THE ASTROLOGER (1976)—I did it all for the numbers.

Cinema of Cruelty (Movies for Masochists)

This week, The Cultists present Craig Denny's The Astrologer (1976). In 1976 a man named Craig Denny completed a very special film. A film of significant grand importance to, well, only Craig Denny, really. Essentially your standard vanity project to showcase Denny’s range of “skills,” The Astrologer tells the abridged tale of the alleged autobiography of Denny’s life as a conman, psychic, astrologer, business tycoon, jewel thief, and all around international man of star-blessed leisure. Once lost, but later found, restored, and uploaded to the internet a full 40 years after its completion, The Astrologer remains a testament to the enduring prevailing mystery of how some films—through a single surviving release print and a twist of “fate”—manage to cling to life, and how some of the greatest mysteries of all, no matter how mundane, still remain frustratingly unsolvable.

Episode Safeword: “skepticism”