There is a body of films featuring stellar eclipses and eclipses of natural satellites. Compared to other astronomical events featured in films, such as full moons and asteroid strikes, solar eclipses are less commonly seen. When they have featured in films, they often drive the plot and have a portentous presence.[1]NPR's Glen Weldon said that films use eclipses "to signal to audiences that the normal rules have temporarily lifted, and things are about to get weird". The first film to feature a solar eclipse was the 1907 silent film The Eclipse, or the Courtship of the Sun and Moon that featured a solar eclipse as a fantastical consummation between the Sun and the Moon.[2] Eclipses have been seen as bad omens throughout history, so filmmakers leverage that belief "as visual cues or key plot points", according to The Oregonian's Amy Wang.[3] The most accurate depiction of a solar eclipse in film is seen in the 1961 religious epic film Barabbas due to the filming of an actual solar eclipse during its crucifixion scene (see solar eclipse of February 15, 1961).[4]
The American science fiction film's opening sequence shows an eclipse of the Sun by both the Earth and the Moon. The three bodies and the camera (which is farther out in space) are aligned; the sequence starts with the Sun fully eclipsed to the camera, and shows the eclipse ending and the Sun becoming visible past the Earth and Moon.[3][4]
The Yucatec Mayan-language action-adventure film, set in pre-ColumbianYucatan and Guatemala around the year 1511, Mayan leaders take advantage of a solar eclipse as a sign of an angry god whose blood thirst is satisfied by the leaders.[5][1][6][2][7][8][9][10][3] The moon is shown as being near full, rather than as a new moon, on the night after the eclipse.
The American film, based on Mark Twain's 1889 novel A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, features an American protagonist from 1912 who wakes up in Arthurian Britain in AD 528 and uses his knowledge of an upcoming solar eclipse to his advantage.[5][1][2][3]
The English-language horror film features a house that was built for a supernatural ritual to sacrifice seven children for a solar eclipse that happens every forty years.[5]
In the American psychological thriller film, a housekeeper is sent home by her boss to witness a solar eclipse. In the midst of the eclipse, she confronts her abusive and alcoholic husband.[5][1][2][7][9][3]
In one of the segments of the American animated film, a solar eclipse takes place after dinosaurs go extinct, and the landscape is changed into a sea.[6]
Vampires in a criminal gang raid a bank and attack people they find one night. Dawn appears to defeat them, but a solar eclipse turns the tide turns back in their favor.[14]
The American psychological horror film, based on Stephen King's novel Gerald's Game, features a solar eclipse in a memory flashback in which the female main character, a preteen at the time, is sexually assaulted.[15]
The American horror film, set in the 1980s, features a small-town university student who is hired to stay at a house in the middle of nowhere to take care of an old woman on the night of a full lunar eclipse.[16]
In the American drama film, the town of Babylon, New York experiences an hours-long solar eclipse, and it affects the world of the characters who wander the streets in memory and in search of meaning to their suburban lives.[6][2]
The American television film features a scientist who is zapped back to the time of King Arthur, and she predicts a solar eclipse to avoid being burned at the stake.[10]
The ending of this American medieval fantasy film, set in 13th-century Europe, features a solar eclipse foretold by a divine riddle. It brings an end to an infernal curse.[5][1][6][8][3]
The English-language action-adventure film features a solar eclipse as part of a rare planetary alignment that allows access to a relic that can control space and time.[8][3]
Episode of the Our Gang series. When a solar eclipse creates confusion, two white boys escape church to go fishing. They come across a black church revival whose members are also confused, and afraid. Professor Lisa Yaszek said of the racist depiction, "Apparently somehow these black Americans don't know what an eclipse is, so they have that very stereotypical reaction of confusion and fear, which causes chaos for the boys... the way it plays out is so stereotypical and really horrible."[4]
In the American science fiction film, a criminal and other people trapped on a desert planet have to evade underground predatory creatures who go above ground when an eclipse occurs.[5][2][8][10][3][4]
In the Star Wars film, the Death Star–a spherical space station–briefly causes a solar eclipse over the holy city of Jedha shortly before firing on the city.[3]
In the supernatural horror film, a prequel to the 2017 film Verónica, a nun stares at a solar eclipse and damages her eyesight and eventually goes blind by Verónica.[19]
In 1991 Madrid, while the rest of her classmates watch the solar eclipse of July 11, 1991, a teenager becomes possessed by a demon after using an Ouija board.[20] In reality, the eclipse was not visible anywhere in Europe.
The American young-adult horror film features the mystery of a girl who disappears in the woods of New England decades ago and concludes with a climactic scene featuring a solar eclipse.[1][6][3]
In the Australian horror film features a solar eclipse during a serial killer's pursuit of a victim. Peter Shelley wrote in Australian Horror Films, 1973-2010, "The solar eclipse that is shown adds a yin-yang element to the treatment. The shadow over [the victim] Ben and a dark profile of the Swedish backpacker wearing a Mick-type hat creates the expectation of [the serial killer] Mick finding him."[21]
This Canadian Sci-fi/horror/comedy sees a small town alcoholic sheriff's deputy transformed into a werewolf. He uses his newfound power to fight crime. Unbenownst to him, he was transformed intentionally so that a small cabal can sacrifice him during an eclipse, allowing them to live (and rule) forever.
The Tamil-language stereoscopic science fiction horror film features a backstory where a creature named Ambuli is born during a solar eclipse due to the combination of genetic experiments and eclipse radiation. This eclipse plays a significant role in the creature's origin story and is central to the film's narrative.
^Romano, Aja (September 30, 2017). "Netflix's Gerald's Game is a graceful, mold-breaking Stephen King adaptation". Vox.com. Retrieved December 18, 2017. But there's still a touch of magical realism present, particularly in the couldn't-be-timelier element of a solar eclipse that occurred the day of Jessie's past assault... Thanks to the director's surreal solar eclipse filter, we see the world through blood-colored glasses.
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