The Otherworld (2013)

The career of Richard Stanley is a classic and unfortunately all too common Hollywood horror story of an extraordinarily talented artist chewed up and spit out by the studio system. Although the film rightfully found its cult audience, Stanley's debut feature Hardware (1990) was distributed by the infamous Weinstein brothers and for a number of years was at the center of several convoluted rights disputes, though that's nothing compared to the abuse Stanley's second feature Dust Devil (1992) suffered. Butchered beyond recognition removing nearly of the films esoteric mystique, the film also suffered multiple rights issues over the years. It wasn't until 2006 when Stanley finally assembled his final cut. Of course, the historic debacle surrounding Stanley's firing from The Island of Dr. Moreau (1996) was documented brilliantly by Severin Film's David Gregory in the Lost Soul: The Doomed Journey of Richard Stanley's Island of Dr. Moreau (2014). Still, considering some of the individuals involved in the mishandling of Stanley's films, it's Stanley that had the last laugh, calling “Action!” on his long overdue third feature film, his take on H.P. Lovecraft's Colour out of Space in 2019. Stanley was hardly laying dormant after the Moreau clusterfuck however, staying busy with shorts and documentaries on some pretty curious subjects, the most memorable and eccentric of the bunch, The Otherworld, finds Stanley studying a subject ripe for treatment in one of his fictional narratives.

Once a stronghold for the Cathars, a religious sect persecuted and eventually slaughtered by the Catholic church who razed the Château de Montségur, the Cathar's fortress in 1244, Montségur, a settlement located in the Pyrenees mountains in the southwest of France has been Stanley's home for several years and is the subject of The Otherworld (L'autre monde). More specifically, an area refereed to as “The Zone”, which has been said to contain portals to other dimensions, leading many of the supernaturally inclined to congregate to the region. Tracing the history of the region and the Cathar's, Stanley explores the strange phenomena surrounding his adopted home while also reminiscing on an otherworldly encounter he himself experienced in The Zone.

The Otherworld is bound to be a divisive film from the outset based on two specific groups of people bringing their own biases to the material. Skeptical types will dismiss the outlandishness of some of the testimonials heard throughout the film while others who already had an inkling of believing in some form of “beyond” will either walk away just as, if not more convinced than before. When viewed from a completely unprejudiced lens, The Otherworld is a fascinating documentary on a variety of fronts. Stanley structures the film in an interesting manner, opening the film with himself ominously warning anyone watching that was he is about to tell is the story of the strangest thing that ever happened to him, before switching gears and getting into some general history of the area of Montségur. Although the film isn't and doesn't pretend to be a thorough history lesson on Montségur, it's this history of the region and the overview of the Cathar's that make for some of the films most engaging moments. Naturally Stanley encounters some fairly wild characters along the way. If the film has a “main character”, it would Uraine, an eccentric sorcerer who hangs print-outs of Italian horror film posters all around his property. Equally riviting is Stanley's tale of his meeting with a spirit in the ruins of the Château de Montségur. Stanley being a brilliant raconteur vividly paints with words, at one point humorously describing his surroundings during his ghostly memory as resembling a “bad Black Sabbath video.”

It's also worth noting that “The Zone” is the nickname given to the outer regions of the nuclear wasteland in Hardware, the mysterious nomad played by Fields of the Nephilim frontman Carl McCoy who discovers the Mark-13 droid parts given the moniker of “Zone Tripper”. Stanley has said that portions of Hardware were inspired by late nights listening to Iron Maiden's “Flash of the Blade” on repeat and funnily enough, the legendary band would later include a song called “Montségur” on their album Dance of Death making reference to the storming of the Château de Montségur. Born in South Africa, Stanley was no stranger to the occult with the culture of magic and mysticism in Africa being very strong. Stanley's mother, anthropologist Penny Miller, even published a book on the subject in 1979, appropriately titled Myths and Legends of Southern Africa. Two of Stanley's previous documentaries also dealt with somewhat similar subjects with The Secret Glory (2001) delving into the story of Nazi SS officer Otto Rahn's search for the Holy Grail and The White Darkness (2002) exploring voodoo in Haitian culture. Both engrossing watches, but The Otherworld finds Stanley working on a grander and even more esoteric scale. The film has a higher pedigree than other documentaries as well thanks to the exquisite cinematography of Karim Hussain and score from Simon Boswell making a trip to Stanley's otherworldly zone well worth taking.