Final Rating: 4/5
Original review found on That Shelf.
Satan Wants You is a new Canadian documentary directed by Steve J. Adams and Sean Horlor (Someone Like Me) that originally premiered at the SXSW festival but received its Canadian debut at Hot Docs. The film examines the impact that a 1980 book called Michelle Remembers had in creating the Satanic Panic that occurred in the 1980’s.
For those people who may be too young to know or didn’t experience it firsthand, the Satanic Panic was a craze where in the ’80s and ’90s there was widespread belief that Satanic cults were en masse kidnapping children, abusing them, performing ritualistic ceremonies with babies and animals and more. It was believed that everything from heavy metal music to the Dungeons and Dragons game were used to recruit young people into Satanism. Daytime talk shows hosted by the likes of Sally Jessy Raphael, Oprah Winfrey and Geraldo Rivera inundated viewers with fears that Satanic cults were in every neighbourhood and were plotting to snatch children up to commit Satanic Ritual Abuse (SRA).
Michelle Remembers was written by Dr. Lawrence Pazder and his psychiatric patient Michelle Smith. Smith was from Victoria, British Columbia and in the late 1970’s began telling her doctor horrific stories about how when she was a young girl her mother freely gave her up to a Satanic cult and allowed them to torture and abuse the child for a year. She had apparently repressed the memories so deep that she completely forgot about them until Dr. Pazder utilized recovered-memory therapy to help her unlock her past trauma. Using the recordings of their sessions the two of them wrote a book and proceeded to go on a whirlwind publicity tour hoping to expose the SRA that occurs just under society’s nose.
The film uses many mediums including archival footage of TV interviews the duo performed, home videos and photographs along with talking head interviews and dramatic recreations. We get to hear some of the original therapy session recordings and they are quite distressing to hear as Smith wails in agony about various abuses she allegedly suffered as a child. The film is at its most fascinating when revelations are made into where some of the specific claims may have originated from.
For example Dr. Pazder, a deeply Catholic person, is talking about Satanic rituals but it is revealed that he had spent some time in West Africa earlier in his career and videotaped rituals he had seen and instead of learning about what he had witnessed, he made leaps of judgment that it was actually voodoo and witchcraft taking place and implanted similar stories into Smith’s head. The local Bishop in Victoria actually managed to take the story of Smith’s alleged abuse all the way up to the Vatican with Smith and Dr. Pazder getting an audience with the Pope and the local diocese helping fund the book with a $10,000 investment.
Using the benefit of hindsight and a modicum of critical thinking skills it is clear that everything published in their book and the panic that ensued afterwards was entirely based on bullshit and didn’t actually happen. The issue with the book wasn’t just the lies Smith and Pazder were spreading, but that it created a copycat chain of admissions from other people that they too were victims of SRA. This was everything from women claiming they were forced to give birth in order to sacrifice their babies for blood rituals to people coming forward that they were kidnapped and abused as children. Talk shows and news programs allowed these claims to be spread without verification or pushback on their behalf as they were a boon to ratings. When people would try to refute accusations they were labeled as cult members themselves trying to hide the truth.
It is a fascinating time capsule of an updated Salem Witch Trial era where lies such as two million newborn babies were kidnapped every year in America (a fact so ridiculous considering just over three million babies were born each year). The film draws parallels to recent events where QAnon conspiracies reigned supreme during the Trump administration where allegations of child abuse rings in the basement of a Washington pizza parlour was an inciting incident. We see the same tactics used by religious zealots and people unable to use critical thinking to question lies told to them in the ’80s and again today.
The movie keeps you on the edge of your seat, while you do your best to not roll your eyes completely out of your head from all the insane accusations made. It is enthralling for fans of the true crime genre, who likely would be familiar with some of the cases presented in the film. The fact that most of the Satanic Panic can be traced to a single source is helpful in seeing how it spiraled out of control, gives the film a great launching point to learn about this moment in time.
Satan Wants You was seen during the 2023 Hot Docs film festival.
