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Do not get the wrong idea from the movies. Summoning demons for evil purposes might look easy, but it is not. In Rosemary's Baby, nobody gives much thought into how long it took Roman Castevet to even speak to Satan, let alone convince him to make the long drive into Manhattan. Supernatural experiences are rare, usually Pazuzu will not just jump down your throat. The mystical requires study, discipline, work. I'm not willing to do that work so demons never bother me, that's why I have movies.
For those are not lazy like me, there are plenty of magical practices and "technologies" out there, going back centuries or millennia. Most of it shrouded in mystery, often left intentionally vague and opaque by their authors. Maybe this is a smart marketing decision, clarity will only prove that none of these recipes work. Maybe it is just the nature of the esoteric, ineffability. One of the most exhausting and rigorous rituals ever devised is a months-long procedure detailed in The Book of Abramelin, as shown in the 2016 horror film A Dark Song. That is a spell used to summon your Guardian Angel for greater wisdom and truth. It requires fasting, abstinence, prayer, and special oils applied for months. The results can be enlightening, they can be horrifying.
The Book of Abramelin's origin is unclear. It may date back to 14th century Jewish mystics and could be based on ancient Sar Torah practices. Or it might be written by a gentile using the exotic nature of Jewish mysticism to sell a book of magic beans. The oldest surviving copies are from the 17th century in German. The titular Abramelin is supposedly an Egyptian-Jewish sage. I find it all dubious (skeptic through and through), but people have believed in and attempted this summoning. Most famously this was attempted by occult luminary Aleister Crowley in a country manor named Boleskine House by Loch Ness in the early 1900s. Supposedly the ritual got out of hand and demons still lurk the property. (Weird fact: Jimmy Page also lived there.) Crowley's summoning is big influence on A Dark Song, which is set in an old isolated house in a stranger, more Celtic part of the British Isles, Wales.
A Dark Song is filmed almost entirely in and around the house. We have two characters: Sophia (Catherine Walker), a grieving mother searching for answers in the occult, and her supposed expert, Joseph Solomon (Steve Oram). Interesting choices of names here: "Sophia" being a figure in Gnosticism and "Solomon" is the Biblical king heavily associated with medieval demon grimoires. Neither character is 100% honest or the perfect person for this ritual. Joseph admits he's done this three times already, only succeeding once. Sophia was recently released from a psychiatric hospital and her mystical guide is detoxing from drug use. He looks nothing like a wise sage besides the scraggly beard, instead he's a nerdy unkempt man with a nasty personality. These two surround the house with a sand circle and must not leave for many months as they travel together through metaphysical circles into higher planes of reality.
For much of the film, the tension in A Dark Song is whether any of this is real. Are we actually witnessing a mystical experience or just two damaged people indulging in a shared fantasy? How much of a charlatan is Solomon? I notice he uses the five Chinese elements and writes Chinese characters in the ritual, which have no place in Abramelin. He becomes all the more dubious when he manipulates Sophia into a humiliating sexual act. Sophia meanwhile grows more impatient, while she has to confess she's not been truthful. Originally this summoning was to be able to speak to her deceased son again. However, in truth Sophia's goal is to get revenge on the teenagers who killed her son in some other occult ritual. Maybe her story will change even further.
The tension is fantastic largely because of how little chemistry our leads have. This not a romance, nor is it a master-student relationship. They're both awkward, troubled people and struggle to interact even as friends, let alone as partners. Joseph confesses what he wants from Sophia's angel is the power to disappear from society entirely. (He gets his wish in a way.) The obvious and hacky twist would to make Joseph the killer of Sophia's son, however A Dark Song never confirms anything like that. It is better for it.
Meanwhile though, something is happening. The signs start small but grow more and more intense as A Dark Song progresses. We start to hear a dog barking at night. Nothing too dramatic, except how is there a dog in the middle of nowhere? Maybe this is just selection-bias, Joseph choosing any random event like a bird crashing into a window as proof. But then Joseph is punished terribly with a knife to his side. With no way to escape, he must let the wound fester. Then Sophia hears her son speak to her through a closed door, a terrifying voice since she knows whatever is on the other side is not her boy. It is a slow but steady build to finally the house transforming into a place of nightmares, full of filth smeared on the walls and grubby demons sneaking in the shadows.
Speaking of builds, there is little to no score in A Dark Song. Once we finally pass fully outside any rational explanation, we finally get music flooding through the house. The soundtrack might even be diagetic, Sophia may be hearing this.
The demons of A Dark Song are terrifying yet simple effects, no puppetry or digital fakery required. These are just half-naked paint-smeared humans. It is an interesting take, not all-powerful monsters, they're just a horde of unclean chaos, great imagery. And they do terrible things in their short time on screen, painful things happen to bodies in this movie.
A Dark Song is a great horror movie with an incredible conclusion. If the demons are mundane, the climax is a fully uncanny special effect, jarring yet majestic. The mystical we have been searching for all movie cannot exist outside something this fantastic. The conclusion of Sophia's journey and the truth she gains is beautiful. It is a powerful revelation. In the end, A Dark Song is hopeful film, not just in a faith that mystical discipline can unlock cosmological truths, but that any therapy can be lead us into growth and healing.
Next Time! Hail, Paimon! No, not the little goblin child from Genshin Impact, this Paimon is much darker in Hereditary.
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