Best Occult and Witchy Media of 2023, Part 2
It’s been a while since I posted my first piece on 2023’s best witchy and occult films, but here’s the latest follow up. I really enjoyed the following films of 2023, finding them enjoyable as works of cinema but also as thematically significant for my ongoing research observations: The Five Devils, Enys Men, and Infinity Pool. They all have themes, imagery, or tonal qualities related to “what we talk about when we talk about witchy media”, including elements of paganism, witchcraft, or the occult.
Mark Jenkin’s very spare, minimal but deeply affecting folk horror film Enys Men got picked up for distribution by Neon, a company associated with edgy, good quality and commercially-attractive films. To chose this low budget, slow-moving, inscrutably subtle horror film that is nearly devoid of dialogue was a chancy gambit, but paid off as audiences responded to its haunting vibe.
In the film, a woman (Mary Woodvine) lives alone on a remote island, perhaps a caretaker. Every day she leaves her small cottage and walks up a hill to observe lichens and make notes. Her life is a quiet routine, with only occasional visitors to bring supplies by boat. When she noticed unusual growth in the lichens, strange visions and memories begin to overtake her. The surrounding landscape, so familiar to her, begins to feel mysterious, possibly even dangerous.
I expect folk horror to become increasingly more complex and varied as the audience for this interesting horror sub-genre continues to grow. Enys Men is a thoughtful, quietly-unnerving film that seems to invoke ancient and archetypal ideas connected to nature and the bare essence of what it means to be human. Its stark mysticism has stayed with me after only one viewing, but I think I will get even more from it on my next watch. (Available on Hulu and Apple TV)
Neon also distributed Infinity Pool in 2023, as well as Origin, Eileen, and Anatomy of a Fall, among others. Infinity Pool was a wild, disturbing thriller with some intriguing elements of speculative fiction, science fiction, and dystopian fiction. A couple (James (Alexander Skarsgård) and Em (Cleopatra Coleman) goes on vacation to a luxurious resort in a country with draconian laws, known among the rich as a decadent playground. Things turn chaotic when the accidental death of a fellow tourist reveals a complex, ritualized culture beneath the surface of the idyllic paradise. The situation becomes precarious and morally arbitrary, as people begin to act in ways that were previously against their nature.
The story felt at times to me like an episode of Black Mirror (a series that often explores scenarios that take technology and social trends to their logical and horrifying conclusions), but much more visceral and violent. Filmmaker Brandon Cronenberg (son of the master of twisted horror, David), whose debut Possessor was also artfully disturbing, is showing himself to be a brilliant purveyor of dark futuristic visions of humanity. Infinity Pool is weird, suspenseful, and chilling. (Available on Hulu and Apple TV)
The Five Devils was one of my favorite films of 2023. It’s a fascinating, somewhat trippy story that combines a straightforward narrative with elements of dreams, flashbacks, and even time travel. Vicky, a young mother (Adèle Exarchopoulos), discovers her daughter Vicky (amazing newcomer Sally Drame) is able to understand the depths of people by interpreting how they smell. Vicky collects natural objects and mixes earthy perfumes in jars, concoctions representing people in her life, and hides them in her room. Meanwhile, Joanne and her husband Jimmie are dealing with the return of a former friend to their lives, reviving many emotions and difficult memories.
When Joanne and Jimmie’s lives are disrupted by a friend from their past, Vicky tries to understand and navigate their adult distress in childlike ways that are nevertheless full of intuition and wisdom. The story has beautiful touches of paganism and magic, and is overall very moving and mesmerizing. Available on Amazon Prime and Apple TV)
Stay tuned for more observations of films and TV from 2023, and soon to be including newer things I’ve seen in 2024. I’ll also be returning to The Witchvox Project very soon!