what movie did you last watch?

[APeacefulWarrior]

Hello Dear Other-Selves,

I’ve watched lately movie titled The Visitor from year 1979 (Original title: "Stridulum").

I have to admit that this is unusually movie and I’ve read Reviews saying that it was not understood. But there was one (“There’s nothing like it” by Vorazqux) that made me want to try it.

Thanks for the recommendation! I love digging up old weird cult movies like this. So I went and watched it.

I'm honestly not sure why people said it was incomprehensible. The plot laid out everything that was happening. I think it may be that the scenario was so weird that people just couldn't take the movie's own internal mythology at face value. It did leave a lot of unanswered questions, tho, like who the council was that backed Lance Henricksen (has he ever NOT looked creepy?) or what exact relationship the housekeeper had with John Huston.

I thought that visuals were often amazing, especially for what was clearly a pretty low-budget affair. That opening shot of the two figures and the sandstorm rolling in was absolutely stunning, and I was impressed at how well the director worked with light. Like you, I definitely saw bits of that (especially the light ships at the end) to feel a lot like the LOO cosmology.

Mostly, I wish they had spent more time dealing with the sci-fi stuff and less time rehashing The Exorcist, The Omen, and Rosemary's Baby. The main thing that held the movie back, I thought, was too much obvious borrowing from films of the last few years.

On a related note, have you ever seen the Sun Ra movie "Space is the Place"? It's got quite a bit in common with this thematically, even if they go off in two different directions. It's another low-budget 70s scifi that more fans of weird films should see. Plus, the cosmology is VERY LOO-esque. Just as a mild warning, however, it's very deep in black nationalist politics from that time, which might be off-putting to some viewers. I don't think that should distract too much from the messages Sun Ra is putting forward, though, even if he hadn't yet entirely worked through his younger, more militant race theory days.