Dec 7, 2020
Secret Rites (1971)
"This is the popular conception of what witches do, and how they practise their craft. How true is it of modern day witches? Are they, as is popularly supposed, anti-Christ; locked in perpetual conflict with the established church? We asked Europe's leading witchcraft authority what he thought of this widespread image."
"That is a lot of rubbish."
#Secret rites#Short film#Mondo film#british cinema#mockumentary#films i done watched#Witchcraft#Derek Ford#Lee Peters#Alexander sanders#Maxine sanders#Penny beeching#Tony Barton#Jane spearing#Shirley harmer#Wendy tomlinson#The spindle#This is an intriguing artefact from the seedy underbelly of independent brit cinema of the 70s. Presenting itself as a serious documentary#About the reality of modern witchcraft this is (as an educational tool) pretty much useless: it's all a great big fake. Following young#Hairdresser Penny as she takes her first steps into the occult but the problem is that Penny isn't a hairdresser; she's an actor as is#Almost every member of the coven featured in this short faux documentary (emphasis on the faux)#Led through the basics by Alex Sanders (a real Wiccan high priest and sole note of authenticity here) Penny soon finds herself being#Initiated as a witch; cue a number of mystic rituals‚ conducted entirely in the nude. And that's the crux of what's going on here: Sanders#May be quite sincere about revealing some of the inner workings of a modern coven‚ but it's painfully clear that the filmmakers are only#Really interested in squeezing as much naked flesh onscreen as they possibly can.#And squeeze they do. Over it all we're treated to an absurdly authoritarian narration of the kind I thought only existed in parodies of 70s#Public information films. This isn't a dead loss tho; trippy images and a groovy soundtrack keep this from being boring#As an examination of witchcraft this is as I say a bit of a dead loss; but as a look at a particular time and place and a particular style#Of seedy second features in UK fleapit all night cinemas this is pretty invaluable