Chemical Wedding (film)

Chemical Wedding (released in the U.S. as Crowley ) is a 2008 British science-fantasy horror film produced by Bill and Ben Productions in conjunction with the London-based Focus Films. It is directed by Julian Doyle. The story is based on an original screenplay by Bruce Dickinson, front man of heavy metal band Iron Maiden. Dickinson released a solo album entitled The Chemical Wedding in 1998, which, despite sharing the title and title track from the film's soundtrack, is otherwise unrelated.

Plot
In 1947, Trinity College students, theologian Symonds and scientist Alex, visit the elderly Aleister Crowley. He discusses the possibility of resurrecting from the dead with the help of sex magic rituals. From the letter they handed over, he learns that one of his students gave away the secret of the "Moon Child" ritual to a science fiction writer. Finding no money in the letter, Crowley curses those who "steal his time", spit blood at Alex and dies. Symonds takes his watch.

The film takes place fifty years later on the grounds of Trinity College during Christmas. The narrator is Symonds, who became a university lecturer and the head of the local Masonic lodge. Alex is a physicist who is paralyzed to a wheelchair.

For a scientific project related to the connection of a person with virtual reality using the university (fictional) British supercomputer Z93, Dr. Mathers arrives from Caltech at Trinity College with a "virtual reality spacesuit". Journalist Leah Robertson arranges an interview with him.

Aleister Crowley's fan Victor, who works as a programmer on the project, conspires with literature professor Haddo to place "Aleister Crowley's binary code" (the locations and contents of all rituals) in Z93 in the form of a virus. Before the first official tests, Victor takes Haddo to the laboratory and he puts on a "spacesuit".

The next day, Aleister Crowley appears in Professor Haddo's body. He creates obscenities in lectures and among teachers, and promises the beginning of the Aeon of Horus in three days, when he is fully incarnated. No one believes that Haddo is Crowley, except for Leah Robertson, who conducts her investigation in the library. Crowley forces Victor to participate in a sex ritual, and makes him his follower.

Mathers and Victor conduct an experiment by placing Professor Brent in a "spacesuit". He finds himself in virtual reality, where he meets Crowley, gets a heart attack, and his brain stops responding to the outside world. Leah and Mathers, with the help of Symonds, try to prove to the dean that Haddo was in a "spacesuit" before Brent and was "programmed" by Victor.

Meanwhile, Crowley is looking for a red-haired girl for the final ritual "Chemical Wedding", which is supposed to stabilize Crowley's power in this world, killing several people along the way, including Leah's roommate. Leah follows him, and Crowley and Victor catch her right at the site of the future ritual.

At this time, Alex explains to Mathers that he brought something from CalTech that was an Elemental, the result of a ritual performed in 1947 by Parsons and Hubbard. In order to find Leah, Mathers and Symonds interrogate Brent under hypnosis, but receive only a few Masonic terms.

To find out the location of the "Chemical Wedding", Mathers enters the spacesuit himself. Symonds stays on the control panel, switching the disc with the recording of Brent's journey, ready to turn on the "Space Flight Simulator" that reverses time. Mathers discovers that Brent was entering a black hole that consumes space and time.

Crowley and Victor perform a ritual using Leah's blood as well, but in the process, Mathers appears near Crowley. He is separated by an "invisible barrier" from the Crowley scene, but somehow he breaks that barrier. He knocks the syringe containing Leah's blood out of Crowley's hands, and fights it.

Symonds, seeing that the spacesuit with Mathers has disappeared, turns on the "Flight Simulator". Time flows backwards. The suit returns to its place, but Symonds discovers Haddo inside. Everything went back in time on the day of the illegal experiment with Haddo.

Symonds finds out that no one remembers anything about the last three days. Alex explains to him that somewhere there is a parallel world where Crowley incarnated, and this world is worse than ours. Alex has only 2 questions - who killed Leah's neighbor Rosa in the current reality, and why Mathers was able to pass through the barrier. The camera shows a lying newspaper, where it is written that Al Gore won the US election.

Scientists continue the experiment. Victor cannot set the date on the spacesuit because it is set 3 days later. Mathers tells him the password to the spacesuit, which is his date of birth (which coincides with the date of Crowley's death). The computer, in response to the password, gives the inscription "Moon Child". At Haddo's lecture, Dr. Symonds and Alex discover that Crowley's watch, which Symonds was carrying with him, has disappeared.

Cast

 * Simon Callow as Professor Oliver Haddo/Aleister Crowley
 * Kal Weber as Dr. Joshua Mathers
 * Lucy Cudden as Lia Robinson
 * Jud Charlton as Victor Nuberg
 * Paul McDowell as Symonds
 * John Shrapnel as Aleister Crowley (original)
 * Terence Bayler as Professor Brent
 * Mike Shannon as Alex
 * Bruce Dickinson as Crowley's landlord and as a blind man
 * Richard Franklin as Dean of Trinity College University of Cambridge

Production
The film was originally proposed in 2000 and was to have been produced by Terry Jones' Messiah Films, but was later adopted by Focus Films. David Pupkewitz and Malcolm Kohll produced the film, with Ben Timlett and Justin Peyton of Bill and Ben Productions and Duellist Film Production in association with MotionFX and E-Motion. Executive producers are Andy Taylor, Paul Astrom-Andrews, and Peter Dale.

Warner Music released the film's soundtrack in the UK, while Edward Noeltner's Cinema Management Group handled international sales. The film received its world première at the Sci-Fi-London film festival on 4 May 2008.

According to Rockerparis, Iron Maiden lead singer Bruce Dickinson was in Paris on 26 November to promote the film's DVD release. The screening and press conference were held in a private cinema in front of Europe 1 radio near the Champs Elysées. Dickinson, who has a small cameo role in the film, has stated, "On several levels, I think it will be nice for them ([Iron Maiden fans]) to see somebody from Maiden doing something else that gets the band's name out there and also potentially gets a bit of respect for heavy metal and all the rest of it....But, in addition, I think they'll just enjoy it. It's a rollicking good story."

Reception
Horror.com praised the film, calling it "a mixed bag of tricks to be sure, but it's worth a look for the curio factor. (At least it's not a remake, a J-horror knock-off, or torture porn.)"

Soundtrack
Track listing:
 * 1) "Chemical Wedding" – Bruce Dickinson
 * 2) "Hush Hush Here Comes the Bogie Man" – Henry Hall / Val Rosing
 * 3) "Fanlight Fanny" – George Formby
 * 4) "Man of Sorrows" – Bruce Dickinson
 * 5) "The Wicker Man" – Iron Maiden
 * 6) "Can I Play with Madness" – Iron Maiden
 * 7) "Separation" – Skin
 * 8) "Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune" – Debussy
 * 9) "The Hallelujah Chorus" – Handel
 * 10) (Excerpt) "Violin Concerto" – Mozart