Millions of years before Mephistopheles materialized in the modern miracle of the movies, we can be sure that our species indulged its perverse fascination for watching images of supernatural evil projected on a flat surface. No Late Paleothilic film critic carved us a review for posterity. And yet it's easy to imagine our homo erectus progenitors staring transfixed at the sight of their recent discovery fire casting menacing shadows resembling some locally feared malevolent spirit upon a cave wall. Whatever word that early anthropoid audience might have called their arch-demon is lost to us. But we'd surely have recognized in that flickering fiend a devil — if not the Devil — by any other name.
From Chapter 1 The Devil's Looking Glass
Satan has figured in film since the very birth of cinema. The Satanic Screen documents all of Satan’s cinematic incarnations, covering not only the horror genre but also a whole range of sub-genres including hardcore porn, mondo and underground film.
Heavily illustrated with rare still photographs, posters and arcana, the book investigates the perennial symbiotic interplay between Satanic cinema and leading occultists, making it essential reading for anyone interested in the Black Arts and their continuing representation in populist culture.
Revised and updated since its first acclaimed publication in 2001, Schreck’s study of the diabolical in film has since become a widely referenced standard work on the subject, enriched by Schreck’s own personal engagement with magic and spiritual practice, which provides cineastes and sorcerers alike a veritable Encyclopedia Satanica of one of the oldest and most culturally profound genres in motion picture history.
Prologue: Darkness Visible
1. Through the Devil’s Looking Glass
2. When Satan Was Silent
3. The Depression and Its Demons
4. War Is Hell
5. Atom Age Antichrist
6. Sympathy for the Devil
7. Deluge and Backlash
8. Raising Hell in the Reagan Years
9. Even Hell Has Its Heroes
10. Epitaph: #devil 2.0: The New Dark Ages
Index
- Collector’s item since it’s out-of-print 2001 publication;
- much anticipated revised and updated edition of a classic work;
- Sober, scholarly analysis of the devil in cinema;
- Especially timely in this era of paranoid conspiracy theory about occult symbolism in the media.
Satanism, Horror Films, Occultism, Nikolas Schreck, Religion
Title: THE SATANIC SCREEN
Subtitle: An Illustrated Guide to the Devil in Cinema
Author: Nikolas Schreck
ISBN: 978-1-915316-27-1
Street Date: May 9, 2024
Category: Film, Religion, The Devil
Retail Price: £24.99
Binding: Paperback
Size: 244mm x 170mm
Pages: 434
Illos: 99 b&w photos
As the trade paperback, except this special NO-ISBN hardback is exclusive to this website. Because it carries No ISBN number, this edition of the book is off the grid in as much as it doesn’t appear on any database, in any library, cannot be ordered through mainstream bookshops or online retailers.
Click Image For Sample Pages