The Orphans find human sexuality and procreation repugnant, and are seeking to create a world where the impure human presence can be erased, leaving only the purity of God's creation. Subtract the plot line of world occult conspiracy, and the book becomes a disturbing exploration of the meaning and effects of film. It is first a medium whose very nature is a metaphor for the endless battle between light and darkness. And film affects us at a deep emotional level quite apart from the apparent content of the imagery. All film, Roszak argues, is secret film, filled with hidden agendas and manipulative designs upon our psyches.
Film is more than it appears.
It is a conspiracy against the Real, a clever trick masquerading as what really Is. It is created, not by a conspiracy that stretches across the veil of years, but by quiet, unknown technicians laboring on movie sets to make a grand Illusion that somehow cheapens life a little bit. Film is not real, but it tries to tell us it is, and our own sense of reality suffers a bit each time we walk into a darkened theater. Flicker is the best kind of paranoid conspiracy story, the kind the reader wishes was true. It epitomizes the deep appeal for conspiracy has for us, the desire for there really to have been a Max Castle and movies that did hide some secret Truth.