Review of The Holy Mountain (1973) by John H — 14 Aug 2013

I'm all for weird and surreal movies, but The Holy Mountain just really didn't work for me. It's less a movie than it is a series of symbolic images, as there's not exactly a linear story to follow and there's minimal dialogue.

It makes absolutely no sense when confronted with the expectations of a conventional movie. I didn't expect it to make sense, but I was still wondering what the point of the movie's imagery was.

There's a brief scene where a group of frogs and lizards are dressed as Spanish conquistadors, then suddenly the frogs explode off-screen for no real reason. In another scene, a group of innocent people are shot, but instead of blood coming out of their wounds, birds fly out of the gaping holes in their chests.

The Holy Mountain almost feels like psychedelic art in motion, but the beautiful visuals weren't enough to hold my attention. If you're interested in strange cult movies, you might as well give it a shot, but I just didn't find much to keep me interested in The Holy Mountain.