‘Satan Wants You’ Review – Mass Hysteria Documentary Will Make Your Skin Crawl [Fantasia Fest 2023]

Closed minds and closed hearts led twenty innocent people from Salem, Massachusetts to lose their lives in horrific and degrading ways. It’s a blood-stained part of American history that we are all familiar with. This could never happen in a more enlightened and civilized era. Right? Well, think again. In the late 1970’s, a book was released that put a mirror up to society, and it reflected an ugly truth. That being, even with the leaps in knowledge and technology that were happening at the time, we still could revert to Salem circa 1692.

“Michelle Remembers” was a “memoir” written by Michelle Smith and her doctor (later turned lover and husband), Lawrence Pazder. This work of fiction, sold as fact, recounted Smith’s “recovered” memories of being used and abused by a Satanic cult. The things that Smith was asserting happened were, putting it lightly, incredibly bizarre. She claims things like having her teeth knocked out and suffering numerous physical scars from torture. Why did Smith not retain these scars and missing teeth in the present day? Well, the Virgin Mary (who speaks French apparently) magically restored her to perfect health. Other claims range from witnessing babies being eaten and seeing various abuse to both humans and animals. If you couldn’t guess by now, all these claims have been thoroughly debunked.

Despite this hindsight, this work of fiction’s legacy is far more frightening than anyone could have imagined. This is the backdrop of the new documentary Satan Wants You directed by Steve J. Adams and Sean Horlor, providing audiences with an unflinching look at the origins of what has been dubbed as “The Satanic Panic,” which spread throughout the ‘80s and some of the ‘90s.

Using rare news footage, home movies, audio recordings and candid interviews, Adams and Horlor manage to paint a picture that is as sobering as it is haunting. The film does an excellent job at laying out this twisted tale in a way that is easy to understand and gives one the proper context leading up to the creation of the book. For example, it is interesting that “Sybil”, a book and later film also regarding a patient suffering from multiple personality disorder (and later also debunked), served as a blueprint of sorts for Pazder. It’s this calculating forethought that makes the proceeding events even more unnerving. Not to mention that, as mentioned above, Pazder ended up marrying Smith after the book was released. This is of course very icky, and it’s theorized this was done in order to get Pazder out of trouble for having intimate interactions with his patient. Yikes.

Seeing how there are a lot of strange and interesting facets of this case, going all the way up to the Vatican, it’s wise that the scope of the documentary is limited. As one interview subject clearly put it, Smith was a sort of patient zero for the wave of Satanic Panic. Having said that, it would have been good to give more context on the lasting impact this had. For example, there was shockingly no mention of the infamous West Memphis Three case, which was very much a byproduct of Michelle Smith’s trashy book.

The film really benefits from not feeling like it has to provide the viewers with easy answers. Was Smith the true villain in this story? She is still very much alive and has never publicly recanted nor shown any remorse for stoking this hysteria. In fact, she was contacted for this film but refused to give her side of the story. However, on the other side of it, she was manipulated by a doctor that she trusted with her mental wellbeing. One fact is not muddied, which is that Pazder was a monster who abused the power dynamic and by every sense of the word was unethical with Smith.

Satan Want You will make your skin crawl and is likely the scariest thing you’ll see this year. Simply put, it’s not about the monsters under your bed, it’s about the ones nestled safely inside oneself. We might think we have evolved past the tragedy that befell so called civilized people in Salem, Massachusetts, but chillingly, we have not. That is the true and naked terror of this documentary. 

Satan Wants had its Montreal Premiere at the 2023 Fantasia International Film Festival.

Directors: Steve J. Adams, Sean Horlor

Rated: NR

Runtime: 88m