|
Voodoo In Popular Culture
Popular culture has included various depictions of practices associated with different forms of voodoo, including Haitian Vodou and Louisiana Voodoo, and other elements attributed to African diaspora religions, with such representations often deviating substantially from any actual voodoo practices or beliefs. Tropes regarding voodoo appear most often in Supernatural fiction, supernatural fantasy or horror films, with common themes including the activity of witch doctors, the summoning or control of dark spirits, use of voodoo dolls to inflict pain on people remotely, and the creation of zombies. Background The word "Vodou" comes from the Fon language (spoken in Benin) meaning "spirit" or "god". As the original practice of Haitian Vodou, tribes would worship the spirits of ancestors and believed that followers were possessed by immortal spirits. During the seventeenth century, these practices were banned by Slavery in Haiti, slave owners, causing the slaves to practice in private ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Damballah La Flambeau
Damballa, also spelled Damballah, Dambala, Dambalah, among other variations (), is one of the most important of all loa, spirits in West African Vodun, Haitian Voodoo and other African diaspora religions, African diaspora religious traditions such as Obeah. He is traditionally portrayed as a great white or black serpent, but may also be depicted as a rainbow. Damballa originated in the city of Ouidah, Wedo (Whydah or Ouidah) in modern-day Benin. Mythology Damballa is said to be the sky father and the :wikt:primordial, primordial creator of all life, or the first thing created by the Bondye. In those Vodou societies that view Damballa as the primordial creator, he created the cosmos by using his 7000 coils to form the stars and the planets in the heavens and to shape the hills and valleys on Earth. In others, being the first thing created by God, creation was undertaken through him. By shedding the serpent skin, Damballa created all the waters on the Earth. As a serpent, he mo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Haiti
Haiti, officially the Republic of Haiti, is a country on the island of Hispaniola in the Caribbean Sea, east of Cuba and Jamaica, and south of the Bahamas. It occupies the western three-eighths of the island, which it shares with the Dominican Republic. Haiti is the third largest country in the Caribbean, and with an estimated population of 11.4 million, is the most populous Caribbean country. The capital and largest city is Port-au-Prince. Haiti was originally inhabited by the Taíno people. In 1492, Christopher Columbus established the first European settlement in the Americas, La Navidad, on its northeastern coast. The island was part of the Spanish Empire until 1697, when the western portion was Peace of Ryswick, ceded to France and became Saint-Domingue, dominated by sugarcane sugar plantations in the Caribbean, plantations worked by enslaved Africans. The 1791–1804 Haitian Revolution made Haiti the first sovereign state in the Caribbean, the second republic in the Americ ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Black Magic
Black magic (Middle English: ''nigromancy''), sometimes dark magic, traditionally refers to the use of Magic (paranormal), magic or supernatural powers for evil and selfish purposes. The links and interaction between black magic and religion are many and varied. Beyond black magic's historical persecution by Christianity and its inquisitions, there are links between religious and black magic rituals. For example, 17th-century priest Étienne Guibourg is said to have performed a series of Black Mass rituals with alleged witch La Voisin, Catherine Monvoisin for Françoise-Athénaïs de Rochechouart, Marquise de Montespan, Madame de Montespan. During his period of scholarship, A. E. Waite provided a comprehensive account of black magic practices, rituals and traditions in ''The Book of Ceremonial Magic'' (1911). The influence of popular culture has allowed other practices to be drawn in under the broad banner of black magic, including the concept of Satanism. While the invoca ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Witchcraft
Witchcraft is the use of Magic (supernatural), magic by a person called a witch. Traditionally, "witchcraft" means the use of magic to inflict supernatural harm or misfortune on others, and this remains the most common and widespread meaning. According to ''Encyclopedia Britannica'', "Witchcraft thus defined exists more in the imagination", but it "has constituted for many cultures a viable explanation of evil in the world". The belief in witches has been found throughout history in a great number of societies worldwide. Most of these societies have used Apotropaic magic, protective magic or counter-magic against witchcraft, and have shunned, banished, imprisoned, physically punished or killed alleged witches. Anthropologists use the term "witchcraft" for similar beliefs about harmful occult practices in different cultures, and these societies often use the term when speaking in English. Belief in witchcraft as malevolent magic is attested from #Ancient Mesopotamian religion ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Magic (supernatural)
Magic, sometimes spelled magick, is the application of beliefs, rituals or actions employed in the belief that they can manipulate natural or supernatural beings and forces. It is a category into which have been placed various beliefs and practices sometimes considered separate from both religion and science. Connotations have varied from positive to negative at times throughout history. Within Western culture, magic has been linked to ideas of the Other (philosophy), Other, foreignness, and primitivism; indicating that it is "a powerful marker of cultural difference" and likewise, a non-modern phenomenon. During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Western intellectuals perceived the practice of magic to be a sign of a primitive mentality and also commonly attributed it to marginalised groups of people. Aleister Crowley (1875–1947), a British occultist, defined "magick" as "the Science and Art of causing Change to occur in conformity with Will", adding a 'k' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Plan 9 From Outer Space
''Plan 9 from Outer Space'' is a 1957 American Independent film, independent science fiction film, science fiction-horror film produced, written, directed, and edited by Ed Wood. The film was shot in black-and-white in November 1956 and had a preview screening on March 15, 1957, at the Carlton Theatre in Los Angeles under the title ''Grave Robbers from Outer Space''. Retitled ''Plan 9 from Outer Space'', it went into general release in July 1958 in Virginia, Texas, and several other Southern states, before being sold to television in 1961.Rudolph Grey, ''Nightmare of Ecstasy: The Life and Art of Edward D. Wood, Jr.'' (1992). pg. 197. ISBN 978-0-922915-24-8. The film stars Gregory Walcott, Mona McKinnon, Tor Johnson, and "Vampira" (Maila Nurmi), and is narrated by The Amazing Criswell, Criswell. It also posthumously bills Bela Lugosi (before Lugosi's death in August 1956, Wood had shot silent footage of Lugosi for another, unfinished film, which was inserted into ''Plan 9''). ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
I Walked With A Zombie
''I Walked with a Zombie'' is a 1943 American horror film directed by Jacques Tourneur and produced by Val Lewton for RKO Pictures. It stars James Ellison, Frances Dee, and Tom Conway, and follows a Canadian nurse who travels to care for the ailing wife of a sugar plantation owner in the Caribbean, where she witnesses Vodou rituals and possibly encounters the walking dead. The screenplay, written by Curt Siodmak and Ardel Wray, is based on an article of the same title by Inez Wallace, and also partly reinterprets the narrative of the 1847 novel ''Jane Eyre'' by Charlotte Brontë. The film premiered in New York City on April 21, 1943, before receiving a wider theatrical release later that month. It has been analyzed for its themes of slavery and racism, and for its depiction of beliefs associated with African diaspora religions, particularly Haitian Vodou. Though it received mixed reviews upon its release, retrospective assessments of the film have been more positive. P ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Jacques Tourneur
Jacques Tourneur (; ; November 12, 1904 – December 19, 1977) was a French-American filmmaker, active during the Golden Age of Hollywood. He was known as an auteur of stylish and atmospheric genre films, many of them for RKO Pictures, including the horror films '' Cat People'', ''I Walked with a Zombie'', and '' The Leopard Man'', and the classic film noir ''Out of the Past''. He is also known for directing '' Night of the Demon'', which was released by Columbia Pictures. Life Born in Paris, France, Tourneur was the son of Fernande Petit and film director Maurice Tourneur.Earnshaw 2004, p. 102. At age 10, Jacques moved to the United States with his father. He started a career in cinema while still attending high school as an extra and later as a script clerk in various silent films. Both Maurice and Jacques returned to France after his father worked on the film '' The Mysterious Island'' in 1925. Tourneur died in 1977, aged 73, in Bergerac, Dordogne, France. Career Tourneur be ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Bela Lugosi
Blaskó Béla Ferenc Dezső (; October 20, 1882 – August 16, 1956), better known by the stage name Bela Lugosi ( ; ), was a Hungarian–American actor. He was best remembered for portraying Count Dracula in the horror film classic Dracula (1931 English-language film), ''Dracula'' (1931), Igor (character), Ygor in ''Son of Frankenstein'' (1939) and his roles in many other horror films from 1931 through 1956. Lugosi began acting on the Hungarian stage in 1902, appearing in more than a hundred productions. Beginning in 1917, he performed in Hungarian silent films. After Hungarian Soviet Republic, the failed Hungarian Communist Revolution of 1919, Lugosi was forced to emigrate to Germany due to his socialist activities. He acted in several films in Weimar Germany, before arriving in New Orleans as a seaman on a merchant ship, then making his way north to New York City and Ellis Island. In 1927, he starred as Count Dracula in a Broadway adaptation of Bram Stoker's Dracula, novel, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
White Zombie (film)
''White Zombie'' is a 1932 Pre-Code Hollywood, pre-Code horror film independent film, independently produced by Edward Halperin and directed by Victor Halperin. The screenplay by Garnett Weston, based on ''The Magic Island'' by William Seabrook, is about a young woman's transformation into a zombie at the hands of an evil Haitian vodou, voodoo master. Bela Lugosi stars as the zombie master "Murder" Legendre, with Madge Bellamy appearing as his victim. Other cast members include Joseph Cawthorn, Robert W. Frazer, John Harron, Brandon Hurst, and George Burr MacAnnan. Large portions of ''White Zombie'' were shot on the Universal Studios Lot, Universal Studios lot, borrowing many props and scenery from other horror films of the era. The film opened in New York to negative reception, with reviewers criticizing the film's over-the-top story and weak acting. While the film made a substantial financial profit as an independent feature, it proved less popular than other horror films of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Victor Halperin
Victor Hugo Halperin (August 24, 1895, Chicago, Illinois – May 17, 1983, Bentonville, Arkansas) was an American stage actor, stage director, film director, film producer, producer, and writer. The majority of his works involved romance film, romance and horror film, horror. His brother, with whom he collaborated, was producer Edward Halperin (May 12, 1898 – March 2, 1981). Biography Victor Halperin began his career as a filmmaker in 1922, working as a writer on ''The Danger Point'' (an original story). In two years, he was working as a writer-producer-director on the Agnes Ayres film, ''When a Girl Loves''. He is best known for his 1932 horror film ''White Zombie (film), White Zombie'', starring Madge Bellamy and Bela Lugosi. Once thought "lost", the film has grown in stature over the years, first gaining a cult status, and eventually becoming recognized as one of the leading classics of the genre. Years after the film's release, Victor Halperin expressed a distaste for hi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Frankenstein
''Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus'' is an 1818 Gothic novel written by English author Mary Shelley. ''Frankenstein'' tells the story of Victor Frankenstein, a young scientist who creates a Sapience, sapient Frankenstein's monster, creature in an unorthodox scientific experiment that involved putting it together with different body parts. Shelley started writing the story when she was 18 and staying in Baden-Baden, Bath, and the first edition was published anonymously in London on 1 January 1818, when she was 20. Her name first appeared in the second edition, which was published in Paris in 1821. Shelley travelled through Europe in 1815, moving along the river Rhine in Germany, and stopping in Gernsheim, away from Frankenstein Castle, where, about a century earlier, Johann Konrad Dippel, an alchemist, had engaged in experiments. She then journeyed to the region of Geneva, Switzerland, where much of the story takes place. Galvanism and occult ideas were topics of convers ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
