‘Satan Wants You’: Shocking Documentary Reveals Disturbing Roots Of Satanic Panic [SXSW 2023 Interview]

Check out Dread Central’s interview with filmmakers Sean Horlor and Steve J. Adams, who discuss their disturbing SXSW documentary Satan Wants You, a compelling investigation into the roots of moral panics, cult conspiracies, and the making of contemporary legends, revealing how these events still impact and distort our reality to this day.

Their documentary unpacks the cultural hysteria known as the Satanic Panic. Ignited by Michelle Remembers, a lurid memoir by psychiatrist Larry Pazder and his patient Michelle Smith, rumors of “Satanic Ritual Abuse” spread through panic-stricken communities worldwide. Although Dr. Pazder’s methodology relied on controversial recovered-memory therapy to expose Michelle’s childhood abduction by baby-stealing satanists, the book became a bestseller and left a wave of destruction and wrongful convictions in its wake.

In my four-star review for Satan Wants You, I call the documentary “a shocking and insightful documentary unearthing ‘Michelle Remembers,’ the disturbing memoir which acted as the catalyst for the Satanic panic wave of the 1980s.”

Check out our interview with the Satan Wants You filmmakers:

Lastly, will you be checking out Satan Loves You once its released? Let us know on Twitter via @DreadCentral. We’re always around to chat about all things Satanic panic!

Share: 
Tags:

Categorized:

Sign up for The Harbinger a Dread Central Newsletter