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Magick in film and fiction

Lord Morgue

13:50 / 28.10.04

Obviously there's What the ---- Do We Know?, Hellblazer, The Invisibles, The Matrix, Dark City...
Less famous are Bury Me High, a Hong Kong adventure film based around feng shui, and Accumulator 1, a French film with a sort of Reichian concept.
Anyone read Matt Wagner's Mage comics? Any good?
Good psi films, apart from the ones we all know, Scanners, Sixth Sense, The Shining, and The Dead Zone, there's Dreamscape and Argento's Phenomena/Creepers.
Domu: a Child's Dream by Katsuhiro Otomo was understated and terrifying, in contrast to his later, apocalyptic Akira.
I've heard good things about Boogiepop Phantom, Pi and Doctor Sleep. Anyone got more suggestions?

FinderWolf

14:51 / 28.10.04

Matt Wagner's MAGE is wonderful - although not a hugely deep discourse on magick, there is some cool stuff in there. The first part of his MAGE series (The Hero Discovered) is a little better than the second (The Hero Defined).

FinderWolf

14:59 / 28.10.04

I've also always been curious about the portrayal of voodoo in the movie The Serpent and The Rainbow.

There is also another thread about magick and movies, I think, somewhere, maybe we should absorb this thread into that one...?

Lord Morgue

01:57 / 30.10.04

There was Wizard of the Pigeons, and Clive Barker's The Great and Secret Show...
Didn't Uri Gellar write a fiction psi-thriller?
Is Barker's Lord of Illusion worth bothering with?
Heh, there was a skit on The Aunty Jack Show that was perfect NLP- this guy was imitating everyone he met, and getting on famously, until one guy objected to him copying his stutter and called the police, whereupon the first guy accuses the other guy of copying HIM, and gets him arrested. Well, it was funny when they did it.
The manga Ironfist Chinmi had something similar- the hero was meditating, and this old master was in the room next to him, divided by a paper wall. Chinmi suddenly gags and splutters, and realises the old man was deliberately leading his breathing, and when he stopped, so did Chinmi.

Tamayyurt

03:22 / 30.10.04

Dumbo.

sine

03:45 / 30.10.04

A neat little book called Mr. Vertigo. Good initiation sequence.

Videodrome (Cronenberg). As always, ahead of his time.

Unconditional Love

10:44 / 31.10.04

a chinese ghost story.

Glandmaster

15:18 / 31.10.04

I have always enjoyed Ursula Le Guins Earthsea books. Sparrowhawk makes Gandalf look like a second rate attraction on Walton pier... Robert Anton Wilsons Illuminatus! trilogy also has a smorgasbord of magic and cult style NLP / brain washing all of which he portrays as possible and daft at the same time.

On the NLP front Terry Pratchett always delivers in the form of Granny Weatherwax. I have used headology plenty

hashmal

23:24 / 31.10.04

gotta love the wickerman.

trouser the trouserian

03:59 / 01.11.04

Charlie & the Chocolate Factory
The Shout
Night of the Demon
And of course the incomparable "The Devil Rides Out" with Charles Gray as the baddie:

"I shall not return. But something will. Something will come."

Lord Morgue

08:41 / 02.11.04

Close Encounters of the Spooky Kind had some cool Taoist magic. And To the Devil a Daughter was interesting...
I like it in a film when the magic actually seems to work by a set of rules, and isn't just an excuse for for a lot of F.X..
Ooh, the voodoo v.s. Buddhist monks psychic duel in Belly of the Beast was nifty.

macrophage

13:29 / 02.11.04

Pi rocks as a film with a decent soundtrack to boot - if you want kaos, kabbalah sects, crazy derangement of the senses, etc.. Most films can get stripped down into occultural archetypes and holy grail hero missions. Has anyone seen the uk manga film that has dani of cradle of filth? Just reminds me of like Doom type aesthetics. Has anyone noticed that in Tim Burton's "Planet of the Apes" the brandings that they have is the same logos as Austin Osman Spare's sigil for female form - is that anal or what?! What about "Videodrome" and its amost WSB take on technology and its magickal uses, the nuovo flesh 'n' that. What about "Star Trek" and its hyper tunnels of setian nightside Borg Queen? Wicked City and its awesome amygdala reptoid terror force?

FinderWolf

14:53 / 02.11.04

>> Has anyone noticed that in Tim Burton's "Planet of the Apes" the brandings that they have is the same logos as Austin Osman Spare's sigil for female form - is that anal or what?!

REALLY!??! Holy shit. I was too busy thinking about how bad the movie sucked, looking at the cool makeup jobs on the gorillas or staring at Estelle Warren's tits to notice, but that's a pretty cool detail you picked up.

Anyone seen The Serpent and The Rainbow?

nidu713

23:04 / 04.11.04

Despite reeking of pure 80's B-Movie funk, I just saw an interesting flick called Dark Forces aka Harlequin. (The special effects used to portray magick in this movie DO NOT do anything for magick's image.) However, I do think this movie made some interesting statements about adjustments in how one perceives reality as a tool for magickal manifestation AND a connection between magick and politics.

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