Pluskylang Great Film overall

SpunkySelfTwitter It’s an especially fun movie from a director and cast who are clearly having a good time allowing themselves to let loose.

Aneesa Wardle The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Rosie Searle It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Horst in Translation (filmreviews@web.de) This has to be one of Kenneth Anger's worst films, which is especially bad as this is not one of the movies that he shot way before his 20th birthday, but instead here in 1970 he was already in his 40s. It tries to be edgy, shocking and controversial during its 12 minutes runtime from start to finish, but sadly forgets to make any reasonable impact. Just shock as much as possible and who cares about the story? Then again, this has frequently been a problem for Anger that he goes too much for style and too little for substance. In here are included the Rolling Stones, the Hell's Angels, Lucifer, the devil, sex between men, male genitalia etc., so basically everything that could infuriate audiences almost 50 years ago. I cannot say I enjoyed this at all. Not recommended. Anger (who also acts in here, not too often the case in his works) was never among my favorites, but he is really hitting new lows here. The audio gets annoying pretty quickly too, but I guess that was intended. Stay away.

mchlcmmng A very worthwhile freak-deaky experience. In this film's short lifespan it takes you on a wild ride using techniques that have become common place in modern cinema. The music by Mick Jagger that is oh so memorable. The jump cuts, the shot-layering, the changing of frame rate is so definitively anger that you would be daft to confuse it with anyone's else work. The way that Anger tries to shove you head first into the occult is just breathtaking. You go into some kind of trance state with this film. To view Satan as he appears in this film is truly changing. Any film student interested in making an impact on film today has to see this picture. Anger made his first film at 15, he was young when he made this one too. This is a film that pushes the envelope. We don't need anymore formulaic boring action movies, we need people like this willing to push the limits of the medium and mess with your mind.

mikael-funke I disagree with the comment that angers film is amateurish and boring. what you have to keep in mind is that is was made in 1969 on a shoestring budget. also that the whole MTV aesthetic was not even thought of then, and it would take 30 years until the way Anger does film would be incorporated into the mainstream music videos of acts like Nine inch nails,Marilyn Manson, etc.The use of juxtaposing sound and film, editing them in a way that creates maximum contrast and dynamic is something every video director - directly or indirectly - has gotten from Anger. he was the first to fuse rock music and experimental films, thereby by accident creating the seed of the rock video.Angers short films -and especially this one - has probably been more important in shaping pop and art culture than any other single short film. for that he deserves credit and recognition.

Squrpleboy I'm not really sure why I've repeatedly given Kenneth Anger's films a chance, considering how I've loathed the experience of viewing every single one of them, but seeing INVOCATION OF MY DEMON BROTHER tonight was officially my last attempt.Basically, with this film Anger shot a bunch of disjointed scenes that he could loosely tie together with some high-school-level occult imagery, and tacked on a long, droning soundtrack which I assume was meant to mesmerize us into a submission of the "possessed". Not even a good try. Wigged-out hippies smoking pot from a ceramic skull, some twitchy-eyed albino kid, a couple nude guys on a couch, tacky use of a kaleidoscopic filter, bad superimposed tattoos, a couple shots of The Rolling Stones in concert, and some loser performing dollar-store occult rituals all flip back and forth on the screen without much use of engaging pacing or interplay. Even Satanic butt-kisser Anton Le Vey turns up dressed like a reject from an lost episode of Batman, circa 1966.So typical, non-engaging, amateurish and lacking real passion or discipline it's maddening. Then again, maybe I needed to be right stoned out of my mind to get the "deep and hidden meanings, man". Yeah, right.How Anger ever posited himself amongst the leading American avant-garde filmmakers of his generation, and still retains a level of reverence when he created "esoteric" palp like INVOCATION is truly frustrating and stupefying to say the least. It is rare that I can say I genuinely hated a film, or the experience of having viewed it, but in this case I really feel I need to warn others to avoid this film at all costs.1/10. A shameful and putrid waste of time and celluloid.