Literature and the occult

Occult Representations in Film

The concept of the occult in literature and film shares similarities and parallels. The occult is often represented by activities and beliefs that, relative to the mainstream, are marginal and associated with magic and nefarious elements. The occult is often perceived by the average person, as represented in fictional literature and narrative cinema, as something to be avoided. Protagonists in occult films shown over the course of the semester demonstrate how they are often unwilling participants in occult plots, or that they have been duped or manipulated into a role in an occult plot. Some characters seem to have an unconscious desire and unexplained longing or attraction for the occult and as a result are drawn into an occult plot. The paper examines the occult as conceptualized in literature and as demonstrated in film, specifically selected films from over the course of the class. Occult films contend that the occult is power and has a pervasive presence in everyday reality. The occult, as illustrated in films such as the Ninth Gate, & Rosemary's Baby, shows the occult as being somewhat omnipresent and relatively easy for any person to get drawn into the occult. The occult is frightening not just because of rituals, fantastic beings, or unbelievable occurrences -- something fundamentally frightening about the occult as expressed in these films is how easy it is to be drawn to or overwhelmed by the occult.

Roman's Polanski's 1968 movie…Although it contains no blood or gore, Rosemary's Baby is considered to be one of the scariest movies of all time. Why? The creepy nature of the film is not in its special effects, but in its realistic premise. The story takes place in a real apartment building (the Dakota) that has a real reputation of attracting eccentric elements of New York's high society. The evil coven is not composed of stereotypical, pointy-nose witches but of friendly neighbors, prestigious doctors and distinguished individuals. They are elegant, rational and intelligent and are connected to important people. The realism of the movie forces the viewers to ponder on the existence of such groups, to a point that some feared that the movie, after its release would cause an all-out witch hunt. Rosemary's manipulation is also extremely realistic, causing the viewers to think: "It could happen to me." (TVC, 2011)

The occult is intricately tied into everyday institutions such as religion, family, socialization, class, and there are thematic and visual parallels drawn between the occult and other groups that are more culturally accepted. Although not everyone is a young woman such as Rosemary, people get married and have children, just as Rosemary. She has friends and would like to feel a sense of belonging and a sense of community -- some things that are true universally for most people. Rosemary and the other protagonists in the films to be examined are to be protagonists that audiences can relate to as a way to engage and participate in the film. It could be you. It could be someone you know who gets accidently wrapped up in the occult by no particular fault of their own, and finds him/herself at the center of a clandestine plot. Filmic representations of the occult are at the center of the paper, as well as its connections to and reflections of literature.

The occult refers to forces that are clandestine and secret. The occult additionally includes people who have knowledge of these hidden forces and powers. It is often set in opposite to science -- science as the norm or standard of what is proven, measurable, real, and believed. The occult is a perspective, a belief system, specific practices and behaviors. Activities of the occult can be magic, alchemy, divination, physical transformation, and psychic practices. The occult is additionally often put in opposition to Christianity. Many films of the occult, including notable ones outside of the ones that will be mentioned in this paper quite often visually and thematically pit Christianity (and science) against the occult, such as in the Exorcist. The occult is not just what is hidden from sight in everyday life, it is also what is hidden from history.

The occult is quite often in films represented closely with literature. The key or the solution to the main problem or secondary problem often lies within a book. Corso, played by Johnny Depp in the Ninth Gate, is a book dealer. His zeal for capitalist gain could be described as religious. It is his religious fervor for capitalism that leads him on a powerful search for a book, which leads him into an occult plot. Rosemary's Baby & the Name of the Rose are occult films both based on books of the same name, immediately linking them to literature and the canon of occult literature, as well as clearly existing as films of the occult. While in the middle of her pregnancy, Rosemary comes across a small, simple book with golden pages called All of Them WITCHES. This a link to literature that sends chills down the spine in relation to the film and her character specifically. Furthermore, in the Name of the Rose, libraries, books, reading, literacy, and research are central to the plot of this film, yet another connection to literature. It is neither a coincidence that the film the Name of the Rose is a film with focus upon the occult specifically taking place in 14th century Europe. Tobienne notes that a powerful paradigm shift on the part of the church with respect to the occult and specifically the element of magic occurred during the 13th century.

Jolly terminates her study by alluding to a paradigm shift regarding magic in the thirteenth century. She claims, "The official Church stance regarding magic shifted from a demonic association with paganism to a demonic association with heresy." (3; 21) Arguably then, in the pre-thirteenth century when, the focus on the source of power, was seen to be demonic, "magic" was classified alongside of its Paganism because of its systematic threat to the Church. (Chapter 1, 12)

The occult is not what is antithetical to the Church fundamentally in principle or in ethics, for example. The occult is also what the Church, specifically Christianity, believes to pose a threat to its power, authority, influence, and resources. This is another connection between the occult and the Church. When the consensus or school of thought changes in the Church, the perceptions of the occult change and what associations are drawn to the occult change as well. The mystery of the Name of the Rose happens in the century directly following a large shift in the thinking toward and perceptions of magic and of the occult, which influence beliefs and actions, including the Inquisition, which is a pervasive presence in the film. Therefore, the occult is associated with magic, with literature, and in the 20th century, is associated with film, too. The presence of the occult in many media forms across many years is reflected in the plots of films centering on the occult, as they thematically, visually, and sometimes literally connect the occult with a pervasive, long-running presence in the world, in ways that are mostly hidden, but with luck or by chance/accident, could be revealed to anyone.

History and Christianity are additionally key elements of the context of Coppola's Dracula.

The first sequence of Bram Stoker's Dracula, even before its opening credits, is meant to set the historical background, which is highly religious. Christendom is under attack by the Ottomans, or Turks, who have been stopped by Count Dracula, a member of the Sacred Order of the Dragon at the end of the fifteenth century. The film opens in the year 1462, when the religious symbols of the cathedral in Constantinople are changed for those of a mosque. The first cross of the film, probably a Maltese cross, is hurled to the ground, shatters, and is then replaced by a crescent, the only crescent to be featured in the film, notwithstanding the crescent-shaped decoration adorning the helmet of a Turkish soldier. Though Coppola does not provide the historical details, we are to understand that the cathedral is Hagia Sophia (Saint Sophia's) in present-day Istanbul. (Bak, 2007, 123 -- 124)

The opening sequence of the film, which sets the tone, atmosphere, context within which we are to consider the events that happen in the future, immediately are linked to the battle between the occult, represented by Dracula et al., and Christianity. This battle takes place in the 15th century, two centuries following the paradigm shift in thinking and perceptions about the occult and magic and one century after the narrative of the Name of the Rose takes place. These directors, whether it is their direct, conscious intention to or not, are participating in a dialogue and constructing visual and media discourse regarding the very long connection between the occult and religion. Religion and the occult seem to at once desire to exist exclusive of one another, yet exist interdependent of each other as well. Occult films participate and can influence the direction of such discourse as a continuation and transformation of the discourse in literature regarding the occult and the literature regarding film as communication and discourse.

The occult is found is books. The occult is found in small, darkened shops off the beaten path. The occult can be hiding in plain sight as part of institutions or traditions that we make find safe, free of the occult -- a safety upon which we may take for granted, as implied by the films referenced in this paper. The occult is what is revealed when a person pulls back the proverbial curtain on reality displaying unknown yet influential powers at work. The occult tradition is one of secrecy and masking. The occult is present in everyday reality, no matter how modern or simple, as in the Name of the Rose, where the occult mystery takes place within the setting of an abbey amidst monks and other members of the clergy/church. In this film, the Inquisition is another serious factor at play amidst all the mystery. The Inquisition was led by the church, a key link between the occult and the church, specifically is public opposition, and private connection. If the church is not directly linked to the occult in an occult film, then the characters of the occult in the film are some time of secret group that behave similarly to those who are heavily religious, in the traditional sense of the word.

There are instances within occult films, there are parallels drawn between the occult and religion, specifically Christianity, in western films. Not only similarities drawn between the occult and religion, but also, the occult is used as a strategy to question and/or expose clandestine elements of religion. Polanski's Rosemary's Baby is an example of an occult film that is linked to literature and literary representational traditions of the occult, as well as is a film that aligns secret occult groups or societies with traditional religious groups and goes on to interrogate the practicality of blind, unquestioning, religious devotion in the modern age. The film was released in 1968, an extremely pivotal and critical year in not only the history of the United States of America, but also to the history of the world.

While some will consider Rosemary's Baby to be nothing more than a scary movie playing on the sensibilities of devout Christians and young mothers, others see it as Roman Polanski's courageous exposition of high society's occult mind state. Many however see the movie as an occult manifesto, heralding a new era. Rosemary's Baby is Aleister Crowley's "Child of the new Aeon," or Horus the son of Isis -- the bringer of a new era in world history. Whether it was intentional or not, Rosemary's Baby did appear at the brink of a new era and became part of an important social change…Society became the equivalent of Rosemary who has learned of the evil nature of her baby, but nonetheless accepted the responsibility of mothering it. Today's debased pop-culture is simply the evolution of this system. (TVC, 2011)

The Vigilant Citizen considers that one of Polanski's intentions was to show a weakness in those who are religiously devout. Perhaps it was Rosemary's devotion to her Christian, heterosexual, normative lifestyle that left her vulnerable to and susceptible to manipulation by the secret group using her to bring forth the anti-Christ. There must be some intentional irony in that a wholesome, blond, blue eyed, American, Christian heterosexual woman births the anti-Christ. It may seem more intuitive for a member of the occult to be developed and sacrificed as a vessel through which the anti-Christ figure enters the world. In Polanski's film, it is the all American blond Christian girl next door who is the mother of the anti-Christ. Even this kind of question the film asks of Christianity is occult, or at least implies Christianity in the occult as well as draws very basic similarities between Christianity and the occult, in addition to the symbols of each, respectively.

What is more, the Maltese cross is a direct allusion to the various orders that used this cross as a symbol, orders that were connected to the Holy Land, the Crusades, etc. This one image in the film thus transmits to the audience multiple layers of meaning, even if the reference to Constantinople…as it is part of the West's historical unconscious. We are dealing instead with the subliminal dimension of the film and its animated images. The medium is the message more than the message itself, or the message qua message is entirely determined by the medium, as Marshall McLuhan has argued. As such, we are led to "read" Coppola's film in light of his postmodern theory since its religious meaning is purely subliminal, expressed not so much in its words but rather in its images alone. And by not being expressed in words but rather in the simple swapping of religious symbols atop a place of worship that we are supposed to recognize -- which could even promote an Islamic reading of this scene, as I will discuss later on -- Coppola avoids choosing sides. (Bak, 2007-124)

Coppola maximizes the potential for communication and critical thinking in the media of film and in the occult example of Dracula. Films, like literature, are texts to be read, as they are, at least the most notable and effective ones, have just as much attention to detail, structure, aesthetics, and style just as much as a classic and revered novel. Again, current focus is upon the opening sequence, taking place in the 15th century, as Dracula keeps the Christian soldiers at bay. The cross falls and there is a transposition of religious symbols. The chose of imagery, the angle at which the cross was shot, the lighting, the motion, as well as the placement in the frame, in addition to the object being a very well recognized symbol already, impacts the viewer in a way that words do not. The cross is the first image of the film. The film begins with darkness, such as in the Christian narrative of the beginning of time -- at first there was nothing. The first image is of the cross atop a large church. It is an extra wide shot, an establishing shot -- the shot establishes the world of the film and the most critical information a reader of the film should have in order to analyze it effectively. The music is creepy, yet beautiful, just as Dracula is. There is some kind of military struggle on the ground, although we cannot see it. There are flames that are raising high to the top of the church, where the cross stands, and there is a lot of that smoking that is rising fast. Then there is a close up of the cross. The lighting is such that we do not know exactly what time of day it is. It could be sunrise or it could be sunset. It could be what is called "magic hour" between evening and night, or dawn and morning. The light could be from the explosions happening on the ground. It is all intentionally ambiguous and unclear, indicating chaos and instability. Then we see the cross from above. The cross falls, in somewhat slow motion to the stone ground. When it lands, the impact shatters the cross into pieces. Dust flies up from the ground to indicate that it was a hard fall and to imply that Christianity is old and dusty. The voice over begins and it is a strong male voice. The image of the broken cross dissolves in the symbol of the Islam (crescent and star), and then there is another dissolve into the map of the world and the burgeoning Muslim empire.