Two occult legends, one cursed villa, zero finished films — the ultimate failed art heist.
House of the Wickedest Man in the World is the story of a ruined building near the city of Cefalú in Sicily. In the early 1920s, Aleister Crowley, the most famous occultist of his time, lived in the building, practicing magical rituals. In the summer of 1955, Kenneth Anger, considered one of the pioneers of experimental cinema, traveled with sexologist Alfred Kinsey to Sicily to find Aleister Crowley’s temple to shoot a film about the occultist’s time in Cefalú. The Thelema Abbey film was never released.
Direction
Jan Ijäs treats ruins like unreliable narrators — perfect.
Sound
Dual narrators create delicious tension between voices.
Director
Jan Ijäs
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Kenneth Anger and Crowley represent two generations of queer occultists who used cinema and ritual to subvert mainstream morality — this villa was their impossible meeting point.
Richard Stanley, who narrates, famously got fired from his own Island of Dr. Moreau remake in 1996 — making him the perfect voice for stories of cinematic disaster.
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