May Day, celebrating the vibrancy of spring, is directly preceded by Walpurgis Nacht. So our movie watching in celebration will be taking both of these holiday’s into account with a couple of pairs:

• La Noche de Walpurgis (1971) – released in the US as The Werewolf vs. The Vampire Woman and also known as Werewolf Shadow, is the fifth in a series of movies about Waldemar Daninsky, played by Paul Naschy.
• El Retorno de Walpurgis (1973) – is the seventh in the same series about werewolf Waldemar Daninsky.
• Ritual of Evil (1970) – sequel to Fear No Evil (1969) and following the supernatural investigations of psychiatrist Dr. Sorrell.
• The Devil Rides Out (1968) – occultists are baptized into their new lives on Walpurgisnacht in the late 1920s.
• The Wickerman (1973) – famous folk horror movie; there is nothing more to say.
• The Wicker Tree (2011) – created as a companion piece to the 1973 The Wickerman.

Admittedly, the Wickerman and Wicker Tree movies do not get all that much play in our house, so to make up for that we look for comfortable filler like the Hetty Wainthropp Investigates “Widdershins” episode and Midsomer Murders “Straw Woman” (thematically appropriate, though not sure if it is actually based on May Day)

May Day also happens to be Gorgon’s birthday – decided by mathematical estimate, though not witnessed. Happy birthday Gorgon!