Writer Finds Flying Saucers Lurking in 1968 Witch Picture

THE INTERNET — In his Sunday Matinee column for October, Christopher Knowles of The Secret Sun recommends the 1968 British horror film The Crimson Cult, also known as Curse of the Crimson Altar, as a rainy-afternoon diversion. According to the post, the picture is available in full on Tubi.

Mr. Knowles describes the film as a Swinging Sixties scarefest featuring Christopher Lee, apparently warming up for his later role as Lord Summerisle, and Boris Karloff. Its plot, he writes, is as muddled as any Hammer production. An antique dealer, played by Mark Eden, searches for his missing brother and accepts lodging from the sinister lord of the manor, with predictable consequences. The film is billed as a loose adaptation of Lovecraft's Dreams in the Witch House, though Mr. Knowles says the resemblance is so slight that someone had to tell him.

The author's chief interest lies elsewhere. He argues that scenes in which characters are carried into a dream world resemble abduction narratives, and he notes a green-skinned character and a throne that, to his eye, resembles stacked model rockets. One character is also pursued by a pale, silent figure in black, which he likens to a Man in Black. The screenplay is by Henry Lincoln, later co-author of Holy Blood, Holy Grail, who also wrote Doctor Who serials.

A postscript credits a fellow researcher, Mike Clelland, with a longer list of parallels. These include a protagonist who describes a dream that felt real, a stay in a 'gray' room, a man with antlers, which Mr. Clelland says echoes reported deer screen memories, and a needle-like dagger. He adds secret doors, family lineage, hypnosis and Celtic ancestry to the tally.

Mr. Knowles concludes that two stories are being told, one for the general audience and one for those in the know. He notes that the film dates from 1968, when the Betty and Barney Hill case was still a tabloid novelty. He invites readers to send any clues he missed.