Satan Claus
J.X. Williams, USA, 1975, 3 min, 16 mm
“In the mid-Seventies, I was working as a projectionist for this crummy movie theatre in downtown LA. The owner owed me six weeks back wages and when I ask him for the money, the scumbag has the gall to inform me that I’m getting laid off Christmas week.
If he’d known my reputation for mischief, he might have thought twice about it.
On my last day of work, I had to project a Christmas matinee for kids. Before the main feature, I added an unannounced opener to the program called “Satan Claus”. I fled the theatre right after my film ended but I heard the owner had to refund the entire box office. Even then, several outraged parents filed a lawsuit against the theatre.
City of the Living Dead / Paura nella città dei morti viventi (original title)
Lucio Fulci, Italy, 1980, 93 min
In the small New England town of Dunwich, a priest commits suicide by hanging himself in the church cemetery which somehow opens the gates of hell allowing the dead to rise.
Peter, a New York City reporter, teams up with a young psychic, named Mary, to travel to the town where they team up with another couple, psychiatrist Jerry and patient Sandra, to find a way to close the gates before All Saints Day or the dead all over the world will rise up and kill the living.
Once upon a time in Norway
Pål Aasdal & Martin Ledang, Norway, 2003, 60 min
‘Interviews with central members of early Norwegian black metal bands about Mayhem, the early black metal scene and the crimes they committed (church-burnings, the death of øystein aarseth etc.).’
True Norwegian Black Metal
VBS, Norway, 2007, 32 min
‘True Norwegian Black Metal is a 2007 5-part documentary produced by VBS/Vice Magazine. The documentary mainly covers some aspects of the life of black metal vocalist Gaahl – renowned for his work with Gorgoroth and Trelldom. Principal photography took place in January 2007 over a ten day period in various parts of Norway including Bergen, Oslo, Espedal, and Dale. The documentary is hosted by Vice-Scandinavia correspondent Ivar Berglin who also served as translator.’
A(nother) Norwegian Black Metal Documentary
Réalisé par Sam Dunn & Scott McFadyen. On dirait un chapitre dans les ‘suppléments’ du film Metal: A Headbangers Journey …
***
Kirkebrann : True Norwegian Black Candle!
‘Finally! Now you can make your black metal fantasies come true and burn a stave church in the comfort of your own home.
“Kirkebrann” is a stave church-shaped candle, hand made in the city of Bergen. The first edition of 100 sold out in a few days, but the second edition of 666 candles is now available.
The candles are hand made in the city of Bergen, Norway and come in a numbered box.’
‘Film of the abandoned ‘Wolston Mental Asylum‘ (built in 1865) was intruded upon & captured by Horror Illogium. All visual matter was shot and edited by Horror Illogium 2009′.
‘Det Svarte Alvor (“The Black Seriousness”) is a Black Metal documentary from NRK, the Norwegian Television, from 1994. It contains interviews with Kris from Ulver, Ishan from Emperor, Hellhammer from Mayhem, concert recordnings of Immortal, a short glimpse in Satyricons rehearsal room and many more interesting scenes.’
J’aime penser que Gaahl de Gorgoroth a piqué son ‘infernal interview-act’ à Ihsahn de Emperor (à partir de 14 min 55 sec de Det Svarte Alvor … Le long silence introspectif suivit du gorgeon diabolique).
The Devil Rides Out
Terence Fisher, UK, 1968, 96 min
‘The Duc de Richeleau and his friend Rex discover their young charge Simon has fallen in with the powers of Darkness and is about to be baptized into the service of evil. The Duc is fortunately versed in such matters and finds himself locked in a duel with the deadly Mocata, disciple of the left-hand path’ – IMDb
‘American honeymooners in Hungary are trapped in the home of a Satan-worshiping priest when the bride is taken there for medical help following a road accident.’ – IMDb
C’est fait. ‘Plugger’ Samhain, bientôt l’Halloween tout ça. En fait on s’obstinait entre ‘Archangel‘ et ‘Casket Garden‘ de Dismember … Le Mois des Morts, les tombes: des associations thématiques d’une rare finesse. On l’avait déjà mis – ‘Casket Garden‘ – sur le blog de Cyclop par contre … Ça reviendra pas l’année prochaine ni jamais. Des jokes avec le band ‘Helloween’ non plus, c’est une promesse. Croix de bois, croix de fer, si je mens je vais en enfer.
‘TV documentary about controversial satanic ritual abuse / recovered-memory / multiple personality disorder and the underground worldwide satanic network conspirators herding everybody back to church’. … ‘This aired on the British ITV network, and the United States on HBO. It has recently come into rotation on the US Arts and Entertainment cable network’.
La semaine du satanisme, un événement organisé par Ca Ca Ca:
Plusieurs événements cryptiques dans divers lieux soit secrets, soit insolites. Bruits, rituels, synesthésies… Plus d’information disponible très bientôt (Les événements seront accueillis par LA BRIQUE : 6545 rue Durocher, local 402, 4e étage).
Invités spéciaux:
Steven Leyba (http://www.stevenleyba.com)
Isa Christ (http://www.myspace.com/isachrist)
Torso (http://www.myspace.com/torsodeath)
Au programme: Rétrospective des films de Christoph Schlingensief, les musiciens les plus dangereux de Montréal, Théorie de la Religion, The Man We Want to Anger : Kenneth Anger, Aleister Crowley, Cinema, Magick & The Occult, Courts-Métrages de CA CA CA, Charles Chadwick, films de Dionysos Andronis, Aryan Kaganof, Roland Lethem, des vidéoclips Métals en VHS, THE RITES OF SET, THE RITES OF ISIS, BOYD RICE: ICONOCLAST (on en parlait ici).
“Le satanisme moderne, non seulement le refuge des modes gothiques et des terreurs nocturnes, est avant tout une discipline intérieure proclamant la liberté individuelle à tout prix contre les institutions, les clergés et toute forme d’autoritarisme grégaire. C’est le mode de vie du créateur, de l’innovateur, du destructeur des formes dont le nihilisme puise dans le néant pré-créationniste (le vide), le moteur (soleil noir) des naissances incendiaires, le rire (rictus) de l’enfant conquérant (Horus). Contre l’hypocrisie judéo-chrétienne, refuge de la morale et du confessionnal qui remet à Dieu le soin de punir le criminel, le satanisme proclame la criminalité qui se rend responsable des conséquences de ses actes, même les plus sordides. Cependant, à l’ère du mensonge et de l’hypocrisie généralisée de nos systèmes politiques et commerciaux, le sataniste est celui qui, ironiquement, défend les droits de la Terre Mère Satanique, nourricière et fertile, contre les ravages suicidaires de la Technique.”
ROCHESTER HILLS, MI (Action News – wxyz.com) - Deputies from the Oakland County Sheriff’s Department arrested 22-year-old Bradley Dishner Saturday morning for breaking into the St. Paul Albanian Catholic church on Auburn Road in Rochester Hills.
Deputies were called to the parish after a member of the church saw glass broken out of a door.
A man was spotted by a priest in the altar area of the church, but he ran out of the church and into the woods.
Deputies caught the man in the wooded area behind the church and took him into custody. He was wearing a t-shirt that read “EYEHATEGOD” on the front and back. It is the name of an American metal band. He told deputies he had been drinking and smoking marijuana before breaking into the church.
Dishner was arraigned Monday in Oakland County. He is currently in the Oakland County Jail.
Deputies say there was nothing stolen or vandalized other than the door.
Ça fait suite au billet sur les ‘African Witch Children’ (publié ici le 13 avril 2009) :
AKWA IBOM STATE, NIGERIA – Just after midnight, the pastor seized a woman’s forehead with his large hand and she fell screaming and writhing on the ground. “Fire! Fire! Fire!” shouted the worshippers, raising their hands in the air.
Pastor Celestine Effiong’s congregants are being delivered from what they firmly believe to be witchcraft. And in the darkness of the city and the villages beyond, similar shouts and screams echo from makeshift church to makeshift church.
“I have been delivered from witches and wizards today!” exclaimed one exhausted-looking woman.
Pastors in southeast Nigeria claim illness and poverty are caused by witches who bring terrible misfortune to those around them. And those denounced as witches must be cleansed through deliverance or cast out.
As daylight breaks, and we travel out to the rural villages it becomes apparent the most vulnerable to this stigmatization of witchcraft are children.
A crowd gathered around two brothers and their sister. Tears streamed down their mother’s face as she cast out her children from the family, accusing them of causing the premature deaths of two of their siblings with black magic.
“I am afraid. They are witches and they can kill me as well,” she sobbed.
Taking his time to talk to the mother, Sam Ikpe-Itauma, an imposing man wearing a “Child’s Rights & Rehabilitation Network” t-shirt, has come to try to rescue the three children.
“If we are not here there’s a possibility of them being thrown into the river, buried alive or stabbed to death,” Sam said.
He tries to persuade their mother and a crowd of villagers that the three children are not witches – but no one believes him. And so, putting the children in his white pick-up, he drives away to his orphanage and safety.
Sam runs Child’s Rights & Rehabilitation Network, or CRARN – an orphanage that supports nearly 200 children. All of them were accused of witchcraft and cast out by their families, often after being tortured. The orphanage provides security, healthcare, nutrition and counseling.
Godwin’s story is typical. As he sat next to the quiet 5-year-old, Sam said that after Godwin’s mother died, the church pastor told his family that “Godwin is responsible.”
From his own investigation, questioning Godwin and talking with neighbors, Sam said that when a relative asked Godwin if he was a witch, “he said no and was beaten and made the confession that he actually killed the mother.”
Sam said Godwin was locked up with his mother’s corpse every night for three weeks with little food or water before a neighbor contacted Sam, who was able to rescue him.
Other children at his orphanage bear the scars of being beaten, attacked with boiling water, and cuts from machetes. But these children are the ones lucky to be alive.
“A child witch is said to be a witch when that child possessed with certain spiritual spells capable of making that child transform into cat, snake, vipers, insects, any other animal and that child is capable of wreaking havoc like killing of people, bringing diseases, misfortune into the family,” Sam said.
“When a child is accused of being a witch – that child is hated absolutely by everybody surrounding him so such children are sent out of the home… But unfortunately such children do not always live long. A lot of them, they’re either killed, abandoned by the parents, tortured in the church or trafficked out of the city.”
Sam doesn’t believe in witchcraft and is trying to raise awareness in local communities now gripped by hysteria.
Belief in witchcraft is rooted in centuries of tradition, but it’s only in the last 10 years, that it has become associated with child abuse, he said.
“It’s a social crisis,” he added. “Poverty propels this child witch phenomenon and poverty is a twin sister to ignorance“.
“Most vulnerable children come from single parents, divorced parents, dysfunctional families.”
But the orphanage has very little space for more children. Overstretched finances mean he can barely pay a skeleton staff of four people, as well as feed the children.
Instead, many children are left to roam the streets.
“My parents sent me out of the house – said I’m a witch,” said Samuel, a 15-year-old who has lived on the streets for five years after a local pastor blamed him for unexpected deaths in the family.
“I was beaten by the prophet in the church,” he said in a quiet voice.
Samuel lives in an abandoned building with 10 other children accused of witchcraft. A local group, ‘Stepping Stones Nigeria,’ which is dedicated to helping street children, visits them.
“Religious leaders capitalize on the ignorance of some parents in the villages just to make some money off them,” said Lucky Inyang, project coordinator for ‘Stepping Stones Nigeria’.
“They can say your child is a witch and if you bring the child to the church we can deliver the child but eventually they don’t deliver the children… The parents go back to the pastor and say, ‘why is it you have not been able to deliver the child’ and the pastor says ‘Oh – this one has gone past deliverance – they’ve eaten too much flesh so you have to throw the child out.’”
And most pastors charge a fee for deliverance – anywhere from $300 to $2,000.
One of the most notorious and influential pastors is Helen Ukpabio of Liberty Gospel Church. Her 1999 film, the widely distributed, “End of the Wicked“ has been attacked by child rights groups for its depictions of Satan possessing children.
She had agreed to an interview but the meeting was continually postponed for two days.
But in her preaching at Liberty Gospel Church, she heralds success stories of how she has driven out demons through deliverance.
“Witches and wizards, they started getting afraid. I never gave them rest!” she shouted to a cheering congregation.
Some pastors believe education is a more powerful tool against witchcraft fears.
“One of the things that caused the parents to abandon the children is ignorance,” explains another local pastor, Celestine Effiong.
The local government, however, accuses Sam Ikpe-Itauma and Lucky Inyang of using the children to run a scam.
“We insist that the name of Akwa Ibom state must not be smeared and the people of the world should not be deceived by certain NGOs who are claiming to be taking care of stigmatized children of Akwa Ibom,” said Aniekan Umanah, the Information Commissioner of Nigeria’s Akwa Ibom state.
“This is a ruse, they are making money for themselves.”
Stories of NGOs rescuing children, say the government, are exaggerated. They argue instead, that a new Child Right’s bill outlawing child stigmatization has largely ended the problem.
But despite some arrests, so far, the government acknowledges, there have been no prosecutions.
“There may be problems yes but it’s been blown out of proportion and people are capitalizing, on what ordinarily may be a social problem, across the globe in painting Akwa Ibom state black – that is the aspect we say no to. We will not allow the image of our state to be smeared.”
Sam and other NGOs deny any improprieties, insist their finances are a matter of public record and plead with the government to support their cause.
“Relevant government agencies, working on security and protection of children must step up their efforts to make sure any child that is stigmatized must – that parent, the churches, the law must be evoked to make sure such people face the law immediately, otherwise it must go on and on, on and on.”
With the night comes the screams of more deliverances – and more witches to be cast out.
"The production of nervous force is directly connected with the diet of an individual, and its refining depends
on the very purity of this diet, allied to appropriate breathing exercises.
The diet most calculated to act effectively on the nervous force is that which contains the least quantity of
animal matter; therefore the Pythagorean diet, in this connection, is the most suitable.
...
The main object was to avoid introducing into the organism what Descartes called 'animal spirits'. Thus, all
animals that had to serve for the nourishment of the priests were slaughtered according to special rites, they
were not murdered, as is the case nowadays".
