20130730: Documentary Review--The Occult

The Occult: The truth behind the word (2010)

1. Released 2010, 75 minutes, poster-style illustrations, plus bad videos, plus voice-over paired with stock footage.
2. No rating yet on IMDB; on Rotten Tomatoes, 'no reviews yet' and 0% liked it.
3. So, almost no one has seen it.
4. The overbearing background music was almost too much by itself.  The blaring narration was no gift either.  Turning down my audio to its next to lowest setting almost fixed it.  Interviews with 'experts' were done in video that was low-lit, low contrast, soft focus, or out of focus.  The sound on the videos is terrible; words and lip movements lag badly.  In other words, the cinematic fundamentals are very weak.
5. The film certainly has its axes to grind.  Animism and shamans are good, as are pantheism and magicians.  Hallucinogens are illuminating and empowering.  All monotheism is 'selfish', particularly the invasive and dictatorial Roman Catholic Church.  The modern inheritors of RCC rule, namely large governments, corporations, and the advertising industry are just as bad as the RCC.  Modern accomplishments (computers, communications, relative wealth) are just tools for these groups.
6. The overview of all human history was as dreary as any I've watched.  The parallel visuals were loosely connected at best.
7. As for progression [animism ==> pantheism] and the rise of magicians and shamans, one might be better served by visits to the library, or to searches on the Internet.  The combat between pantheism/monotheism is better documented in the same places.
8. The 'parallels' presented between magicians and advertising agencies were amusing.
9. The music was terrible.
10. The worst part was that the screenplay for the movie could have been written by any university sophomore who had taken first year religion, first year psychology, and had read news on the Internet for a year or so in their late teen years.
11. One star of five for the discussion of magicians and modern advertisers, plus the often repeated refrain that the RCC has authored some of the world's worst dark magic tomes.  20130927: four blackholes for cinematography, screenplay, sound, and SFX.
12. This was a long 75 minutes.
13. I would not recommend this film to any one for any reason.
14. The music was terrible.

Cinematography: 2/10 Truly poor, especially the long interviews with the occult experts.

Sound: 0/10 Lots of variation.  The worst for the spoken word was in the interviews.  The use of music was off-putting at best.