The Devil wants to manifest on the Earth but he’ll settle for Hollywood. In the case of co-writer/director Peter Hyoguchi’s The Occult, Satan will be linked to a series of tarot readings, have secret underground clubs, and eat children. That is not a bad resume for the demons who multiply followers, as shown in the opening prologue through well-paid surrogates who give birth and are then left to bleed out in hotel rooms.
Chiefly, the story has the tone of an ensemble television show with a group of filmmakers, or as they are called today, “content creators,” who cause havoc for people through pranks. Their net series show is called Pranksters, the derivative of the Punk’d TV series and the name-checked Candid Camera featuring Alan Funt, which involves fortune telling of people on the street. Unknown to the people who stop, they are identified by a hidden camera, and a group looks up their lives on the internet, supplying answers. These answers cause strife, which makes them funny to some people. All goes well until a tarot reader Zoe (Kelly Walker) outsmarts and threatens to expose them. Zoe connects with J.T. (Ryan W Garcia), who heads the program. With this rag-tag bunch of Friends (yes, the people are like those from the television series, only more of them), J.T. gets immersed in the world of secrets, cult worship, and depraved sexuality that involves children.
Hyoguchi, whose chief work was in television films, shows up as The Occult becomes episodic, even to the point of commercial fadeout. The characters with the filmmaking group (there are a lot of them) range from J. T.’s roommate, an overweight adorable tech guy who lives on peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, to Sadie (Erin Darling), a data tech who moonlights as a beat mixer and randomly gets asked at a party if she would like to do porn.
“…a tarot reader Zoe (Kelly Walker) outsmarts them and threatens to expose them.”
The Occult has so many quirky moments, friendly quips, and buddy-talk bonding that the horror of the situation is overshadowed and rendered lightweight in that it just becomes part of the landscape. Los Angeles and other areas are on full display, with overhead shots of the Griffith Park Observatory, Santa Monica Pier, Muscle Beach in Venice, shopping areas, and book shops that involve curiosity. Add to this mix the burgeoning love between Zoe and J. T., which seems plausibly erratic yet still seems to work. Fun moments in a cab with the couple’s first real kiss and hand foolery between them are charming.
The Occult does take a sinister tone in a sequence with J. T speaking to Lily (Orenda Velvet Wurth), which turns from a mutual drawing lesson to thoughts that the child has had “things done to her” and witnessed cult sex and orgies. The moment seems out of place in a picture that has a lightweight, family-friendly tone of horror as anything from Blumhouse or M. Night Shyamalan and family. This is not the lyrical Roman Polanski’s Rosemary’s Baby, the controversial work of French provocateur Jean Rollin, or Jess Franco, who have used this theme more explicitly.
To its credit, The Occult has engaging characters who do what some would say are typically “Californian’ things like enjoy tarot readings, have cool rave-like dance clubs with acrobats, all with lives, and love and almost achieve a “content creator’s” dream of having their show picked up by a reality network and stardom. It is a fun popcorn horror with a smooth, quip-filled screenplay for your next tarot card reading. The cards must be an unopened gift for you to use them yourself. How did I know that? It’s in the cards.
"…engaging..."
