The Devil wants to manifest on the Earth or, in this case, Hollywood. In the case of Peter Hyoguchihe’s talky film The Occult, he 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.
“…The Devil wants to manifest on the Earth or in this case Hollywood…”
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 facially identified by a hidden camera, and a group looks up their lives on the Net, supplying answers. These answers cause strife, which makes them funny to some people. All goes well until a genuine tarot reader Zoe (Kelly Walker) outsmarts them 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.
Hyoguchihe, whose chief work was in television films, shows up as the film becomes episodic, even to the point of commercial fadeout. The characters with the film-making 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.
"…immersed in the world of secrets, cult worship, and depraved sexuality..."
