First Transmission

"First Transmission" is a British shockumentary from 1982, made by Thee Temple Ov Psychick Youth.

As a warning, this film is NOT to be viewed to any viewer under 18. Also this film is not recommended to any squeamish viewer because of the explicit content mentioned below.

Some basics about the content, NO ending spoilers included: This almost 4-hour-long shockumentary film consists of several slow-pacing segments, which all together include sick and twisted stuff like: a Satanic ritual, castrations, footages of a Mexican boy getting some device in his left arm, clips from "Guyana: Crime of the century", the full short film "SXXX-80" and a "Psychoporn" sequence set to some weird music.

As far as I know, this film has not been released on DVD at once, it was only released on VHS, in four parts when the film was made in the UK. And therefore this film is to be looked at as a pretty rare shockumentary film made in UK. Honestly, it is not common for this country to make such direct-to-video movies like this. Even the United States could have made this as films like "Faces of Death" and "Traces of Death" were made in said country.

Also it is not common for a shockumentary films to last for as long as 4 hours; most other films in this genre usually last for between 60 to 90-minutes.

Thee Temple Ov Psychick Youth, who made this film, was a fellowship founded by several groups in 1981, including music bands like Psychic TV, Coil and Current 93.

I have said this before, but again, this film is NOT to be viewed, neither to any squeamish people or any viewer under the age of 18. Hope you can endure this long-running shockumentary flick as I just did for just a hour ago, well if you are into this kind of disturbing stuff like this... ;-)

"First Transmission" is a deeply unsettling compilation video that features several films made by The Temple ov Psychick Youth.It's about 6 hours long,it has the 'satanic abuse and murder' on it,a bunch of interviews,some ritual pornography,footage of People's Temple leader Jim Jones,Psychic TV on BBC2,and truly sick quasi-snuff film called "Castration Movie"."Psychic TV Vol.1" for example contains "The Ritual ov Psychick Youth" which documents a brutal and sadistic TOPY initiation ritual.We see a bound man whipped,drugged,ritualistically mutilated with a knife and smeared with his own blood.Then he is given a blood enema.This forty minutes long video is truly disturbing as it's obviously real with no special effects involved.Its sheer power to shock and disturb resulted in labelling Genesis P.Orridge as a Satanist.On the other hand,"Psychic TV Vol.2" features incredibly upsetting 'snuff' video "Castration Movie".A disclaimer in which claims that the following footage is being investigated by the FBI for acts of actual violence and mutilation,as well as the exploitation of children.The video then begins and you can kind of tell it was made in the mid maybe late 70's by the clothing and cars.It is grainy mostly looking like it was shot on a home camera of some sort.Two men are apparently making the video,one a doctor of some sort and a cameraman whom we never see."Castration Movie" documents the two men setting up shop in a local motel and eventually persuading young boys to come to the motel room where they have some sort of miniature steel rod inserted in their arms.This rod apparently acts like a conductor of some sort to which they can then apply live wires to,to achieve some sort of electrical induced orgasm.The video then cuts for about 20 minutes of clipped footage of these boys using the new implants in different locations.Finally one of them in the motel room uses it too much and dies.The doctor freaks out,starts waving his hands around for the camera to cut which it does.The next scene is the doctor driving and the cameraman filming the road,and they apparently are splitting town crossing the Mexican border.Finally it shows them setting up shop in a Mexican hotel then it cuts to graphic scene of a young boy surgically castrated.Personally I don't know what to think about this extremely disturbing video.It appears to be real,but I strongly believe that some parts of it are cleverly simulated.On "Psychic TV Vol.2" there is also a propaganda documentary "Disaptches" about the rise of Satanism in UK.It claims that Psychic TV's "First Transmission" tape was a Satanic ritual and TOPY was responsible for murdering children.According to Genesis P.Orridge himself,a fundamentalist lawyer in Liverpool had convinced a couple of mental patients to relocate to a Christian safe house in the North of England where,through various methods including sleep deprivation they would confess to involvement in a Satanic cult,in this case TOPY.Overall,as a collector of extreme cinema I was quite pleased with "First Transmission" videos.However this stuff is definitely not for the easily shocked.

I can't give FIRST TRANSMISSION a "proper" rating. As listed on here, it is made up of several short films that I received on 3 discs (thanks STREEBO...) apparently culled from the "works" of the cult group, THEE TEMPLE OV PSYCHICK YOUTH - though I'm not positive that all the material on the 3 discs is strictly from THEE TEMPLE. As these are compilation discs, there is some material that appears to be related, but not from the group itself. You'll see what I mean later...

The little bit that I've researched this group gives me the same impression that I get from any "radical" religious or anti-religious sect - and that is - that THEE TEMPLE is made up of wayward and confused young adults that are screaming out for attention and acceptance by searching for answers and meaning in a world that can really provide them with neither. As is common with most of these subversive groups - it appears that drugs and sex are their "gateway" to enlightenment, along with strange and unintelligible rituals and beliefs that really make no sense. Don't believe me?...check out their official website (www.TOPY.net) and tell me what you make of it. Anyway - here's the films I saw - I'll give a short description of each and my thoughts...

DISC 1: The "film" starts with a monologue from a spokesperson for THEE TEMPLE basically spouting nonsensical rhetoric about the power of busting a nut...not very interesting - just strange.

Next we have THEE RITUAL OV PSYCHICK YOUTH. I have to admit - this is a pretty powerful short film that shows some rough material. It's shot very art-house style with dark lighting and some strange interspersed editing - but it works on a shock-value level. It starts with a bound man being whipped by some others. Later on we see this same person laid on a mattress and along with others of the "group" and drugged and ritualistically cut with a knife. This stuff is real. There are obviously no special FX involved here. There are some strange brief scenes edited in of some sort of sex rituals and other weird visuals. Eventually - the guy on the mattress is p!ssed on and given what appears to be a blood enema. All of this isn't quite as horrible as it sounds, but it is semi-disturbing and not recommended for the average film viewer. There is no "story" involved in this short-film - just more of an "artistic" documentary of the events taking place. The strange ambient music makes the whole thing that much stranger...

Next comes THANK YOU DAD - which is just a bunch of stock dialogue from notorious suicide cult-leader Jim Jones with some very grainy film stock thrown in.

Next up - DREAM MACHINE which is just some weird logo that spins around on a fuzzy background. This lasts a minute or two...

Finally we have some more rhetoric in the form of INDIVIDUAL OV POWER - nothing to really comment about this nonsense...

DISC 2: Contains the "infamous" castration film that is thought by some to possibly be real snuff footage. Two big misconceptions about this film - Number 1: it's not snuff - no one is killed in the film. Number 2 - it's not a castration film as castration designates having your nuts removed. That's not what happens. This kid is de-penised - maybe just a matter of semantics, but I thought I'd mention it. This short is very weird and very real. I believe that the footage contained herein is completely authentic. Watch it and judge for yourself. It basically shows some "doctor" who is experimenting on seemingly willing young adults (I hope for legalities sake that they're adults...) by attaching some weird electrodes to them. This whole thing culminates with the last boy - where the doctor removes his penis on film, sews it up, and then attaches electrodes to it. I have no idea what's actually happening in the film as the only audio is what sounds like television noise - but it appears to be 100% real. The production values are too low for any sort of special FX - and there are no "cut-aways" - this is some weird sh!t...

After this is a documentary about Satanism in the UK that I don't think has anything to do with THEE TEMPLE, except for the fact that the video of RITUAL OV PSYCHICK YOUTH is used as an example of possible "proof" of ritualistic torture...

Disc 3: Is a bunch of footage from PSYCHICK TV - a band who at the time was the "propaganda arm" of THEE TEMPLE. It has some live performance footage mixed in with weird intercut visuals. There are a few more shorts on this disc too - nothing noteworthy, especially the horribly named PSYCHOPORN which sounded really promising, but is just a bunch of out of focus crap with weird music behind it...

Overall - this is a very "interesting" set of films. I can't say that I liked them...but RITUAL and the de-penising film are strong material for those that thrive on underground sleaze. If you're like me - you'll want to check these out. Although pretty rare - they are available if you hunt for 'em...

"All the most vile worms and decadent amoral creatures from the gutter were represented here tonight. These people are the wreckers of civilization."

--Genesis P. Orridge quoting Nicholas Fairburn.

"First Transmission" was filmed by "Thee Temple Ov Psychick Youth" and is not a film with a narrative plot per se, but is in actuality a documentary of a brutal initiation ritual. The version of "First Transmission" that I watched is comprised of four segments including "Ritual Ov Psychick Youth", "The Dream Machine", "Thank You Dad", and "Individual Ov Power".

"First Transmission" was designed as an initiation ritual into the ways of Thee Temple of Psychick Youth. The "Ritual Ov Psychick Youth" segment was filmed in documentary style to capture the brutal ritual in unflinching although sometimes dimly light or poorly focused detail. The sheer verisimilitude of "Ritual Ov Psychick Youth" incited the "Satanic witch hunts" that resulted in the ousting of Genesis P.Orridge from England in the early nineties. The scenario plays out amid a cacophony of horns and rattles that rise and fall like a swarm of locusts and we watch as a young man, bound and naked, is kicked, whipped, dragged, and painted with offal over the next forty-odd minutes. The docu-style footage is broken up with montage shots of a woman undergoing scarification, quick flashes of pornography, and if this wasn't enough to shock the most seasoned and experienced viewers of filth, you get to see an enema as well. Not everything is shown clearly as there is an act of genitalia mutilation at the climax of the ritual which is mostly obscured.

Its easy to see how people could react much in the same way as Nicholas Fairburn. I myself felt thoroughly repulsed and sickened by the acts depicted in "Ritual Ov Psychick Youth". This is no doubt the exact reaction that Genesis P. Orridge had in mind for the viewers. Thee Temple Ov Psychick Youth proclaims to be a cult that does not exist and seeks to help people fully actualize their own individuality through experiments designed to shock viewers and challenge their perceptions of social and sexual paradigms. This is not a film designed for the general public, but should be of interest to anyone interested in magickal rituals or sleaze hounds alike.

First of all I have been a fan of Psychic TV, Throbbing Gristle and Genesis P. Orridge for years. "First Transmission" was advertised in in the first edition of Thee Grey Book and it features TOPY spokesman, lengthy TOPY ritual involving bloody mutilation and enema, misdeeds of a San Diego medical detective, views of Gysin's Dreamachine, Jim Jones archive footage with various bodies lying on the ground of Jonestown, quasi-pornographic 'SXXX-80' made by Monte Cazazza, PTV interview on BBC2, ritual porn with Thee Temple and finally "(volume three, title unknown") which includes "TV Wipeout" (Doublevision Video, UK, 1983, includes "Terminus" video) and "Morgana-Flowers From The Underground" (Kartell Video, 1984, includes "Terminus"). I loved this shocking and grotesque spectacle of ritualistic mutilation, castration and sperm. Satanic rituals of Norwegian black metallers will never top the vicious audacity of Psychic TV's "First Transmission".

The closest thing to REAL snuff movie I have ever seen.