Lucifer Rising: The Occult Saga of a Cursed Film screens this Thursday at Joshua Tree’s Blak Box Theater

Few films carry the mystique, controversy, and supernatural aura of Kenneth Anger’s Lucifer Rising. Hailed as an occult masterpiece, its journey from conception to completion was marked by betrayal, imprisonment, stolen footage, and an ever-shifting cast—including Mick Jagger, Marianne Faithfull, Jimmy Page, and Bobby Beausoleil of the Manson family—the film’s production unfolded like a ritual in itself, steeped in magick, myth, and chaos. The half-hour film took over a decade to complete, and by the time it was finally released in 1980, Anger had disappeared from the public view until longtime fan Brian Butler helped revive his career and work to a new generation in the late 90s, acting as a middleman for the notoriously difficult artist.

“People had yet to encounter the sort of more explosive aspects of his personality which I think over time turned off some people… because he was known to be Anger you know? Angry and very committed to his vision, really, at the bottom of it. But he could be perceived as very difficult to a lot of people in a personal or a logistic business, like he was very demanding. So I was able to sort of mediate and communicate to him and communicate to the other side and sort of keep things moving,” said Butler. 

A child actor raised in Hollywood, Anger would write the infamous 1965 book Hollywood Babylon, in which he exposed celebrities’ scandalous behavior, while further committing himself to underground film and the occult. Combining both mediums in tandem, Anger created singular experimental cinema he saw as visual spells, using actors as his “elementals.” 1963’s Scorpio Rising was his violent leather/motorcycle fetish film he called “a death mirror held up to American culture,” in which he followed with Lucifer Rising. The latter film was his ambitiously mythical response to his previous work in which he would cast actors to play “love demons,” including Marianne Faithful as the goddess Lilith. And while Mick Jagger was originally cast as Lucifer, he distanced himself from the project last minute after the Stones tragic Altamont concert. Jagger’s brother Chris would also be involved before Anger would fire him mid-shoot. Jimmy Page is also briefly in the film and would eventually provide one of the film’s early soundtracks, before Manson family member Bobby Beausoleil would create its definitive instrumentals from prison after being convicted in the Tate-LaBianca murders.

“(Lucifer Rising) is a depiction of Kenneth’s vision of Lucifer which is a solar being, in essence an angel. It’s not a satanic film at all though it’s very much based in Aleister Crowley mythos which translates to Egyptian figures. It’s very much connected to the music which is very entrancing. It’s different from almost any other film. It’s a visual journey that affects your mind in ways you might not expect or changes your consciousness. Again, thirteen years compressed into this thirty-minute film. I would say he accomplished his goal, and it really is a magical film that it’s an experience you don’t normally have… I can’t think of another film that does that,” said Butler.

Lucifer Rising: The Occult Saga of a Cursed Film plays this Thursday (November 20) at the Blak Box Theater in Joshua Tree, presented by the Joshua Tree Cultural Center’s Film Institute.

For tickets, visit: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/kenneth-angers-lucifer-rising-occult-saga-of-a-cursed-film-brian-butler-tickets-1637055971479

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