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Reise ins Jenseits - Die Welt des Übernatürlichen (1975)
Journey Into Shocumentary Mondo Weirdness
This movie is a montage depicting "psychic" phenomenon...most obviously fake. It's narrated by the late, great, John Carradine, who lends his gravely growl to the spookiness. The opening depicts man's inhumanity to man, with scenes of starving Bafria children, a man executed by the Viet Cong, atomic bombs, and other cheery stuff.
As for one reviewer saying the film had "so-called real experts"...well, of course there are no experts, they're all fakes. It's like saying a "so-called expert on Leprechauns".
What you'll see is: A dentist who uses hypnosis to perform dental surgery, fake Philipino psychic surgery, fake voodoo levitation in Africa (...or is it? MUHAHAHA), a famous British psychic healer "who never charged for his services", but what the movie failed to mention was he accepted huge donations. There's also an Italian séance where the psychic uses the old regurgitation trick to vomit up cheesecloth...er...ectoplasm.
There's a couple of Christian exorcisms, one takes place at an Anglican church in England. The Priest seems sincerer, and there is an interview with at least one satisfied customer. Although I imagine the girl who's possessed was a plant by the producers who hoodwinked the Priest...after all you can't travel to film an exorcism and not have one. If not, she was the most harmless possessed person ever, flailing about gently on the floor. Then there's a french priest who took in a possessed woman who seems more like a schizophrenic.
For Voodoo lovers, there's a black magic Quimbanda ritual, complete with a black cat getting it's throat cut. Ewwwww. A Ju Ju man in Ghana does some side show tricks, and then "makes it rain". There's even a woman who gets "pregnant by voodoo", although we never see the end result, but I'm sure the producers wouldn't lie.
Petro Hoy does sideshow tricks to "prove" his psychic powers, including fire-walking and shoving a knitting needle through his cheeks. There's also some "professional" parasychological stuff, including kirilian video photography (which has been debunked) and someone who can "astrally project" via a rather complicated test (because they're easier to beat). If you blink you'll miss an interview with occult/psychic book author David St. Clair, which lasts about 10 seconds.
And there's lots more, Italian psychic healers, a medium that convinces her cult she can contact their loved ones (also Italian), the "Integreton", which is basically a big wooden building that spins around, an astronaut that became an astro-nut, gratuitous gory scenes, etc., An expose on psychic phenomenon this isn't. But just use common sense, and you'll see through most of it.
Angeli bianchi... angeli neri (1969)
The Original Wicca, plus more
OK, first, the one review above about "a lot of stuff being occult in 1970" doesn't even seem to be about this movie. I think he's confused it with something with a similar title/subject.
There are two movies which use some of the same footage. The Italian version, "White Angels, Black Angels", is more like a Mondo documentary of the 1960's.
The American version titled "Witchcraft '70" is a better version in my opinion. It's tone treats witchcraft with a more sinister view. It leaves out footage of Hare Krishnas that the Italian version has, and has a much more spookier theme. Plus it has a cool psychedelic opening, with low tech, but effective graphics.
I'll focus on the American release (although for some reason it's harder to find. Try to find it, it's better. ). The first scene features some kind of Wicca/Crowley type cult. The High Priestess' name isn't given, nor the name of the cult/coven. The rituals appears Wiccan, but uses Crowley's "Hymn To Pan" (although it could still be Wiccan), and there's a challenge to the Judeo-Christian God in the movie by the buxom High Priestess, "if there be any power left in Heaven, let it transfix my breast". How charming. Wicca was born out of Crowleyism, so it's hard to say what the cult it exactly. Satanist? Wiccan? Thelema? Mix-and-match? Oh well. While Wiccans nowadays may whine about the movie lumping them together with Satanists, the truth is, the line was more blurry back then...even though they won't admit it.
Next, we see Alex Sanders perform a Wiccan wedding. In the 70's Wicca was all about nudity and sex, unlike the very watered down version of Silver Ravenwolf.
There's also scenes with Anton LaVey reading the destruction ritual from The Satanic Bible and the Invocation of Satan...different material from what is in "Satanis". If you want to see what a bunch of Yahoos LaVey and the original Church of Satan were, see that movie. Even so, you still get to see LaVey wearing goofy devil horns and pimping out his own wife as a nude altar. The Church of Satan ritual scene has less nudity than the Wiccan and Voodoo groups even though they're "more evil", oddly enough.
There's a Brazilian Macumba purification ritual which shows prostitutes being chastised. It's seems to have been shot in 8mm, and the narrator says it's someone's vacation home movies...might have been.
There's an LA voodoo ritual which supposedly was recorded with a hidden camera, but looks like it could have been staged.
There's an Indonesian Hindu exorcism ritual with daggers, and for some reason, a scene of a Dutch Charismatic church singing hymns in church (proably to add little footage).
There's also another UK Wiccan ritual in England, with a probably fake interview with a witch from said coven who for some reason was an American. They do the old fashioned "Eko Eko" chant in that scene. Wiccans were exhibitionists who wanted the spotlight back then (unlike now? lol!). They thought nothing of getting naked and selling out their "religion" for the cameras. Wiccans nowadays (with a few exceptions) will be rather disappointed in watching how the originals did it.
There is a scene showing hippies in Devil's Canyon, were the Mansons hung out. The scene depicts the kind of made up witchcraft hippies practiced, resulting in one girl getting assaulted (although you really can't see what's going on). This could be another staged scene...or who knows, it could have been real. Real as reality TV. The Mansons stole some NBC TV camera equipment, so who knows, it might even be some of the long lost "Manson porn" you hear about...but I seriously doubt it.
There is nudity in the film, but no actual penetration. It was an X rated film when it was released...would probably be considered an NC-17 today. Some people find the Witchcraft '70 version creepy, and even scary. I've had friends that had to get up and leave the room when I showed it. Seriously. If you know someone curious about the occult, this would probably nip it in the bud for them...unless they're truly weird. There's no mention of Jesus or the Bible or anything, it just shows the weirdos for what they are.
Another good film in this genre if you can find it is "Journey Into The Beyond" (1975 or 76) narrated by John Carradine, although it would be considered more slanted in favor toward the occult.
Vampire Biker Babes (2007)
The good news, if Mystery Science Theater 3000 ever does a reunion show, this will be the movie!
Probably the worst movie ever made! And for that, it gets 10 stars. How many people can say they made the worse movie ever??? That deserves something. This is certainly one of those cases where the trailer was better than the movie. I'm told the only person that could act was the actor that played Buck, and most of his scenes were cut. Probably wouldn't have helped this movie anyway. When I was watching this movie, I couldn't believe just how bad it is. Someone commented to me "Look, you know it wasn't Hollywood". Right, but I was at least expecting Ed Wood.
Where to start...first the "movie" itself. It was film digitally, and looks like it was shot in video tape. It doesn't have that movie look. Next, the monsters. They don't look like vampires, but some kind of devil creature. They look...and move...like something out of an 1980's video game. Only a couple of people can act in this film...and they don't get much screen time.
Not scary enough to be a vampire movie...not good enough to be a biker movie. The movie does use real bikers, though. A local outlaw motorcycle gang was used in most of the filming. You can practically smell them through the screen.
When Jenkins made this film, he supposedly was "retiring" from a film career in Hollywood of some 30 years. But nowhere can I find anything with Jenkin's name on it.
If you're having a Halloween party, THIS IS THE FILM! The bad acting, the wacky plot, the special effects that look as though a mentally challenged person did them...it all comes together here! You'll laugh your butts off! In fact the film is SOOOO bad, I wonder if Jenkins didn't make it that way on purpose.
To his credit, I will say the director, producer, and writer of this film, Mr. Jenkins, had a lot of pluck to make this film. I hope that he will try his hand at more movies. Someone has to fill Ed's shoes, after all.