Imagine the publishers of those 'The World of the Unknown' books had attempted to translate them to the big screen, only to fall under the collective influence of Haxan, Rabbit's Moon by Kenneth Anger, and possibly even The Legend of the Witches.
That's the best stab I can make at the tricky job of trying to describe The Pocket Film of Superstitions to another person. Bypassing a traditional narrative, it instead favours a series of visualised anecdotes depicting the superstitions that have plagued man throughout the ages. Ranging from the fear of walking under ladders, spilling salt, stepping on a crack, to superstitions that take us deeper into horror territory as the film turns it's attention to vampires, haunted houses, witchcraft and other things that go bump in the night.
Elements of folk horror, pseudo documentary, and Pythonesque humour and animation all mingle together, in what ultimately comes across as a glass raising toast to British eccentricity. While the overall tone is playful, irreverent, almost Horrible Histories at times, there is still a fair share of unsettling imagery here. An encounter with a demonic baby, with the unusual aliment of having branches emerging from its mouth, being a highlight in that respect. The impressive, generation spanning cast of cult stars includes Hammer veterans Caroline Munro and Pauline Peart, the disembodied head of Lynn Lowry, new queen of Brit horror Dani Thompson, and the vocal talents of Patrick Olliver, formerly of Michael J Murphy movies. Stylishly shot in black and white, and ambitiously set over various periods of history, in terms of imagination this is streets ahead of the 'knock 'em out quickly'/fast food approach to filmmaking that has tended to dominate the British horror scene of late. While on a visual level, The Pocket Film of Superstitions will save you having to buy any magic mushrooms for a while.
