The Spell Never Quite Takes Hold

Read Time:7 Minute, 12 Second

MOVIE REVIEW
Magick Mtn.
–

Genre: Horror, Fantasy, Anthology
Year: 2026
Runtime: 1h 20m
Directors: Hana Mae Lee, Hal Satin
Writers: Hana Mae Lee, Hal Satin
Cast: Ashton Hirota, Monica Lamela, Jose Herrasti, Jae Lee, Miriam Ataya, Ron Reihel, Ben Price, Daniel Adkins, Ozmodeus Le Preem
Where to Watch: available now; order your copy here: www.cleorecs.com, www.mvdshop.com, or www.amazon.com

RAVING REVIEW: MAGICK MTN. is the kind of movie where you see something else every few minutes that could have turned into something amazing. A face appears out of the darkness, an occult image appears, a song gives a sequence more energy than anything around it, or Hana Mae Lee and Hal Satin suddenly lock into a visual style that makes the movie feel uniquely its own. Then that moment passes, another idea arrives, and the film starts chasing something else before the previous idea had a chance to take hold. That cycle becomes the experience of watching it. There’s potential around almost every corner, but MAGICK MTN. rarely stays anywhere long enough to turn that potential into something complete.

The movie is structured as three overlapping fables tied together by Lord Mmorke, a ghoulish narrator who guides us through stories involving a Deathrock squatter, criminal plumbers, a corrupt psychiatrist, the Sunset Strip, an architect, the Devil, and plenty of people making bad decisions. Trying to summarize it beyond that almost works against what Lee and Satin are doing, because the movie isn’t interested in focused storytelling or conventional cause and effect. It wants to feel like something discovered in the back room of an occult bookstore, copied too many times and passed between people who probably shouldn’t have been watching it in the first place. (I can’t help but feel like the film was at least partly inspired by the 1989 film BEGOTTEN; if you end up liking this, definitely hunt that one down too!)

Shot largely in stark black and white, the movie has the rough texture of underground film, music video, performance art, and old horror imagery smashed together without much concern for whether the seams show. Some moments look composed; others feel deliberately broken or improvised. The inconsistency is part of the aesthetic, although that explanation only gets the movie so far. Visually, Lee and Satin are at their best when they stop worrying about narrative and simply commit to a disturbing image. Much of it has a tactile quality that fits the music and subject matter extremely well.

The soundtrack might be the high point. Rozz Williams, Eva O, Super Heroines, Resist and Exist, and other pieces of underground Goth and Deathrock history aren’t used as mere additions over existing scenes. That music is built into MAGICK MTN.'s identity, and in some parts the soundtrack even gives the movie a pulse its storytelling struggles to maintain.

Aleister Crowley also appears through archival recordings, pushing the film even further into its strange meeting place between occult history, underground music, and mythology. None of this feels particularly interested in explaining itself to an audience. MAGICK MTN. never feels embarrassed by what it loves. Goth culture, Satanic imagery, old fairy tales, underground film, and theatrical performance are allowed to exist without being explained to death for anyone standing outside. Lee and Satin clearly made this for themselves first, and honestly, that’s kind of inspirational.

At times, the film becomes so committed to atmosphere that the actual stories start to disappear underneath it. Characters make an impression, and then become hard to follow. Events happen with very little sense of escalation, and the anthology structure makes that fragmentation even harder to overcome because the movie keeps asking us to reset our attention. Anthologies usually survive because one story can compensate for another. Here, the boundaries are intentionally less stable, with the three beginning to bleed together inside the larger occult framework.

Monica Lamela is one of the people who breaks through that haze. Her presence is compelling, especially because she seems completely comfortable working on the movie’s frequency. She can make a strange moment feel even stranger without pushing it into parody, and whenever she appears, the film briefly gains a sharper center. That makes it slightly frustrating that no single character becomes strong enough to pull the entire production together. Lord Mmorke offers a framing device, but even he feels more like a scream into the ether than a guide. Daniel Adkins looks and sounds appropriately bizarre in the role, yet the narration doesn’t necessarily make the world easier to enter. Maybe it isn’t supposed to.

The first half has enough surprise to keep curiosity alive. You don’t know exactly what form the movie will take from scene to scene, and unpredictability has value on its own when the images are this committed. As it continues, though, that unpredictability starts producing diminishing returns. Once I understood that virtually anything could happen, seeing something else crazy happen stopped being enough to reengage me. That was around the point where MAGICK MTN. started losing me.

Dark fairy tales are a natural match for this world because their original forms were often violent, cruel, and strange. Lee and Satin recognize that, but the stories here don’t always develop enough clarity to gain the cruel simplicity that makes old folklore so effective. Instead, MAGICK MTN. keeps adding. More imagery. More characters. More mythology. More music. More ritual. More distortion. Eventually, all that accumulation starts having the opposite effect. Instead of making the film feel intense, it can make individual elements matter less because another one is already arriving behind them.

I still found plenty to admire, which is why this never dropped into something I hated. Lee and Satin have an actual point of view, and I’d rather watch filmmakers take a swing at something this strange than see another anonymous horror movie built from all the same pieces. Even when MAGICK MTN. frustrated me, I never questioned whether someone cared about what was being put on screen.

The DVD release also makes sense for a movie like this. MAGICK MTN. feels connected to physical media culture, bootlegs, underground music collections, and the sort of movie someone discovers because the cover looked intriguing enough to take home. Cleopatra Venom is almost too perfect a landing place considering the soundtrack and the company’s history with Goth and industrial music. That doesn’t fix the movie, but it fits it.

MAGICK MTN. has enough imagery, music, and oddity to make me wish it worked better. There are stretches where Lee and Satin seem one decision away from locking everything into place, and then another detour sends the movie somewhere else. That’s ultimately where I landed. This isn’t a case of a movie having nothing to offer; it almost has the opposite problem. So many interesting things compete for attention that very few get to become what the movie is actually about. For some viewers, that chaos will probably be the attraction.

I can already imagine this finding an audience that adores every confusing second and treats its lack of accessibility as part of the appeal. I’m not quite there. I wanted the spell to work. I could see all the ingredients sitting there, and several of them are genuinely impressive, but MAGICK MTN. kept moving before any of them could take effect.

Please visit https://linktr.ee/overlyhonestr for more reviews.

You can follow me on Letterboxd, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube. You can also find my social media accounts on most platforms by searching for 'Overly Honest Reviews'.

I’m always happy to hear from my readers; please don't hesitate to say hello or send me any questions about movies.

[photo courtesy of CLEOPATRA VENOM]

DISCLAIMER:
At Overly Honest Movie Reviews, we value honesty and transparency. Occasionally, we receive complimentary items for review, including DVDs, Blu-rays, CDs, Vinyl Records, Books, and more. We assure you these arrangements do not influence our reviews, as we are committed to unbiased, sincere evaluations. We aim to help you make informed entertainment choices regardless of our relationship with distributors or producers.

Amazon Affiliate Links:
This site also contains Amazon affiliate links. If you purchase through these links, we may receive a commission. This affiliate arrangement does not affect our commitment to honest reviews and helps support our site. We appreciate your trust and support as you navigate these links.