Old Nick Onscreen
Folks, you're not going to get the whole novel here, I hope that's clear. Nevertheless, I have to post something every now and then.
Accordingly, for those interested in some of the themes and religious issues explored in "The Baptized" (and a new sample chapter is coming very soon, promise), there's no shortage of movies about Satanism. On any given night ,in fact, you can usually find one on Showtime's reliably tacky "Beyond" Channel which usually features the cliched image of cultists in black robes and waving ceremonial daggers.
Accordingly, for those interested in some of the themes and religious issues explored in "The Baptized" (and a new sample chapter is coming very soon, promise), there's no shortage of movies about Satanism. On any given night ,in fact, you can usually find one on Showtime's reliably tacky "Beyond" Channel which usually features the cliched image of cultists in black robes and waving ceremonial daggers.
But I can only think of two which feature a cinematic appearance by the Demiurge himself. Hammer's "The Devil Rides Out," from one of Dennis Wheatley's wildly pulpy, fun novels, which has Christopher Lee as the principal good guy, has Satan appear at a society sabbat in the rather "typical" guise of a goat-headed god with the nether parts of a satyr. It/he looks very phony indeed. (He's not even well endowed, and if the Devil's schlong is average-sized, what's the point of risking eternal damnation by screwing him?)
There's also Satan's appearance (briefly, so briefly that many don't even recall this scene, which may be intended as a dream of Mia Farrow's) in "Rosemary's Baby" wherein he impregnates her while his believers stand around approvingly. There Satan is indeed a slobbering, evil-looking thing ,all claws, raggedy fur and fangs. (Perhaps this is also how diminutive Polanski sees himself among women, as a real go-getter type.) But the real horror in this scene is the aged likes of Ruth Gordon and Sydney Blackmer in the nude.
There's also Satan's appearance (briefly, so briefly that many don't even recall this scene, which may be intended as a dream of Mia Farrow's) in "Rosemary's Baby" wherein he impregnates her while his believers stand around approvingly. There Satan is indeed a slobbering, evil-looking thing ,all claws, raggedy fur and fangs. (Perhaps this is also how diminutive Polanski sees himself among women, as a real go-getter type.) But the real horror in this scene is the aged likes of Ruth Gordon and Sydney Blackmer in the nude.
Hollywood's prevailing idea is that Satanists, given their extreme religious beliefs, should also look extreme. And for the most part this makes sense. Even the Manson family, their basic physical appearance was such that, at least in a more mannered (and not that long ago) time than today, they'd naturally be shooed out of shopping malls by security guards. (But, conversely and perversely, thus warmly welcomed into, say, Beach Boy Dennis Wilson's home and various Hollywood parties. .
One prominent exception to this loose cinematic "rule" occurs in the very elegant and creepy "The Seventh Victim," a 1943 film produced by Val Lewton and directed by Mark Robson, which Turner Classic Movies often trots out. There the Satanic cult, hq'ed in Greenwich Village (where else at the time in an America so overshadowed by WWII and the darkest enemy the world has faced yet?) is called the Palladists, elegantly dressed folk who sit around in swank apartments and wish evil upon those who would betray their secrets. In a particularly nice touch, one of the female Satanists, who looks terrific in her evening gown, even lacks an arm. (Whether this means she gave her all for her deity is purposely left unclear.) No robes, however, no upside down crosses, not a bit of the conventional screen imagery. Just a lot of abstractedly murderous chat. These are Satanists who'd probably wear Ralph Lauren and subscribe to the print edition of "Town & Country," who'd be foodies, listen to NPR and would first open the "Metropolitan" section of the Time on Sundays, and God knows (yep, pun intended) there are already plenty of such folks out there who don't additionally worship the horned god.
God Himself almost never appears in movies. At least never God the Father, though Jeffrey Hunter made a v handsome, blue-eyed near pretty Jesus in "King Of Kings," Willem Dafoe was a sort of hippie prince version in "The Last Temptation Of Christ" and Jim Caviezel was a wondrously suffering Christ in Mel Gibson's "The Passion Of The Christ.," Even the likely total huckster Neale Donald Walsch (the ugly alternative is that Walsch is more truly saintly than even Francis of Assisi and Thomas Aquinas, and a much better theologian to boot) fudges mightily on a physical description of the Big Guy. Only George Burns and Morgan Freeman have risked playing the most impossible-to-cast-role-ever in recent years.( It also may bug evangelical Christians, but the Jesus portrayed in the Shroud of Turin is in fact rather ugly and, well, distinctly Semitic-looking.)
Only Mormons probably subscribe these days to the traditional image of a bearded, benevolent deity, and that's because they're kind of locked into such hoary imagery given their theology, which posits a sexually active "Heavenly Father" and not one, not two but several "Heavenly Mothers" having at it with Him on several planets up somewhere in the wild blue yonder. (Mitt Romney was never asked about this aspect of Mormonism during his Presidential campaign; I'd have loved to have him snarl back at the wormy likes of Chris Matthews as to his own views re the physical appearance of the Savior conjured up by the leftist, decidedly non-celibate religious order that constitutes the gang at MSNBC.)
But in Kingsley Amis's wonderful, upsetting modern ghost story, "The Green Man," God makes a brief appearance to the dipsomaniacal narrator and reluctant hero, of course stopping time itself to make a point to him. And he's described as a good-looking young man, wearing a well-cut tweed suit, "with a look on his face that says he can't be trusted." Reading this, I was immediately reminded of mid-career David Bowie. Read this novel someday. It takes matters of God and Satan and good and great evil seriously, and the Brit TV miniseries version with Albert Finney doesn't nearly do the source novel justice. (Among other things, probably for budgetary reasons, it lacks the marvelous monster hinted at in the title, which art history majors who know Gothic architecture will immediately "get".)
For all the coverage Satan and all his pomps receive, however, it's curious how few writers actually worth taking seriously seem ever to themselves to have attended a "Black Mass." (If such morally vaporous modern scribes as Bret Easton Ellis, Norman Mailer and Salman Rushdie have, they've admitted it.) Only the French 19th century "decadent" novelist JK Huysmans, may have once attended such a ritual. May have. It's unclear. Anyway, one such is described in his novel, "La-Bas," which usually translates as "Down There." It's probably also necessary to note that, whether he did or didn't attend such a rite, Huysmans in fact ended his days in a Catholic monastery. (Just as Blaise Pascal did.)
The issue of outlaw bikers re Satanism is a bit more complicated. A friend who worked in organized crime intelligence for ATF remarked more than once that some bikers talked so much about Satan, there had to be more to it than "mere" alcoholism or drug abuse. Taking his suspicions to heart and looking into the matter a bit, it does seem as if some old-line and "traditional" outlaw bikers (the comparatively younger ones of today are much more into making money) have, so to speak, dabbled in the blackest of black arst from time to timed. Some members of the Pagan's (sic) MC in New Jersey, for example, may have had more than peripheral contact in the 80's with a woman who saw herself as a sort of modern cult priestess and her consort, a biker type who actually wore a goat's head mask at some of her rituals. This woman, interestingly,also operated publicly as a pet groomer.
But again, while Hollywood, meaning low-budget Hollywood, has covered bike gangs to excess in upwards of one hundred movies, only one to my knowledge is about bikers and Satanism, and there they act in opposition to devil worship. It's 1971's "Werewolves On Wheels" and it's just great. In it, a bike club (populated by, among recognizable actors if one has an affinity for B movies, folk-rocker Barry McGuire who had a hit with "Eve Of Destruction" and Billy Gray, who lovably played Bud on the long-running "Father Knows Best") stops for the night at a mysterious monastery in the desert. The monks there worship Satan, and before they're slaughtered by the bikers for their misdeeds, which means for daring to use one of the club's mammiferous females as their planned human sacrifice , they curse said female with the mark of the werewolf. As the bikers continue on their merry way across a seemingly endless Southwestern desert, mayhem ensues. It's loads of fun, honest.
Only Mormons probably subscribe these days to the traditional image of a bearded, benevolent deity, and that's because they're kind of locked into such hoary imagery given their theology, which posits a sexually active "Heavenly Father" and not one, not two but several "Heavenly Mothers" having at it with Him on several planets up somewhere in the wild blue yonder. (Mitt Romney was never asked about this aspect of Mormonism during his Presidential campaign; I'd have loved to have him snarl back at the wormy likes of Chris Matthews as to his own views re the physical appearance of the Savior conjured up by the leftist, decidedly non-celibate religious order that constitutes the gang at MSNBC.)
But in Kingsley Amis's wonderful, upsetting modern ghost story, "The Green Man," God makes a brief appearance to the dipsomaniacal narrator and reluctant hero, of course stopping time itself to make a point to him. And he's described as a good-looking young man, wearing a well-cut tweed suit, "with a look on his face that says he can't be trusted." Reading this, I was immediately reminded of mid-career David Bowie. Read this novel someday. It takes matters of God and Satan and good and great evil seriously, and the Brit TV miniseries version with Albert Finney doesn't nearly do the source novel justice. (Among other things, probably for budgetary reasons, it lacks the marvelous monster hinted at in the title, which art history majors who know Gothic architecture will immediately "get".)
For all the coverage Satan and all his pomps receive, however, it's curious how few writers actually worth taking seriously seem ever to themselves to have attended a "Black Mass." (If such morally vaporous modern scribes as Bret Easton Ellis, Norman Mailer and Salman Rushdie have, they've admitted it.) Only the French 19th century "decadent" novelist JK Huysmans, may have once attended such a ritual. May have. It's unclear. Anyway, one such is described in his novel, "La-Bas," which usually translates as "Down There." It's probably also necessary to note that, whether he did or didn't attend such a rite, Huysmans in fact ended his days in a Catholic monastery. (Just as Blaise Pascal did.)
The issue of outlaw bikers re Satanism is a bit more complicated. A friend who worked in organized crime intelligence for ATF remarked more than once that some bikers talked so much about Satan, there had to be more to it than "mere" alcoholism or drug abuse. Taking his suspicions to heart and looking into the matter a bit, it does seem as if some old-line and "traditional" outlaw bikers (the comparatively younger ones of today are much more into making money) have, so to speak, dabbled in the blackest of black arst from time to timed. Some members of the Pagan's (sic) MC in New Jersey, for example, may have had more than peripheral contact in the 80's with a woman who saw herself as a sort of modern cult priestess and her consort, a biker type who actually wore a goat's head mask at some of her rituals. This woman, interestingly,also operated publicly as a pet groomer.
But again, while Hollywood, meaning low-budget Hollywood, has covered bike gangs to excess in upwards of one hundred movies, only one to my knowledge is about bikers and Satanism, and there they act in opposition to devil worship. It's 1971's "Werewolves On Wheels" and it's just great. In it, a bike club (populated by, among recognizable actors if one has an affinity for B movies, folk-rocker Barry McGuire who had a hit with "Eve Of Destruction" and Billy Gray, who lovably played Bud on the long-running "Father Knows Best") stops for the night at a mysterious monastery in the desert. The monks there worship Satan, and before they're slaughtered by the bikers for their misdeeds, which means for daring to use one of the club's mammiferous females as their planned human sacrifice , they curse said female with the mark of the werewolf. As the bikers continue on their merry way across a seemingly endless Southwestern desert, mayhem ensues. It's loads of fun, honest.
Finally, for those who wonder if I'm going to give Islam short cinematic shrift here, not at all. Turner Classic Movies has in fact shown, as part of a series on Islamic images in movies, a very odd, obscure 1943 gem called "Adventure In Iraq." Here, Americans going someplace during the general havoc that was the Mideast during WWII crash-land in Iraq and are given shelter by the ruling sheikh of an Iraqi city. Who of course turns out to be the head of the local devil-worshipping cult, for this is the rare (well, rare today) Iraqi city where Islam is superseded by Satanism. This all sounds silly to modern film audiences (even as I wonder what Iraqi movie audiences of any era would make of Adam Sandler movies), but the movie is dead serious and resembles a sort of cut-down serial. It's full of chases and action scenes, but fuzzy on the actual theology of the cult.
Nonetheless, before anyone dismisses "Adventure In Iraq" as outrageous beyond belief in its general suppositions, the Mideast does harbor a reputed devil-worshipping group, the mysterious Yazidis (or Yezidis). Not much solid is known about their beliefs, but observant and devout Muslims for hundreds of years regarded the Yazidis as definitely on the "left hand path" of worship and have denounced this largeish (30,000, maybe more) group as pals to Satan. People to be feared and isolated rather than brought into the folds of Shi'ism.
Okay, too, that's it for now. The next post will indeed be prose from the actual novel "The Baptized."
Nonetheless, before anyone dismisses "Adventure In Iraq" as outrageous beyond belief in its general suppositions, the Mideast does harbor a reputed devil-worshipping group, the mysterious Yazidis (or Yezidis). Not much solid is known about their beliefs, but observant and devout Muslims for hundreds of years regarded the Yazidis as definitely on the "left hand path" of worship and have denounced this largeish (30,000, maybe more) group as pals to Satan. People to be feared and isolated rather than brought into the folds of Shi'ism.
Okay, too, that's it for now. The next post will indeed be prose from the actual novel "The Baptized."
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