After a game of spot the goth, New Jersey author and mysticism specialist (also, bizarrely, ex-member of rock band Blondie) Gary Lachman introduced a capacity crowd to the cinematic influence of legendary occultist, the “Great Beast” Aleister Crowley.
Crowley, notorious in early 20th-century England due to his sexual proclivities, flamboyant magical practices and devotion to Satanism, was a colourful character and a cult hero to many, including graphic novelist Alan Moore, musicians from The Beatles to Led Zeppelin and, as this talk showed, numerous film-makers.
The lecture got off to a slow start as the extremely sober Lachman went through a chronological list of directors and actors who had met Crowley on his transatlantic trips and let him influence their work.
Embarrassing technical glitches (apparently there had not been a run-through of the AV system) meant this sequence was stuttering to say the least. Quality clips from classics including Rex Ingram’s silent horror The Magician, Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff favourite The Black Cat and Hammer Horror The Devil Rides Out were unfortunately rendered comical as the flailing author struggled.
But this wasn’t the main problem with this low-key film studies-style talk. By merely reeling off a list of films with little detail about the man himself, the overwhelming impression was of someone just standing by a screen, pointing at actors dressed like Crowley. Lacking an analysis of why Crowley’s image is so widespread left this shallow look at a fascinating subject more like a classroom show-and-tell.
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