Secret Rites

After a "shocker" opening, the film details, documentary-style, a series of satanic rituals involving young initiate Penny, performed by Wiccan High Priest Alex Sanders and his coven.

After a spoof opening sequence to illustrate some popular misconceptions, with a screaming girl victim rescued from "unmentionable obscenities" by a crucifix-wielding hero, the film concentrates almost entirely on ritual as performed by Alex Sanders' now famous coven.

Mystery band The Spindle provide the groovy, psychedelic sounds while tentative occult enthusiast Penny and a serious-sounding narrator introduce the viewer to three ritual acts.

"[4] The Journal of Film Preservation wrote: "The emphasis, predictably, is on bare flesh, brazenly displayed in a variety of solemnly enacted rituals and ceremonies.

She takes the Underground to a distinctly ungentrified Notting Hill Gate to speak to Alex Sanders, who attempts to weed out time-wasters with warnings of the regular discussion groups and lengthy periods of private study required, rather than 'any other things' she may have been anticipating.

"[6] David McGillivray wrote that the film is: "ostensibly a documentary about the bizarre activities of Alex Sanders, self-styled King of the Witches, although everything reeks of phoniness.

It starts with a deliberately clichéd Hammer Horror-style black magic ritual, before cutting to Sanders saying that this is not the reality of today's witchcraft.