Legend of the Witches (1970) & Secret Rites (1971) [DVD + Blu-ray)

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The biggest let down is the drafting in of actress Penny Beeching as the hairdresser with an interest in the Occult.

The extra quality also allows for some detailing to be seen clearer during the performance of each mass and ritual. Still, I assume the staged initiation rituals that Penny undergoes are an accurate enough recreation of what a new member to a coven would experience. The film opens up with a terrific sequence showing some wildlife in the forest before moving to a group of naked people doing a ritual. Directed by Derek Ford and staring High Priest Alex Sanders ( Legend of the Witches, 1970), Secret Rites, 1970, is a pseudo-documentary about a young girl being initiated into a witches’ circle.With the new popularity of witchcraft in its modern form, it is probably impossible to be completely accurate because of the different deviations dependent on which practising witch you speak to, so it would be unfair to criticise Leigh for this. An evocative, esoteric exploration of witchcraft at the end of the 1960s – including night-time ritual, reflections on the history of Wicca and a black mass.

Looking like a cross between James Hunt and Captain Kronos, John Goodfellow wards off the Satanists, brandishing his cross at them until they cower.The use of cord to tie up members and the sword to cut these cords, is however, significant in modern witchcraft, and other depictions of events in the performance of the mass’, seem accurate as far as I can tell. The historical origins of witchcraft in moon-worship and the witches’ legend of creation; initiation rites undergone by the modern witches’ divination by birds and animals; Christianity’s absorption of pagan rites; revenge killing; the Black Mass; Cecil Williamson’s Museum of Witchcraft in Cornwall; investigations into the efficacy of witchcraft; extra-sensory perception; foretelling the future. voice-over slobbering over the sensationalised action onscreen that includes a ‘frenzied orgy’ and ‘blasphemous rituals’.

This said, like Legend of the Witches, it isn’t totally clear what the intentions of the director truly are, with some shots of nudity lingering just that little bit longer than necessary. The film starts with the Wiccan creation story of Dianna the moon looking for her soul mate Lucifer the sun.It certainly sounds like a British film from the 1970s (which it is of course) but there's no question that it's a bit too try and a bit too much like a professor talking to himself. We can start with the wonderful cinematography, which takes a very low-budget and makes it look like something more. Directed by Jo Gannon, Pink Floyd’s one-time light show operator, there’s an interview with Caroline Coon railing against ‘the fuzz’ for victimising pot smokers and psychedelic mandala paintings by Larry Smart. Featuring the only footage in existence of the infamous “King of Wicca,” Alex Sanders, who uses this documentary to guide us through his coven. Sharing the secrets of initiation into a coven, divination through animal sacrifice, ritual scrying, the casting of a ‘death spell’, and the chilling intimacy of a Black Mass.

Although a lesser known actress staring in Up Pompei, 1969 and The Morecambe and Wise Show, 1968, Penny’s playing to the camera with pouting looks and stylised standing often give her away. It lacks deviation in expression so that one sentence often moves into another without much consequence.My inner hippy found it fascinating until my inner punk surfaced the moment Quintessence began performing the track that gave the documentary its title. It is also more reliable in terms of accurate representation of rites and rituals within a witches’ coven. Mystery band The Spindle provide the groovy, psychedelic sounds while tentative occult enthusiast Penny and a serious-sounding narrator introduce the viewer to three ritual acts. Similarly, to other creation stories, it tells of how life on earth began with the smallest of fish and birds, to the creation of animals and man.