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The first time I’d ever heard the name Lillith was because of a role-playing game. In the 90s, Dungeons & Dragons wasn’t quite hardcore enough, so we had to delve into the White Wolf World of Darkness. And tabletop wasn’t hardcore enough, we had to do it live action. That’s right, baby, LARPing (just like Peter Dinklage in the underrated Knights of Badassdom).
If you don’t know what LARPing is, it’s where you dress like your character and act out your Dungeons & Dragons game, except we pretended we were vampires and that the basements of our parents’ houses were nightclubs. Instead of rolling dice, we did rock, papers, scissors, and of course we dressed up goth AF.
White Wolf eventually made it to the mainstream with their TV show, Kindred: The Embraced which was a C. Thomas Howell-starring evening soap about vampires using the mythology from the game. I’m sure that FOX thought they were getting a new Dark Shadows, when it was a lot more like What We Do In The Shadows without the unintentional jokes (it does have a deep bench of 90s’ TV talent though from X-Files’ alien bounty hunter to Lana Lang from Superboy).
Anyway, in the game, Lillith was known as the “Mother of Vampires”. In the Garden of Eden, she was created from the same clay as Adam and was his original wife. However, Lillith was not interested in being subservient to Adam and eventually was kicked out of Eden after doing the nasty with an angel and also reportedly refusing to be on the bottom when she was getting it on with Adam. She’s only mentioned in the Bible once, but she features more prominently in Jewish mysticism and folklore.
So, she’s associated with sex from the very start and she becomes a boogyeman in medieval Jewish culture. If your baby died in the middle of the night, it was Lillith. If you woke up in the middle of the night and felt a pressure on your chest (like the “Old Hag Syndrome”), it was Lillith. She’s been a bad guy in much more than vampire role-playing games, she’s a villian from Supernatural to Bordello of Blood.
Well, in the intervening centuries, the idea of women being subservient to men has gone the way of other medieval thinking and Lillith has been reinvented as an avatar of feminine strength and defiance (Sarah McLachlan even invoked her name for the women-centric fair that was popluar in the late-90s.)
However, in the new horror-comedy, Porno, which premiered at the 2019 SXSW Film Festival, Lillith is back to being the good ol’ Sex Demon that we all know and love. This time she’s tormenting the poor innocent teenagers working at a small town movie theater.
Drected by Keola Racela and written by Matt Black, Laurence Vannicelli, Porno is right up the alley for fans of Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead or Peter Jackson’s Braindead , it’s ridiculous, scary, over-the-top, and has plenty of boobs and blood. We had a chance to talk to the filmmakers, writers, and the cast of Porno at SXSW and interview them about the film. Here’s some of the things you’ll learn in the conversation:
- The inspiration they took from filmmaker and occultist, Kenneth Anger for their film within a film structure
- What medieval monks have to do with the original mythology of the Succubus
- The real-life spookiness of the semi-abandoned town they shot in New York
- How to keep the right balance of horror and comedy
- Everyone’s favorite and most influential horror movies
Lillith is the spirit of defiance and she copulated with demons and sought vengeance on humanity for being kicked out of the Garden of Eden. For that, we thought we’d include probably the most defiant song we have. Sometimes you’ve just had enough, just like Lillith did in the Garden of Eden, and you’re sick of being on the bottom. That’s what this track is about, here’s Sunspot with “Step On It”.
I’m tired of being your yes man.
Your fleeting whims have bled me dry.
I think “No %&*ing way” has a better ring to it anyway,
Than “How can I please you again my dear?”
I’ve had enough of being your boy toy.
The world will still revolve, but not around you.
I’m gonna stay around; if you don’t like that get out of town
cuz I will not please you again my dear.
Every time I see your face,
I think that I might want to
STEP ON IT!
This is for every guy and every girl around the world
That you have hurt in your whole life
You take and do not give you take and
Do not give. You’ve been there too;
How could you leave and hurt me too?
You take and do not give you take and
Do not give! B%&*!
Your egomania has worn me out,
guess I won’t be the one to cut you
down to size,
I think get on your knees has a lot
more power than “pretty please”,
so how will you please me again my dear?
Every time I see your face,
I think that I might want to
STEP ON IT!
This is for every guy and every girl around the world
That you have hurt in your whole life
You take and do not give you take and
Do not give. You’ve been there too;
How could you leave and hurt me too?
You take and do not give you take and
Do not give!
Every time I see your face,
I think that I might want to
TACKLE YOU!
This is for every guy and every girl around the world
That you have hurt in your whole life
You take and do not give you take and
Do not give. You’ve been there too;
How could you leave and hurt me too?
I turned my time to pleasing you,
You turned away and now you take and
Do not give, you take and do not give you take and
Do not give!
I’ve had enough of being your yes-man,
I’m sick and tired of being your boy-toy.
