I am very pleased with this gallery, it's my favorite post this year. The Beny More Lp alone is top notch!

Two of early cinema's greatest occult themed films will be shown at the New Bev tonight and tomorrow. Haxan and Day of Wrath are both beautifully shot and amazing time capsules. Haxan in particular is as eerie as cinema gets, with its stilted silent era pacing and primitive special effects. Cadaver ghouls, witches' orgies and images from the Compendium Maleficarum (discussed here in one of my very first blogs back in 2007) make for a very interesting travel through the history of Witchcraft through a 1920's lens. An early Halloween treat for sure!


New Beverly Cinema
7165 West Beverly Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA  90036
(323) 938-4038

September 11 & 12
Day Of Wrath (1943) Fri 7:30, Sat 3:40 & 7:30
Haxan: Witchcraft Through The Ages (1922) Fri 9:40, Sat 5:50 & 9:40

With so much Manson talk this month, post-hippie cult hucksters have been on my mind. I've been revisiting some of my Family, Source and Alamo books & LPs and really steeping in just what a mindfuck of time it was in California back in the 70's. Ellroy's first book, Killer On The Road, does a nice job of getting across the general malaise of the era, although it's a graphic & somewhat tedious read. 

One of the more notorious cults of the time was the Process Church. Formed by "Suppressive Persons" and former Scientologists Robert DeGrimston & Mary Anne Maclean, the Church came from an all-is-one philosophy not too far removed from some of Charlie's shtick. Mixing Satanic & Christian imagery, their rituals made them easy targets, and surely helped investigators link them to the Family and Son of Sam, albeit inacurately. Feral House has a new book out that attempts to piece together the real story of the Process and is presenting a recreation of one of their rituals live at the Silent Movie Theatre.