Finally, I got to see this hard-to-find film! Despite receiving fairly positive reviews (even the Final Girl blog gave it some positive press), the film has not been very enthusiastically distributed in the US. It didn’t play very widely in theatres this year (only played at a Salem theatre near Boston, and not at all in the Albany area), so I finally found it at Red Box. John Morehead of Theofantastique asked if I’d like to do a podcast discussion... Read more

The news is that The Wicker Tree (Robin Hardy’s new film based on his 1973 cult hit The Wicker Man has a distributor. Anchor Bay Entertainment will be distributing the film in the United States, and the film will also be a selection at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. This according to Fangoria magazine (as reported by The Wild Hunt blog–which has given the film’s development some excellent coverage–and shared at the Witchvox Facebook page, too). For a film that... Read more

Are we suddenly caught up in a flurry of things medieval? What with Game of Thrones and Camelot on television (this fun article weighs the merits of both shows), not to mention Your Highness and Vision: From the Life of Hildegard von Bingen in theatres, and both Centurion and The Eagle a few months ago (okay, those two weren’t strictly medieval, but you get my point), you’d be not all that crazy to think so. Then there was Black Death... Read more

The announcement a few weeks ago that this adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s best-selling novel (about gods from the “old world” who send their avatars to America to foment a revolution to revitalize their potential devotees) would be directed by a “genius” filmmaker who has won “many many Oscars” (Gaiman’s words) was exciting but confusing. You see, not very many directors have won more than one or two Oscars. And we were so hoping it wouldn’t be Spielberg. But maybe for... Read more

You may have seen this story making the rounds on the internet: Harvard University is hosting a “Social Transformation” conference put on by a student leadership organization known for its right-wing Christianity and anti-pagan views. The group’s website doesn’t present any obvious anti-pagan rhetoric, but stories on The Daily Kos (which includes a video of a scheduled speaker engaged in a beatific invocation aimed at driving out witchcraft from the land) and elsewhere (the Harvard Crimson calls the scheduled speakers... Read more

This excellent article from MSNBC details the firing of a Wiccan employee by TSA at the Albany International airport. The fact that this is in my city is less interesting to me than the fact than this is a clear-cut case of religious discrimination and the fostering of a hostile work environment. The article makes it clear that he thinks the prejudicial treatment of this employee based on her beliefs is offensive; but the upshot of it all is that... Read more

It may already be playing at a theatre near you, or will be very soon…if you’re lucky. (Or not, depending on your point of view; reviews have been slightly mixed). The film is playing at a very limited range of theatres now, perhaps because it is also available on DVD and various on-demand services. This medieval tale of the disease that decimated Europe and provided yet another layer of occult superstition to the centuries of religious persecution stars Sean Bean... Read more

What could be more exciting than a new Hammer Horror film? You remember Hammer; the studio that produced some of the most memorable modern horror genre classics, like The Devil Rides Out; especially those gorgeous, dreamy vampire films of the 1960s and 1970s. Hammer seemed destined to fade into obscurity after their heyday. The studio more or less “hibernated” during the 1980s and regrouped at the dawn of the twenty-first century. They were sold, along with their vast film library,... Read more

Charlotte Bronte’s well-loved novel introduced a heroine of such integrity, passion and flawed self-sabotage that it’s surprising more actresses aren’t clamoring to play her. But young Mia Wasikowska (The Kids Are All Right) did clamor, after reading the novel at age 18 and asking her agent if there were currently any film versions in the works. The pairing of this actress of astonishing gifts with a similarly-gifted and unique director (Cary Fukunaga, whose debut feature Sin Nombre, a Spanish language... Read more

It’s always kind of disturbing when some aspect of contemporary witchcraft is misrepresented in the media. And so it’s natural that some folks want to be good representatives and spokespersons, and share with the world the “truth” about what “we” do. Of course, “we” is relative. And definitions of various permutations and practices of the pagan community vary widely. Because complexity is anathema to news sound bytes, the short-sharp-sexy statement tends to rise to the top of the midden heap... Read more