account of her experiences with the spirit she encountered.
The film centers around escaping Union soldiers from a Confederate prison camp during the American Civil War in a hot air balloon. They end up crashing in the ocean, only to find themselves washed up on an unknown island where gigantic animals abound. It would later be revealed that the animals were experiments of the presumed-dead Captain Nemo, who is an unknown benefactor to the castaways as they struggle to survive on the island. After a skirmish with pirates, the stranded group manages to escape from the island on the pirate's ship.
The swashbuckler genre bumped into science fiction in 1954 for one of Hollywood's great entertainments. The Jules Verne story of adventure under the sea was Walt Disney's magnificent debut into live-action films. A professor (Paul Lukas) seeks the truth about a legendary sea monster in the years just after the Civil War. When his ship is sunk, he, his aide (Peter Lorre), and a harpoon master (Kirk Douglas) survive to discover that the monster is actually a metal submarine run by Captain Nemo (James Mason). Along with the rollicking adventure, it's fun to see the future technology that Verne dreamed up in his novel, including diving equipment and sea farming.
The film's physical prowess is anchored by the Nautilus, an impressive full-scale gothic submarine complete with red carpet and pipe organ. In the era of big sets, 20,000 Leagues set a precedent for films shot on the water and deservedly won Oscars for art direction and special effects. Lost in the inventiveness of the film and great set pieces including a giant squid attack are two great performances. Mason is the perfect Nemo, taut and private, clothed in dark fabric that counters the Technicolor dreamboat that is the beaming red-and-white-stripe-shirted Kirk Douglas as the heroic Ned Land. The film works as peerless family adventure nearly half a century later. -Doug Thomas
Johnny Depp unlocks the gates to hell in Roman Polanski's newest thriller. Depp stars as Dean Corso, an unscrupulous rare-book dealer who is hired to locate the last remaining copies of "The Nine Gate of the Shadow Kingdom," a demonic manuscript that can summon the Devil. Corso becomes embroiled in a conspiracy involving murder, theft and satanic ritual, and ultimately finds himself confronting the devil incarnate.
Alex Gardner (Dennis Quaid) is a talented young psychic who's frittering his gifts away betting on the ponies. That is, until he's coerced by his old pal and mentor Dr. Paul Novotny (Max von Sydow) into taking part in a dream research project in which his psychic abilities make him indispensable. The project concerns "dreamlinking," whereby talented individuals like Alex hook up via electrodes and project themselves into some troubled subject's nightmares, in which they not only observe but participate in the dream, hopefully effecting some remedy. Alex is by nature a feckless guy, a charismatic scoundrel sporting a Cheshire cat's grin. But he warms easily to his new role as dream-dwelling psychotherapist, having a core of decency. Not so his nemesis, Tommy Ray Glatman (David Patrick Kelly), a dreamlink prodigy and pawn of Bob Blair (Christopher Plummer), who runs the research project for the government (he's described as the "head of covert intelligence"). Blair is worried about the President (Eddie Albert), whose nightmares of nuclear holocaust cause him to escalate disarmament talks with the Russians, much to Blair's dismay, being your basic evil, slick, smarmy covert kind of guy. Turns out Blair's real aim is to use the project to train dreamlink assassins, his star pupil being psycho Tommy Ray and his test case the President. Only Alex is there to stop them.
Dreamscape is all business, with a well-structured screenplay that lays the groundwork for the film's many admirable performances. Kate Capshaw in particular is very dreamy as a research scientist and Dennis Quaid's love interest. And David Patrick Kelly is likely to become your worst nightmare, especially when he's the Snakeman, giving an often fantastical performance. But what you're most likely to remember from this wonderful thriller is the many vivid dream sequences, aptly surreal images from the troubled psyche. --Jim Gay
Recently restored by the UCLA Film Archive, Kenneth Anger's difficult-to-see early films are finally collected here onto DVD, alongside optional fascinating commentary by Anger himself. Scores of Anger fans have previously persevered through horrid rented VHS copies of these films, due to their inimitable beauty and strangeness. Anger is renowned for filmic experimentation that portrays invented occult or druggy subcultures while formally rejecting conventions of blockbuster filmmaking. As a result, he has also become the unofficial godfather of the music video, for his groundbreaking use of soundtracks that, in these early films at least, meld classical music with '50s bubble gum pop and '60s folk for a hypnotic, psychedelic effect. Fireworks is a monumental film credited as gay cinema's first masterpiece. Rabbit's Moon, presented in its original 16-minute version, and Eaux d'Artifice are Anger's two other brilliant black-and-white studies of European culture, namely Miming and the 17th century art of Water Fountains. Anger's commentary reveals directorial secrets, for example that Eaux d'Artifice's black-and-white appearance is tromp l'oeil that involved both manipulation of the camera and film development to heighten the film's metaphoric notion of artifice. Puce Moment, starring Yvonne Marquis, is a colorful, campy tribute to silent film glamour, in which the star debates what gown to wear for a party. Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome is the first Anger film to investigate mythology in relation to Aleister Crowley's witchcraft, subject matter that consumed Anger in consequent projects. Kenneth Anger's films exist in a timeless, stylized void that is both alluring and terrifying. Watching these selections will prove that Anger's aesthetic contributions to cinema are noticeable fifty years later. --Trinie Dalton (Amazon.com)
Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome is a short 38 minute film by Kenneth Anger, author of the Hollywood Babylon books, filmed in 1954. Anger created a new version of this film in 1966 which he called the "Sacred Mushroom Edition". According to Anger, the film takes the name "pleasure dome" from Samuel Taylor Coleridge's atmospheric poem Kubla Khan. Anger was inspired to make the film after attending a Halloween party called "Come as your Madness."
The film primarily the 1966 revision was widely played in American universities during the 1960s
Child psychologist Catherine Deane (Jennifer Lopez) is an expert in an experimental treatment for coma patients. A virtual reality device allows her to enter into the minds of her patients, which are rendered as 3D worlds, and attempt to coax them from their comas. When serial killer Carl Rudolph Stargher falls into a coma before the FBI can locate his final victim, Agent Novak (Vince Vaughn) convinces Deane to enter Stargher's mind and discover the victim's location. As Deane enters Stargher's mind, his victim is trapped in a cell that slowly fills with water by means of an automatic timer.
Inside Stargher's dark and twisted mind, Deane is almost immediately confronted with Stargher's murderous personality, which manifests as a demonic tyrant. Stifling her initial fears, Deane comes to discover the innocent half of Stargher's psyche. He shows her the traumatic events that twisted his mind to murder, including his father's abuse, a seizure during his baptism, and the drowning of a wounded bird as a mercy killing. Deane attempts to nurture the innocent side of Stargher's mind, but his powerful murderous half thwarts her.
Despite Deane's best efforts, she becomes trapped in Stargher's dark dreamscape. Novak volunteers to enter Stargher's mind and attempt to rescue her. He manages to break Deane from Stargher's hold and discovers clues to the whereabouts of his victim. He exits Stargher's mind and rescues the girl from the cell just before she drowns. Meanwhile, Deane decides to reverse the process and pull Stargher's mind into her own. She presents Stargher's innocent side with an Eden-like paradise, but his murderous side is always present, and manifests as a serpent. This time, however, Deane has all the power. She attacks the serpent-Stargher, but discovers that she cannot destroy one half without killing the other. Stargher's innocent side reminds her of the bird he drowned, and Deane reluctantly complies, killing him out of mercy.
Later, Deane comes to use her new approach in her regular therapy, pulling a comatose boy into her own mind to shelter him from his demons.
Altered States is a 1980 science fiction film adaptation of a novel by the same name by playwright and screenwriter Paddy Chayefsky. It was the only novel that Chayefsky ever wrote, as well as his final film. Both the novel and the film are based on John C. Lilly's sensory deprivation research conducted in isolation tanks.
Rosemary's Baby is a 1968 American horror/thriller film written and directed by Roman Polanski, based on the bestselling 1967 novel of the same name by Ira Levin. The story focuses on Rosemary Woodhouse, a bright but somewhat naive young housewife, and her struggling actor husband Guy after they move into the Bramford, a New York City apartment building with a history of unsavory tenants and mysterious events. Their neighbors are an elderly and slightly absurd couple, Minnie and Roman Castevet, who tend to be meddlesome but seem harmless but of course they are not. This film is a classic and a must see for those of you who are able to appreciate the true message this film has to offer.
The plot combines elements of horror and the spy thriller. A teenage girl, Gillian Bellaver (Amy Irving) discovers that she possesses psychic powers, including telekinesis and extra-sensory perception, but that other people suffer bleeding if they touch her. She volunteers to attend the Paragon Clinic, whose director, Dr McKeever (Charles Durning), works for a shady intelligence operative named Childress (John Cassavetes). Childress has betrayed his friend Peter Sandza (Kirk Douglas) and is using Sandza's psychic son Robin (Andrew Stevens) in research into the weapons potential of psychics. Meanwhile Peter, who survived Childress' set-up, is searching for his son; with Gillian's help and that of his girlfriend Hester (Carrie Snodgress) he tracks Robin down, but Childress' ruthless experiments have driven the young man insane, and he and Peter both die within minutes of their reunion. As he dies, Robin has some form of psychic contact with Gillian. When Childress tries to persuade Gillian to accept his "help", she finally accepts her talent and kills him by exploding him from the inside out.
"The Dunwich Horror" is a short story by H. P. Lovecraft. Written in 1928, it was first published in the April 1929 issue of Weird Tales (pp. 481–508). It takes place in Dunwich, a fictional town in Massachusetts. It is considered one of the core stories of the Cthulhu Mythos.
Wilbur Whateley is the son of a deformed albino mother and an unknown father (alluded to in passing by the mad Old Whateley as "Yog-Sothoth"), and the strange events surrounding his birth and precocious development. Wilbur matures at an abnormal rate, reaching manhood within a decade. All the while, his sorcerer grandfather indoctrinates him into certain dark rituals and the study of witchcraft.
The plot revolves around the desire of Wilbur to acquire an unabridged Latin version of the Necronomicon — his imperfect English copy is ill-suited for his dark purpose — so that he may open the way for the return of the mysterious "Old Ones", whose forerunner is the Outer God Yog-Sothoth. Thus, Wilbur and his grandfather have sequestered an unseen presence at their farmhouse; this being is connected somehow to Yog-Sothoth. Year by year, this unseen entity grows to monstrous proportions, requiring Wilbur and his patriarch to make frequent modifications to their residence. People begin to notice a trend of cattle mysteriously disappearing. Eventually, Wilbur's mother also disappears. By the time Wilbur's grandfather dies, the colossal entity occupies the whole interior of the farmhouse.
Wilbur ventures to Miskatonic University in Arkham to procure a copy of the dreaded Necronomicon – Miskatonic's library is one of only a handful in the world to stock an original print of the frightful tome. The Necronomicon has certain spells that Wilbur can use to summon the Old Ones for dark purposes unfathomable to men. When the librarian, Dr. Henry Armitage, refuses to release the university's copy to him, Wilbur breaks into the library at night to steal the loathsome book. A guard dog attacks Wilbur with unusual ferocity, killing him. When Dr. Armitage and two other professors arrive on the scene and see Wilbur Whateley's partly non-human corpse, before it melts completely to leave no evidence, they realize that the youth was not wholly of this earth.
The story culminates with the actual Dunwich horror: With Wilbur Whateley now dead, no one can attend to the mysterious presence growing in the Whateley farmhouse. Early one morning, the Whateley farmhouse explodes as the thing, an invisible monster, rampages across Dunwich, cutting a path through fields, trees, and ravines, leaving huge "prints" the size of tree trunks. The monster eventually makes forays into inhabited areas. Part of the cattle of at least two farms, and two entire families (the Fryes and the Bishops), are attacked and devoured. The frightened town is terrorized by the invisible creature for several days, until Dr. Armitage, Professor Warren Rice, and Dr. Francis Morgan, all of Miskatonic University, arrive with the knowledge and weapons needed to kill it. In the end, its nature is revealed: it is the twin brother of Wilbur Whateley, though it "looked more like the father than Wilbur did."
"The Dunwich Horror" is one of the few tales Lovecraft wrote wherein the heroes successfully defeat the antagonistic entity or monster of the story, although the Horror itself is only the remainder of a far more fiendish plan thwarted by Wilbur's premature death.
Susan Harris is alone in the house when, suddenly, doors lock, windows slam shut and the phone stops working. Susan is trapped by an intruder - but this is no ordinary thug. Instead, the intruder is a computer named Proteus, an artificial brain that has learned to reason. And to terrorize. In "one of her finest, most vulnerable perfromances" (Danny Peary, Guide for the Film Fanatic), Julie Christie plays Susan in this taut techno-thriller based on the Dean Koontz novel. Packed with suspense, surprise and special effects, Demon Seed follows Susan's desperate attempts to outmaneuver and outthink her captor. Then Susan learns what Proteus wants: its own child, conceived in her womb and destined for domination.
For those of you who live in Michigan and find it more convenient to rent these movies you can most likely find them at Thomas Video. Thomas Video has one of the largest rare and cult movie selections around and I highly recommend you stopping by their store. You can visit them online by clicking the banner below.
