| Satan Wants You | |
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 Promotional release poster | |
| Directed by | |
| Written by |
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| Produced by |
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| Cinematography | Blake Davey |
| Edited by | Graham Kew |
| Music by | Mark Dolmont |
Production company | Nootka St. Film Company |
| Distributed by | Game Theory Films |
Release date |
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Running time | 80 minutes |
| Country | Canada |
Satan Wants You is a 2023 Canadian documentary film directed by Steve J. Adams and Sean Horlor. [1] The film profiles the Satanic panic of the early 1980s, focusing on the discredited book Michelle Remembers . [2]
SXSW describes the film as telling "the untold story of how the Satanic Panic of the 1980s was ignited by Michelle Remembers, a lurid memoir by psychiatrist Larry Pazder and his patient Michelle Smith ... the bestselling book relied on recovered-memory therapy to uncover Michelle’s childhood abduction by baby-stealing Satanists. Amplified by law enforcement and America’s Daytime TV boom, satanic rumors spread through panic-stricken communities across the world, leaving a wave of destruction and wrongful convictions in their wake. This film digs deep into the roots of moral panics and cult conspiracies, showing how these events still affect and distort our reality today." [3]
The film also reveals parallels to contemporary conspiracy theories such as QAnon, Pizzagate and LGBT grooming. [4]
Satan Wants You premiered at the South by Southwest (SXSW) film festival in March 2023, [5] and had its Canadian premiere at the 2023 Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival, [6] before going into commercial release in August. [4]
The Globe and Mail reported that "while the doc is jammed with talking heads and archival footage, Satan Wants You lacks a sense of historical and political context in which to place the delusions. Ultimately, this is a destructive cycle that has roots in everything from the Salem Witch Trials to the Affair of the Poisons in 1600s France. By the time the film starts to connect the dots between Michelle Remembers and our current age of Alex Jones and Donald Trump disinformation, the punches land softer than they should. There is a great, big, awful picture that needs to be painted here, but this doc is too preoccupied by the devil in the details of one specific, already overanalyzed case." [7]
Collider gave the film a B- rating and stated that it "isn't just a story about moral panic but also what can happen when people become influenced by lies presented as truth." One complaint was that "the documentary wasn't given enough time to dive deep into these details. It might have worked stronger as a docuseries, but as is, it is still an impressive telling of a disturbing time in American history." The review also said that although the influence of the Catholic church in this affair is touched upon, "the institution is not held for as much blame as it should be." [8] On that subject, Skeptical Inquirer reported that the film includes "never-before-heard recorded phone calls" revealing that the "Catholic Church was eager to finance the book’s publication and promotional tour, believing that it would inspire people to go back to church." [9]
AIPT reported that the film took time to finds its footing, and concludes that it "is not the in depth look at the Satanic Panic some audiences may be expecting. It looks at what started it all and the damage it caused. Lives and reputations were ruined as people worried about the millions(!) of kids that were kidnapped in order to be sacrificed to the Dark Lord. It is also a cautionary tale about the ease in which mass hysteria can be caused." [10]
Filmcarnage.com wrote that the film "gets so much right that others have gotten so wrong. Approaching such a contentious topic with an open mind, it holds back the judgement and instead explores what it means to be vulnerable, attention-hungry or manipulative. It has just enough darkness and a horror edge to its style to build a superb, gripping atmosphere. Ultimately, it asks a poignant question about the deep, reverberating damage that can be done with fearmongering, as well as a timely reminder of how much easier it is to accomplish in a social media obsessed world." [11]
The film was screened at the 2023 Fantasia Film Festival, where it was named winner of the DGC Audience Award for Best Canadian Film. [12]
Mark Dolmont received a nomination for Best Original Score for a Documentary Feature Film at the 2023 Canadian Screen Music Awards. [13]
The Church of Satan (CoS) is a religious organization dedicated to the religion of Satanism as defined by Anton Szandor LaVey. Founded in San Francisco in 1966, by LaVey, it is considered the "oldest satanic religion in continual existence", and more importantly the most influential, inspiring "numerous imitator and breakaway groups". According to the Church, Satanism has been "codified" as "a religion and philosophy" by LaVey and his church. Founded in an era when there was much public interest in the occult, witchcraft and Satanism, the church enjoyed a heyday for several years after its founding. Celebrities attended LaVey's satanic parties and he was invited on talk shows. His Satanic Bible sold nearly a million copies.
The Satanic panic is a moral panic consisting of over 12,000 unsubstantiated cases of Satanic ritual abuse starting in the United States in the 1980s, spreading throughout many parts of the world by the late 1990s, and persisting today. The panic originated in 1980 with the publication of Michelle Remembers, a book co-written by Canadian psychiatrist Lawrence Pazder and his patient, Michelle Smith, which used the controversial and now discredited practice of recovered-memory therapy to make claims about satanic ritual abuse involving Smith. The allegations, which arose afterward throughout much of the United States, involved reports of physical and sexual abuse of people in the context of occult or Satanic rituals. Some allegations involve a conspiracy of a global Satanic cult that includes the wealthy and elite in which children are abducted or bred for human sacrifice, pornography, and prostitution.
Fantasia International Film Festival is a genre film festival that has been based mainly in Montreal since its founding in 1996. It focuses on niche, low budget movies in various genres, from horror to sci-fi. Regularly held in July/August, by 2016 its annual audience had already surpassed 100,000 viewers and outgrown even the Montreal World Film Festival.
Michelle Remembers is a discredited 1980 book co-written by Canadian psychiatrist Lawrence Pazder and his psychiatric patient Michelle Smith. A best-seller, Michelle Remembers relied on the discredited practice of recovered-memory therapy to make sweeping, lurid claims about Satanic ritual abuse involving Smith, which contributed to the rise of the Satanic panic in the 1980s. While the book presents its claims as fact, and was extensively marketed on that basis at the time, no evidence was provided; all investigations into the book failed to corroborate any of its claims, with investigators describing its content as being primarily based on elements of popular culture and fiction that were popular at the time when it was written.
South by Southwest (SXSW) is an annual conglomeration of parallel film, interactive media, and music festivals and conferences organized jointly that take place in mid-March in Austin, Texas. It began in 1987 and has continued growing in both scope and size every year. In 2017, the conference lasted for 10 days with the interactive track lasting for five days, music for seven days, and film for nine days. There was no in-person event in 2020 and 2021 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic in Austin; in both years there was a smaller online event instead.
Sean Horlor is a Canadian film director, film producer, poet, actor, television producer, columnist and blogger, who co-directs with Steve J. Adams under their production company, Nootka St.
Zeena Galatea Schreck, known professionally by her mononymous artist name ZEENA, is a Berlin-based American visual and musical artist, author and the spiritual leader of the Sethian Liberation Movement (SLM), which she founded in 2002.
The Satanic Temple (TST) is a non-theistic organization and new religious movement, founded in 2013 and headquartered in Salem, Massachusetts. Established in reaction to the "intrusion of Christian values on American politics", congregations have also formed in Australia, Canada, Finland, Germany, and the United Kingdom. Co-founded by Lucien Greaves, the organization's spokesperson, and Malcolm Jarry, the group views Satan neither as a supernatural being, nor a symbol of evil, but instead relies on the literary Satan as a symbol representing "the eternal rebel" against arbitrary authority and social norms, or as a metaphor to promote pragmatic skepticism, rational reciprocity, personal autonomy, and curiosity.
Penny Lane is an American independent filmmaker, known for her documentary films. Her humor and unconventional approach to the documentary form, including the use of archival Super 8 footage and YouTube videos, have earned her critical acclaim.
Hail Satan? is a 2019 American documentary film about the origins of The Satanic Temple, including the group's grassroots political activism. Directed by Penny Lane, the film premiered at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival, and was released in the United States on April 19, distributed by Magnolia Pictures. The film follows Satanists working to preserve the separation of church and state against the privileges of the Christian right.
You Cannot Kill David Arquette is a 2020 American documentary film, directed by David Darg and Price James. It follows David Arquette attempting to return to wrestling after his acting career stalls.
Someone Like Me is a 2021 Canadian documentary film, directed by Steve J. Adams and Sean Horlor. The film centres on Drake, a gay man from Uganda who moves to Vancouver, British Columbia as a refugee, and the group of Canadians who have agreed to sponsor him through Rainbow Refugee; it documents his arrival in Vancouver and his adaptation to Canadian life, including friction among his sponsors when all he wants to do is celebrate his new freedom by partying, and the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic as a complicating factor.
Steve J. Adams is a Canadian film director who co-directs with Sean Horlor under their production company, Nootka St.
Secret Mall Apartment is an American documentary film directed by filmmaker Jeremy Workman that recounts the story of a group of young Rhode Islanders who built a secret apartment inside the bustling Providence Place shopping mall in Providence, Rhode Island in 2003, living there for four years until getting caught and charged with trespassing in 2007. The story had been urban legend for many years and the documentary brought together the original 8 participants for the first time in 17 years.