Abstract: | Interest in the ancient, the occult, and the 'wyrd' is on the rise. The furrows of Robin Hardy, Piers Haggard, and Michael Reeves have arisen again, most notably in the films of Ben Wheatley, as has the 'Spirit of Dark of Lonely Water', 'Juganets', cursed Saxon crowns, spaceships hidden under ancient barrows, owls and flowers, time-warping stone circles, wicker men, the goat of Mendes, and malicious stone tapes. This book charts the summoning of these esoteric arts n the latter half of the twentieth century and beyond, using theories of psychogeography, hauntology, and topography to delve into the genre's output in film, television, and multimedia as its 'sacred demon of ungovernableness' rises yet again in the twenty-first century. |
