Forty-three years ago this past Halloween night, Kenneth Anger was in Brooklyn making Scorpio Rising, a film that would become one of the director’s most famous works. It was an apt time to shoot the film given its overwhelmingly dark imagery—skulls, leather-clad bikers, Swastikas—and nods to the occult. And Anger always did have a penchant for creating what are more or less the cinematic embodiments of nightmares.
So it also seems appropriate that the DVD versions of 1964’s Scorpio Rising and several of Anger’s equally spooky later works were slated this year for an October release and, at long last, widely accessible in a format other than multi-generation VHS cassettes and low-res YouTube clips.
In addition to Scorpio Rising, which is often reductively (and perhaps inaccurately) pinned as a gay Nazi biker epic, this second volume of Anger’s experimental shorts includes what are arguably his other two best-known films. First there’s 1969’s Invocation of My Demon Brother, a disturbing collage of cult-like ritualism that casts Church of Satan founder Anton LaVey against a jarring, anxiety-inducing Moog soundtrack composed by Mick Jagger. Then there’s a remade 1981 version of the Egyptian-tinged Lucifer Rising with an appearance by Marianne Faithful. Rounding out the set are a truncated 1979 cut of Rabbit’s Moon, Anger’s 1950 homage to mime and Kabuki theater, and 1965’s Kustom Kar Kommandos, which the Internet Movie Database summarizes quite nicely: “A man in tight jeans buffs his car to the strains of ‘Dream Lover.’”
The most exciting bonus feature tacked on by San Francisco-based Fantoma Films is the optional audio commentary dictated by none other than Kenneth Anger, now 80. But if the wildly bizarre combination of motifs that comprise Anger’s body of work—from fire and the supernatural, to ’60s pop songs and homoeroticism—somehow gives you a sense of mystical satisfaction, you might not want some of these quirks debunked. So proceed with caution when determining how much of Anger’s weirdness you actually want to understand, but rest assured that this long-awaited DVD is a thrilling alternative to the standard horror movie fare the masses indulge in this time of year.
So it also seems appropriate that the DVD versions of 1964’s Scorpio Rising and several of Anger’s equally spooky later works were slated this year for an October release and, at long last, widely accessible in a format other than multi-generation VHS cassettes and low-res YouTube clips.
In addition to Scorpio Rising, which is often reductively (and perhaps inaccurately) pinned as a gay Nazi biker epic, this second volume of Anger’s experimental shorts includes what are arguably his other two best-known films. First there’s 1969’s Invocation of My Demon Brother, a disturbing collage of cult-like ritualism that casts Church of Satan founder Anton LaVey against a jarring, anxiety-inducing Moog soundtrack composed by Mick Jagger. Then there’s a remade 1981 version of the Egyptian-tinged Lucifer Rising with an appearance by Marianne Faithful. Rounding out the set are a truncated 1979 cut of Rabbit’s Moon, Anger’s 1950 homage to mime and Kabuki theater, and 1965’s Kustom Kar Kommandos, which the Internet Movie Database summarizes quite nicely: “A man in tight jeans buffs his car to the strains of ‘Dream Lover.’”
The most exciting bonus feature tacked on by San Francisco-based Fantoma Films is the optional audio commentary dictated by none other than Kenneth Anger, now 80. But if the wildly bizarre combination of motifs that comprise Anger’s body of work—from fire and the supernatural, to ’60s pop songs and homoeroticism—somehow gives you a sense of mystical satisfaction, you might not want some of these quirks debunked. So proceed with caution when determining how much of Anger’s weirdness you actually want to understand, but rest assured that this long-awaited DVD is a thrilling alternative to the standard horror movie fare the masses indulge in this time of year.
