The "Gatherings of the Coven", when Anne meets her fans in New Orleans (the last one was held on October 26, 1996), are memorable, glamorous, and - to the fans - mythological events, where their identity as fans is reinforced, if not redefined. More people come to New Orleans every year just to visit the haunted city of her novels (1)through authorized or unauthorized tours than for the 1996 annual meeting of the American Academy of Religion, as crowded as the latter may have been. 173-179).Īnne Rice needs no introduction. Witchcraft, Evil, and Memnoch the Devil: Esoteric and Theosophical Themes in Anne Rices New Orleans FictionĪ paper presented at the annual meeting of The American Academy of Religion, New Orleans 1996 (a version has appeared in Theosophical History, vol. If you don't mind Aussie accents in your cheaply-made supernatural thrillers, I recommend it highly.CESNUR - Esoteric and Theosophical Themes in Anne Rices New Orleans Fiction Patrick is an effective thriller, which transcends its miniscule budget and makes good on its rather lofty ambitions. While the rest of the cast are very good, it is Helpmann who really carries the film, exuding class and professionalism even while being flung about on strings and wrestling with a rubber axe. Speaking of the cast, they are uniformly excellent, especially the sublime and sadly missed Sir Robert Helpmann - more famous for his dancing than his acting, he was never the less a greatly-respected cornerstone of 70s and 80s Australian cinema. Made on a shoestring, as all Aussie films are, but especially horror films, it features only the most basic of optical, on-set, and make-up effects, but the way in which the cast takes them seriously lends them far more weight than they would otherwise carry. On the topic of Psycho, it is obvious that he was a fan of Hitchcock - there are many visual tributes to Psycho and other Hitchcock films. Richard Franklin, who later went on to direct the also-underappreciated Psycho II, did an amazing job. and powerful? The first thing that struck me, mere seconds into the film, was the wonderful camera work and direction. Is there something going on behind that vacant face? Something evil?. The new nurse, however, thinks otherwise. He is, according to all medical tests, clinically dead, kept alive only by machines. The titular character is a young man in a coma, shocked into inactivity by the death of his mother.
Patrick is one of the rare good ones, and it is a seriously underappreciated film.
Aussie horror flicks are rare enough as it is, but genuinely good ones are a rarity, I am sad to say. I didn't know Aussies were making horror films like this in the late 70s, full of visual imagination and inventive direction.
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