The Wild Hunt (https://wildhunt.org/tag/classics-of-pagan-cinema)
“The witch in this story does not try to make it look natural,” writes Meg Elison of this 1942 classic. “She doesn’t play fair, split the difference, or win graciously for the sake of appearances. She wins utterly.”
“We have no record from Hypatia about the circumstances of her life,” writes Meg Elison in her review of the 2009 film about the ancient Roman philosoher. “Letters written to her by men are preserved; none of her letters to them remain.”
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.