{ "id": "ep971h5aqk", "slug": "history-of-the-occult", "title": "History of the Occult", "updated": "2026-11-01", "topic_path": [ { "id": "culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture" }, { "id": "culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.horror", "label": "Horror films (individual works)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.horror" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.horror.supernatural-horror-films", "label": "Supernatural horror films", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.horror.supernatural-horror-films" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.horror.supernatural-horror-films.2020s-supernatural-horror-films", "label": "2020s supernatural horror films", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.horror.supernatural-horror-films.2020s-supernatural-horror-films" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.horror.supernatural-horror-films.2020s-supernatural-horror-films.alpha-m-to-y", "label": "Titles M to Y", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.horror.supernatural-horror-films.2020s-supernatural-horror-films.alpha-m-to-y" } ], "geo": [ { "id": "geo.latam.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Latin America and the Caribbean · 2001 to 2020: Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.latam.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "path": [ { "id": "geo.latam", "label": "Latin America and the Caribbean", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.latam" }, { "id": "geo.latam.t2001", "label": "Latin America and the Caribbean · 2001 to 2020", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.latam.t2001" }, { "id": "geo.latam.t2001.culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.latam.t2001.culture" }, { "id": "geo.latam.t2001.culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.latam.t2001.culture.performance" }, { "id": "geo.latam.t2001.culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.latam.t2001.culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "geo.latam.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.latam.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "geo.latam.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.latam.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works" } ] } ], "excerpt": "History of the Occult (Historia de lo oculto) is a 2020 Argentine black-and-white supernatural horror film, Cristian Ponce's directorial debut, about a final live TV broadcast exposing a government-occult conspiracy in 1980s Buenos Aires.", "snippet": "History of the Occult (Historia de lo oculto) is a 2020 Argentine black-and-white supernatural horror film, Cristian Ponce's directorial debut, about a final live TV broadcast exposing a government-occult conspiracy in 1980s Buenos Aires.", "node": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.horror.supernatural-horror-films.2020s-supernatural-horror-films.alpha-m-to-y", "markdown": "# History of the Occult\n\n**History of the Occult** (Spanish: *Historia de lo oculto*) is a 2020 Argentine supernatural horror film directed by Cristian Ponce, shot in black and white and set in the 1980s, in which the final live broadcast of a television news program becomes the setting for an attempt to expose a government linked to occultists[1](https://2023.spff.palace.pipelabs.dev/films/history-of-the-occult). It is Ponce's directorial debut, produced by Tangram Cine, and it runs 82 minutes in Spanish[1](https://2023.spff.palace.pipelabs.dev/films/history-of-the-occult) • [2](https://www.justwatch.com/us/movie/history-of-the-occult).\n\n| Key fact | Detail |\n|---|---|\n| Title / original title | History of the Occult / *Historia de lo oculto*[1](https://2023.spff.palace.pipelabs.dev/films/history-of-the-occult) |\n| Year, countries, runtime | 2020; Argentina and Mexico; 82 minutes[1](https://2023.spff.palace.pipelabs.dev/films/history-of-the-occult) |\n| Director and writer | Cristian Ponce, his first feature; he also wrote the screenplay[1](https://2023.spff.palace.pipelabs.dev/films/history-of-the-occult) • [3](https://www.sensacine.com/peliculas/pelicula-287551/) |\n| Principal cast | Germán Baudino (Adrián Marcato), Nadia Lozano (María), Héctor Ostrofsky (Alfredo)[1](https://2023.spff.palace.pipelabs.dev/films/history-of-the-occult) • [3](https://www.sensacine.com/peliculas/pelicula-287551/) |\n| Setting | An alternative 1980s Buenos Aires, during the last broadcast of the news show \"60 Minutes to Midnight\"[1](https://2023.spff.palace.pipelabs.dev/films/history-of-the-occult) |\n| Awards | Best Opera Prima and Best Argentine Breakthrough Actor, Mar del Plata International Film Festival 2020[1](https://2023.spff.palace.pipelabs.dev/films/history-of-the-occult) |\n| Release | Direct to TV on 6 November 2020; later streaming on Amazon Prime Video, Tubi, and other services[3](https://www.sensacine.com/peliculas/pelicula-287551/) • [2](https://www.justwatch.com/us/movie/history-of-the-occult) |\n\n## Spoilers\n\n### Premise\n\nThe film takes place during the final broadcast of *60 Minutes to Midnight*, described as the most famous journalism show on Argentine television[1](https://2023.spff.palace.pipelabs.dev/films/history-of-the-occult). The studio guest is Adrián Marcato (Germán Baudino), a self-professed warlock who claims to be in cahoots with the country's political elite, and who is willing to admit everything on live television for a price[1](https://2023.spff.palace.pipelabs.dev/films/history-of-the-occult). Since a notebook was found at the scene of a killing in Buenos Aires, the show's journalists have been investigating occultists who appear to be controlling Argentina from behind the scenes, and they race against the clock to expose the conspiracy on air[1](https://2023.spff.palace.pipelabs.dev/films/history-of-the-occult).\n\nThe [Mar del Plata](https://www.edgepedia.org/mar-del-plata) festival catalog describes the setting as an alternative 1980s Buenos Aires in which the government of a businessman, President Emilio Belasco (Guillermo Perelstein), is about to collapse under multiple corruption accusations and conspiracy theories involving black magic[4](https://latierraquema.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/catalogo35mdpff.pdf). The supporting cast includes Casper Uncal as Abel, Agustín Recondo as Jorge Federici, Hernán Altamirano as Senator Matías Linares, and Lucía Arreche as Natalia[2](https://www.justwatch.com/us/movie/history-of-the-occult).\n\n## Production\n\nPonce developed the idea over two or three years and, when production became possible, wrote the screenplay in a little over a week[5](https://www.terrorweekend.com/2019/12/entrevista-cristian-ponce-director.html). He described the film from the start as a very low-budget project, and securing the financial base was what determined that it could be made[5](https://www.terrorweekend.com/2019/12/entrevista-cristian-ponce-director.html). The production company was Tangram Cine, based in [La Plata](https://www.edgepedia.org/la-plata), where Ponce had previously directed shorts and web series[6](https://asalallena.com.ar/entrevista-cristian-ponce-director-historia-lo-oculto/).\n\nThe film was shot in three blocks, one for each location seen on screen, so the crew rarely worked with more than five actors at a time; the television studio scenes and the journalists' off-air investigation were handled with different tones and dynamics[5](https://www.terrorweekend.com/2019/12/entrevista-cristian-ponce-director.html). The street chase segment was written as a self-contained short and was shortened further in production, because winter shooting and a lack of lights made illuminating long streets impractical[7](https://cinemarama.wordpress.com/2020/12/17/entrevista-con-cristian-ponce-director-de-historia-de-lo-oculto/). Casting drew almost entirely on actors from the La Plata scene whom Ponce had worked with or knew socially[5](https://www.terrorweekend.com/2019/12/entrevista-cristian-ponce-director.html).\n\n## Style and influences\n\nThe black-and-white photography has both narrative and aesthetic motives for Ponce: the story gives a specific reason for the film to look this way, and he values black and white as an expressive tool for a film in which what is told and what is hidden move between shadows and light[5](https://www.terrorweekend.com/2019/12/entrevista-cristian-ponce-director.html). SensaCine summarizes the approach as moving the 1970s conspiracy thriller into the territory of horror[3](https://www.sensacine.com/peliculas/pelicula-287551/).\n\nPonce names three concrete influences: Alan Pakula's *All the President's Men* for the political-thriller narrative, *Rosemary's Baby* for a progression from a film that does not present itself as genre cinema to one that unmistakably is, and, on a formal level, *The Salesman*, the Maysles brothers' documentary about Bible salesmen in the United States[5](https://www.terrorweekend.com/2019/12/entrevista-cristian-ponce-director.html). He has cited [John Carpenter](https://www.edgepedia.org/john-carpenter) and [David Lynch](https://www.edgepedia.org/david-lynch) among his favorite directors[5](https://www.terrorweekend.com/2019/12/entrevista-cristian-ponce-director.html).\n\n**On history and fiction.** Asked whether the film's world is a ucronía (an alternate-history setting), Ponce rejected the label, calling it instead \"the illusion of a false past\" and pointing to the reference to the Malvinas as the most specific difference from real history; within the story, he said, it is the antagonists who construct a false past for their own benefit[7](https://cinemarama.wordpress.com/2020/12/17/entrevista-con-cristian-ponce-director-de-historia-de-lo-oculto/). He built the screenplay from a realistic journalistic-investigation case, modeled partly on the investigative methods described in a book by the journalist Daniel Santoro, and then replaced realistic elements with fantastic and horror elements, so that a murder becomes a complete disappearance from reality[7](https://cinemarama.wordpress.com/2020/12/17/entrevista-con-cristian-ponce-director-de-historia-de-lo-oculto/). He deliberately cut explanatory material in the script and the edit, aiming to give viewers enough elements to imagine their own version of what they had seen[7](https://cinemarama.wordpress.com/2020/12/17/entrevista-con-cristian-ponce-director-de-historia-de-lo-oculto/).\n\n## Reception and awards\n\nAt the Mar del Plata International Film Festival 2020 the film won Best Opera Prima and Best Argentine Breakthrough Actor, and it was later an official selection at the Tromsø International Film Festival 2022[1](https://2023.spff.palace.pipelabs.dev/films/history-of-the-occult). [TV Guide](https://www.edgepedia.org/tv-guide) lists additional 2020 nominations for Best Motion Picture (New Visions Award), Best Argentinean Film, and an ASA Sound Design Award, plus a win for the Special Jury Award for Best Latin American First Feature[8](https://www.tvguide.com/movies/history-of-the-occult/2060073821/). An Argentine industry document reports that the film was chosen Best Horror Feature Film of 2021 by the platform [Letterboxd](https://www.edgepedia.org/letterboxd)[9](https://convivimos.naranjax.com/wp-content/uploads/CNV-358-baja.pdf).\n\nAudience measures have been moderate: [JustWatch](https://www.edgepedia.org/justwatch) records an IMDb rating of 6.4 from about 2,500 votes and a 63 percent JustWatch rating[2](https://www.justwatch.com/us/movie/history-of-the-occult), while Rotten Tomatoes shows a 69 percent Popcornmeter audience score with no critic reviews counted[10](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/history_of_the_occult). The film reached a wide United States audience through streaming: it is available on Amazon Prime Video, fuboTV, Tubi, and other services, with a digital release dated December 6, 2022[2](https://www.justwatch.com/us/movie/history-of-the-occult) • [11](https://www.moviefone.com/movie/history-of-the-occult/NGg7ZTszxtbszQZ3ZJ2iE7/where-to-watch/). Rotten Tomatoes describes it as \"a supernatural thriller from the creators of Netflix's The Kirlian Frequency\", referring to Ponce's earlier animated series *La frecuencia Kirlian*[10](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/history_of_the_occult) • [4](https://latierraquema.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/catalogo35mdpff.pdf).\n\n## References\n\n1. [History of the Occult, HSBC Spanish Film Festival 2023 program page](https://2023.spff.palace.pipelabs.dev/films/history-of-the-occult)\n2. [History of the Occult streaming: where to watch online?, JustWatch](https://www.justwatch.com/us/movie/history-of-the-occult)\n3. [Historia de lo oculto (2020), SensaCine](https://www.sensacine.com/peliculas/pelicula-287551/)\n4. [Historia de lo oculto catalog entry, Mar del Plata International Film Festival 2020](https://latierraquema.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/catalogo35mdpff.pdf)\n5. [Entrevista a Cristian Ponce, director de Historia de lo Oculto, TerrorWeekend (Ventana Sur 2019)](https://www.terrorweekend.com/2019/12/entrevista-cristian-ponce-director.html)\n6. [Entrevista a Cristian Ponce, director de Historia de lo oculto, A Sala Llena](https://asalallena.com.ar/entrevista-cristian-ponce-director-historia-lo-oculto/)\n7. [Entrevista con Cristian Ponce, director de «Historia de lo oculto», Cinemarama](https://cinemarama.wordpress.com/2020/12/17/entrevista-con-cristian-ponce-director-de-historia-de-lo-oculto/)\n8. [History of the Occult, TV Guide](https://www.tvguide.com/movies/history-of-the-occult/2060073821/)\n9. [La película argentina Historia de lo oculto elegida Mejor Largometraje de Terror de 2021 por Letterboxd, Convivimos document](https://convivimos.naranjax.com/wp-content/uploads/CNV-358-baja.pdf)\n10. [History of the Occult, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/history_of_the_occult)\n11. [History of the Occult: Where to Watch, Moviefone](https://www.moviefone.com/movie/history-of-the-occult/NGg7ZTszxtbszQZ3ZJ2iE7/where-to-watch/)\n\n---\n*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Horror films (individual works) › Supernatural horror films › 2020s supernatural horror films › Titles M to Y*\n\n*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*\n\n*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*\n\nLicense: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license\n", "same_as": [], "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/history-of-the-occult", "markdown_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/history-of-the-occult.md", "license": { "name": "Edgepedia Community License 1.0", "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license", "summary": "Free with credit, commercial use included. AI training is open to everyone. For other uses, organizations over USD 100M in revenue or 100M monthly users license separately.", "spdx": "LicenseRef-Edgepedia-Community-1.0" }, "credit": "\"History of the Occult\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/history-of-the-occult. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "credit_md": "\"[History of the Occult](https://www.edgepedia.org/history-of-the-occult)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), [https://www.edgepedia.org/history-of-the-occult](https://www.edgepedia.org/history-of-the-occult). [Edgepedia Community License 1.0](https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license).", "credit_html": "\"History of the Occult\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/history-of-the-occult. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "speakable": "History of the Occult is a 2020 Argentine black-and-white supernatural horror film, Cristian Ponce's directorial debut, about a final live TV broadcast exposing a government-occult conspiracy in 1980s Buenos Aires." }