Historia de lo Oculto

Spanish horror film "History of the Occult" (2020) is a film full of mystery and understatement, which with its atmosphere intrigues and frustrates the viewer at the same time. The plot centers on the TV show "60 Minutes to Midnight", the last episode of which is supposed to reveal the biggest conspiracy of a certain sect. The program's creators have gathered a wealth of information and "dirt" on the mysterious organization, and their goal is to interview its guru.

The film unfolds on three parallel narrative paths. The first is a live interview, the second involves a group of program employees who seem to know more than they are willing to reveal, and the third involves a woman on an outside mission to reach the recording studio. Unfortunately, neither of these paths provides clear answers. The mystery of the cult remains undiscovered, and the viewer is thrown into a vortex of strange, unexplained events that only add to the feeling of confusion.

The film's biggest problem is its incoherence. The story seems to be a conglomeration of loose threads that lead to a goal, but never defines what that goal actually is. The mystery around which the atmosphere is built is never fully explained - just like the audience in a movie show, we, watching *History of the Occult*, are left in limbo. And if you're hoping for a satisfying ending, you may be disappointed - the filmmakers leave it completely open-ended, forcing the viewer to make his own interpretation.

Is it a horror film that scares? Rather not. More than frightening, it evokes feelings of unease and makes you think. It has a few moments that can be considered scary, but they are not typical jumpscares. Rather, it's a film about atmosphere, analysis and the search for hidden meanings that are difficult to read clearly.

The visual layer is also noteworthy - the film is almost entirely in black and white, except for a few scenes in which the color red appears. Why exactly red? That is not known. This treatment is somewhat reminiscent of *Sin City*, but in the case of *History of the Occult* it does not seem to have a clear justification.

All in all, this is a horror film that is more thought-provoking than actually frightening. It is mysterious, incomprehensible and full of puzzles that we have to search for the solution ourselves. If you like movies that force you to analyze and interpret, you might like it. However, if you are looking for a more classic horror film in which the plot leads to a definite punchline, you may feel disappointed.

History of the Occult is not a documentary or a mockumentary. This is a movie. It's not filled with possessed little girls climbing on the ceiling or evil ghosts. It's not supernatural, paranormal, or even scary... And I'm thankful. This movie is all about building suspense through a simple premise- a news station is going to expose a satanic conspiracy among the political powers of Argentina.

The movie is cryptic and deliberately vague. If you need movies spelled out for you than this isn't a movie you'll enjoy. The ending is not neatly wrapped up, you'll have to think about it afterwards to make sense of it, and that's what makes it good.

Preparing for a special broadcast, the crew of a local news show is getting ready for a potentially explosive story to break regarding a connection between the government and a massive conspiracy, but as time goes on they realize there's more to the encounter than they initially expected.

Overall, this was a highly enjoyable and chilling effort. One of the more enjoyable elements here is the wholly unique and intriguing storyline that serves as a perfect launching point for its burgeoning plot points. Operating as the behind-the-scenes exploits of the crew attempting to use the broadcast and the specifics are known about how important it is to get the facts out involving their relevance and duration, the dialog-heavy plot-points mentioned here about each of the guests keep this one intriguing. The interview-based setup where the film talks with each of the specific guests about their connection to the fabled notebook brought out as the centerpiece of the show serve as a fine counterpoint to the discussions brought about through the show. That brings about the other impressive aspect of the film in the secretive nature of the revelations that come about. With the conversations involving the supposed warlock and the doubting skeptic that tries to bring about a dubious conspiracy theory hiding behind the scenes. The way the conversations go where it spends more time on the secretive nature of their individual history with each other and how that spills into the plot points involving the warlocks' background with the occult and how the tell-all book was written generates a lot of fun moments as the tension builds throughout the night. Once it gets to the final half where the group is trying to bring the issue to a head under a time deadline and the group starts to feel the effects of the potential witchcraft being conducted against them which brings about some enjoyable flashes with the witchcraft affecting them. Overall, these elements give this one a lot to like while there are a few minor issues to be had with the film. The main problem is a simplistic approach by being heavily based on conversations between the crew working in the background on exposing the conspiracy rather than actually generating any action. The low-key style that serves to slowly enhance the escalating dread and suspense about the conspiracy doesn't produce as much action as one might expect since it's either showing the sit-down roundtable interviews or the crew in the backstage area talking about specific points that have to be mentioned. This can be quite dull for those that want more activity in their films, which is all the more pronounced to those who aren't invested in the political intrigue featured. This isn't all that well-explained and can bring the film down somewhat.

Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Language and Violence.

Atmospheric, mysterious, somber, oblique, apocalyptic. Goes needlessly off the rails a bit when hallucinogens are introduced in that always-disappointing way which has the filmmaker apparently thinking that gas lighting the viewer into wondering what is real and what is a hallucination is somehow entertaining or clever. It's similar to movies in which something creepy or startling happens but, oh gee, it was just a dream. These tactics are ineffective cliches and almost always bring a movie down a notch or two in my book. Despite these shortcomings this is a pretty cool movie with an impactful inclusion. It does come down to literally the last 30 seconds, in which we see that a stylistic element that had been introduced earlier in the film as seemingly a mere stylistic element is actually part of the story.

Side note: I have to wonder whether the name of one of the antagonists being Belasco is a nod to The Legend of Hell House, the Richard Matheson novel, and if a reference to Beaumont Street is a nod to Charles Beaumont, who wrote some of the best Twilight Zone episodes. This movie does have a very Twilight Zoney feel to it so maybe it's not a coincidence.

Saw this at the Imagine filmfestival 2021, usually in Amsterdam but now 100% online. Could not make heads or tails of it. I sat it out but had to force myself while attempting to follow what happened. For us Europeans there is not enough material to make a connection. An introduction of the parties involved, and especially the role of the journalists trying to phone-in with extra material, would be in order. I soon got lost what exactly the issues were. I kept watching in eager anticipation of a finale, hopefully revealing all secrets and intrigues, but it did not happen.

During the Q&A after the screening I thought I heard that the complete history around the TV-show was made up, and not related to reality. Freely translated: a vehicle to keep the story in motion. That was the moment I stopped the Q&A, lost my leniency to follow it, and switched to writing this commentary. I may have missed something important when the protagonists were introduced, however.

The black&white is another annoyance. It may intended only to suggest we are back in the 80-ies (color-TV existed more than 15 years before that time). It did not work for me and it is redundant anyway (whoever wants The Ten Commandments and/or Ben Hur shot in black&white to remind the viewer that this happened in the past??).