31 Days of Horror: Day 1 - Lucifer Rising (1972)

 

In celebration of Halloween, my goal is to watch an average of at least one horror movie per day, blog about each of them, and eat several boxes of Booberry and Frankenberry.  I started with Kenneth Anger’s silent art house film “Lucifer Rising.”  I knew nothing about Anger before watching the film tonight, and I learned about it from a Metal Hammer interview with the black metal band Watain. In response to a question about Dimmu Borgir, a more accessible black metal band that has enjoyed some commercial success, Watain’s singer compares his band to “Lucifer Rising” and Dimmu Borgir to “Scream,” claiming that while “Scream” has made more money and has broader appeal “Lucifer Rising” has more lasting significance.

The movie is essentially a collection of images of priests and scantily clad, sometimes nude, priestesses walking around ancient religious sites, mostly in Egypt, but Stonehenge also makes an appearance as does some site that seems to be in India.  Anger also mixes in shots of various animals, mostly reptiles, including one of an elephant stepping on a cobra.  As you can probably guess, the film is plotless, and it consists of a series of symbols that I lack both the will and the patience to decipher.  It could have been redeemed, however, if a winged, forked tongue Satan had actually risen.  Instead, Lucifer seems to be a white guy with an afro in a black jacket with “Lucifer” painted on it in colorful letters.  Or the UFO with “Lucifer” painted on its side that flies over an Egyptian temple at the end of the film. Thankfully, it’s only 28 minutes long.  I’ll take “Scream” and Dimmu Borgir; Watain can have “Lucifer Rising.”

 

As if the film itself wasn’t bad enough, I also subjected myself to a few minutes of the commentary track, which is delivered by Anger.  Here’s what he matter-of-factly says about Bobby Beaugolcil, the film’s composer, “He was in prison for doing a murder-to-order for Charlie Manson.  Bobby and I became friends again after he was in prison.” Perhaps Anger would have been capable of making better movies if he had a little humanity.