The Wild Hunt (https://wildhunt.org/tag/classics-of-pagan-cinema)
Meg Elison turns her ribald and incisive attentions to George Miller’s 1987 classic of sex and magic. “Worse movies than this one have attempted to make a proper dicking down into something that can change a woman’s life; at least this one makes the idea worthwhile.”
Eric O. Scott reviews three classic Disney shorts with mythological themes: “Playful Pan,” “King Neptune,” and “The Goddess of Spring.” Produced between 1930 and 1934, each cartoon represents a different approach to myth and film-making.
There are those who say a witch is born and others who insist a witch is made. This film suggests a third option: that witchcraft can come upon a person as unbidden and inevitable as puberty, and as impossible to understand.
“As a nation, we love to cast our projections on the witches of Salem,” writes Meg Elison as she examines America’s favorite film about witches. “What we want from the real people who died by state violence, the places where they hanged, the hysteria that killed them, is fun. We want Salem to be a theme park, to amuse us and titillate us.”
“Pagan nonsense, celebrating the feast of Lughnasadh. This is the month of August. The feast of our lady’s assumption into heaven.” Meg Elison returns with a review of the 1998 Irish-American film “Dancing at Lughnasa,” which juxtaposes Catholic misery and Pagan joy.