ABSTRACT
Saturday, November 14, 2007, Filmmuseum, Brussels: Kenneth Anger introduces a screening of Lucifer Rising unfamiliar to cult fans. Bobby Beausoleil’s portentous chords are replaced by the earlier Jimmy Page soundtrack. This new Lucifer is an affective revelation, which sounds and feels very different. Yet the filmmaker’s intriguing background “revelations” do not actually reveal the oc/cult film experience any further. To “occult” means to “shut off from view or exposure”, so this encounter will, of its very nature, stretch analytical thought beyond its limits (Merriam-Webster 2016). An elusive element inevitably escapes the language of critical writing deployed in its pursuit.
