By RICHELLE CHARKOT
Directed by Steve J. Adams and Sean Horlor
Game Theory Films
The Satanic Panic is something many of us are familiar with. It was a dangerous time when heavy metal music was deemed lethal, fantasies of black cloaks and baby-eaters plagued the minds of otherwise normal citizens, and any deviance from “good Christian morality” was assuredly a harbinger of The End Times. In SATAN WANTS YOU, directors Steve J. Adams and Sean Horlor dissect a crucial contributor in the mania, a salacious best-selling paperback titled Michelle Remembers. Flying off of the shelves and poisoning the imaginations of thousands of North Americans, this deadly little book did more damage than any Twisted Sister song ever could.
Michelle Remembers chronicles a 14-month period in which Michelle Smith was abused by a Satanic cult during her childhood. Michelle dives deep into the memories she has long since buried with the assistance of her loyal therapist, Dr. Lawrence Pazder, who holds her hand as she remembers more and more of her tragic upbringing. Most heartbreaking of all, members of the cult included her own mother, who allowed her sweet daughter to endure unbelievable acts of cruelty, most infamously defecating on a Bible and dismembering fetuses, all in the name of Satan … Allegedly.
SATAN WANTS YOU is a masterfully paced documentary that first allows the viewer to understand the scope of how terrifying this material would be for the average person – God-fearing or not – and then unpacks the truths in a beautifully measured cracking of the narrative. The experience is wholly consuming and nearly as salacious as the material it’s dissecting. SATAN WANTS YOU features re-enactments, historical footage and interviews of key players in the Michelle Remembers story, including family members of Pazder and Smith, who have endless insight into the insanity. What is most impressive about SATAN WANTS YOU is that it dares to make clear comparisons to the current Satanic Panic 2.0 in which Facebook conspiracies are just as brain-rotting as this book was 40 years ago.
Given that contemporary audiences have lived in a torrid political climate that’s devolved into avoiding certain aunts and uncles at Christmas dinner, one question not answered in this film is what came before the Panic to till the soil for what was to come. With that said, it’s a small note, considering how much SATAN WANTS YOU captures in its breezy 88-minute runtime. This is a gasp-worthy documentary that will genuinely chill you to your core but not because of devil-worshiping ghouls hiding in plain sight.
