History of the Occult is an unheralded gem of modern horror and at one point it was the highest rated horror film on Letterboxd in 2021. The newscast framework has a clever ‘film within a tv show’ gag (like Ghostwatch or Late Night With the Devil); balancing the right amount of intrigue and hysteria to weave a tale that feels large scale. I was 'blown away' when I watched it a few challenges back. A mostly black and white pollical drama newscast with supernatural elements nails the right tone to weave a tale that feels near cosmic beyond it's screen.

I'll be interested to see how HotO strikes others.

A TV show and its producers air a final broadcast investigating a mysterious murder and its possible occult connections with dire consequences. An interesting set up, but ultimately a bland watch. The ending was anticlimatic to say the least. Only good thing I can say about this one it was a merciful short watch
4/10

Read a blurb where it’s a film that requires careful watching. Closing tablet, here goes….

This was an interesting movie that I could not follow completely because I had to use subtitles and I had difficulty reading some of them based on the color of them. What I could read and follow seemed to be different. I can't remember a show revealing that the government was controlled by black magic but I could be wrong. Of course, shows focusing on the governement being controlled by black magic is not unique but I don't recall it being revealed in this way. I enjoyed this and think it was a good subset pick.

Not sure if I completely understand the ending, but I enjoyed the ride. But will choose Late Night with the Devil when in the mood for this type of story.

I’m thinking Ghostwatch. Yes this needs a good bit of focus. I’m thinking about Argentina and the ‘disappeared’ during the time of the dictatorship. This has some parallels with Beyond Terror, which we saw last year. I got lost near the ending, and I’m not sure if I’m on the right track. This is an alternate Buenos Aires that’s stuck in the past. I’m not entirely sure about the significance of the book (What We Lost in the Fire), but it sure sounds like critique of military. The two colors is the past and the present, because there's an iPhone in the color sequence while B/W has the rotary phones. I may be completely wrong here....

Super cool visual and narrative style. I liked the black and white and the old TV reality was so well done. The story is hard to follow and get pretty murky at the end. I feel like I'd have to watch it a few times and take notes o really get all the context. I'm not impressed by movies that are that hard to follow. Also the ending was anti-climactic. But in general, I really enjoyed it. 3.5/5 stars. It reminds me of Ghostwatch and also Late Night with the Devil. I wish they'd done more on-camera witchiness like the nose bleed.

A weird politically tinged tale of dark arts, paranoia, misremember identity, and other often cryptic elements. It tries to mimic an investigative television news show but somewhat cheats by focusing also on the maybe hallucinating antics of an off site investigative crew (and 'off air' moments). There are lot of interviewees, tv show setup, and crew moving pieces that each give a piece of the story that fits somewhat like a distorted not quite aligned puzzle. The news anchor (and his guests) give a performance with bravado and formality while the backstage people contribute a more casual comedic relief style that isn't quiet as good (it's not played for laughs but more obvious puzzling things happen while they're experimenting with tannis root; a big reference to the fictional stuff of Rosemary's Baby) The black and white style I felt made it feel out of time and off in an eerie way but also seems a little pretentious - but there are some cool moments it feels like the tv is talking to you. There are eventually splashes of color that make some scenes feel more 'real' or crucial and those ones are often surreal. Overall I liked the esoteric modality of plot where dialogue and characters were relatable but trying to solve something beyond the senses. The answers here sometimes feel too much like plot devices never meant to have answers but for a time it's supremely odd and tense; and I'm left with the sense there is more to unpack...

I'm with jholmes on this one, except that I didn't like it. At all. Sometimes, when a film drops you in the middle of an already-happening event, the viewer's disorientation can be a hook to draw him or her into the story (as One Battle After Another does, to use a recent example). And then, sometimes, like in this film, it just makes the viewer feel like he or she is playing catch-up for most of the film. I am NOT a fan of metaphysical horror, which is the main reason that I'm not fond of the majority of Lovecraft's work and most of the films based on it. The warlock's talk of the writer's third daughter being taken to another dimension and his memory of her erased was just so much mumbo-jumbo that far too much time was spent on. When it recurred several times in the game that the producers were playing with each other to see if they could remember how many children different people had, I got annoyed...because, really, what about that made the movie more interesting? And why was the team member downtown, calling in every fifteen minutes? Why did she shoot the guy that was following her? And the ending, as jholmes and numbercrunch said, was incredibly anti-climactic--everything goes full color! I really, really disliked this film, so much so that I beg you not to try to explain it to me or answer my questions about it--I don't care enough about it to think about it. There are some films that just hit me the wrong way, and this is one of them. If I had found even a little something about it that I liked, I'd welcome any and all explanations as to what was going on. But I didn't, and I don't feel like trying to force myself to appreciate it. There are far too many other films to check out than to spend any more time with this one. Sorry for all the negativity, but I'm just being honest about my feelings toward it.

Different strokes.

Much like Beyond Terror this one requires a bit of leg work on Argentine history. I'm a dumb American, with a tenuous grasp of 'merican history, so it's a bit of a stretch to take this all in. I read that there were significant disappearances of the population and many were children and infants, so that ties in. The rest is a depressing mess of the standard dictatorial playbook. The director denies that it was supposed to be political, but there's a good bit there to suggest he's not being entirely candid. There's more to unpack,but I really need to move on.

If the simpliest explaination that fits must be the correct one then here is one likely ignoring a lot of details...
Everyone here has busted priorities (work, fame, hallucinations, etc) alienated from real value (family, etc) in a colorless netherverse until they find a way to reconnect.

Hmm. I'm not entirely sure how I feel about this one. There were things I liked, but it didn't really come together for me. Others have already said that some of what I felt. I think the movie maybe would have been more effective had it focused just on the broadcast - or maybe just a tighter focus in general. I did start feeling the urgency toward the end of the film, but then the ending left me cold and unsure how exactly to take it. I also kept wondering about the ratings of a news program that airs so late.

Agreed with a lot of what's been said. There was a lot of potential, and I think had it focused in a bit more it would have been more powerful. I do think if I watch it again I'll pick up more given the complexity of the story.

Actually, if you really want to confuse yourself, the iPhone some up on the broadcast during the B&W sequence. At least, that was when I first noticed it.This is a movie that wants you to think it is smarter than it actually is.

I am glad to see other reviews I read other than here were as confused by the poor story structure and it wasn't just me.

Lots and lots of talking. Little happens and all the talking pushes the story no further 60 minutes in than the first 5 minutes. So you just feel like you wasted your time during all this exposition that isn't really exposition. Just uninteresting filler.

Very cheap production values and it doesn't look like it was actually filmed in the late 80s like it is going for. It looks like it was filmed yesterday with a cheap HD camera...which it basically was. But then the guy on the TV show gets handed an iPhone so maybe he is from the future? I don't know. At this point, who the fuck cares?

Skip this. Nothing remotely scary, eerie or even interesting here. Big from me.

I’ll probably finally check out Ghostwatch now, but I didn’t really get into this.
Maybe I thought Late Night With The Devil did it better. I really disliked the WNUF Special so maybe these just aren’t my types of films.

I was keeping up with this pretty well but the ending was challenging. For a dry, talky movie this was pretty engaging, I started it around midnight and never felt bored. The rare uses of color and artistic flourishes had more impact thanks to the slow-burn pacing. I liked it enough to read more opinions on what might have gone over my head, and possibly even revisit it some day.

I think I would have enjoyed this a lot more if I'd had even a 5-minute video beforehand about Argentinian history and culture. I felt like I was missing a few pieces that made everything hard to follow. That made the buildup to what I'm sure was to be a shocking end making me still feel a little lost. But I can't necessarily say that's the filmmakers' fault. There's a language, culture, and history barrier there and it's too bad. It was interesting to watch this and Late Night with the Devil basically back-to-back, however!