Ah yes, the age old fear of the Devil. Satanic Panic was a trend among many folk, even non-religious people, who had a fear of heavy metal, questioning authority, and Dungeons and Dragons... for some reason... The panic went well into the 80's, making it hard for anyone who was a little bit against the grain to exist in peace and quiet. One of my favorite videos online relating to this panicked moment in time-- although it's more witch-adjacent rather than strictly demonic/satanic-- is the video where a pastor is talking about how Pokemon is evil because of energy balls and lightning bolts. I guess this falls into the same category cause everything comes down to the Devil. You smell a little funny? Devil. You enjoy music a little too loud? DEVIL! I'll link it here: Pokemon is Evil (this is a legitimate sermon, by the way!)
There's plenty of resources that goes into way more depth about the historical Satanic Panic. Here are some sources here:
Satanic Panic & The Dangers of Cultural Hysteria
What Was the Satanic Panic & Why Did it Happen? |A History Series
How Satanic Panic Came to Roil the Nation During the 1980s
These links, and hilariously dumb video on the evils of Pokemon, all can help get you into the idea of the fear behind Satanic Panic. How does this all relate to the movie Satanic Panic? Well, let's review it and see!
When I first was starting to watch movies for reviews again, I was trying to find something that could ease me back into watching horror specifically. I always enjoy some good gory and psychological horror, but having to live during a mass pandemic with absolute nut-jobs existing in real life, I wanted to step into the genre without having to think about society as a whole collapsing, or my real-life neighbors. A horror-comedy based on Satanism seemed to be a good stepping stone to me, and I gotta say: I wasn't disappointed.
The movie starts out with a pizza delivery girl, named Sam, paying her dues as she mopeds pizzas to various customers. We get a mild montage as she delivers and barely gets any tips for her effort and work--even moving someone's couch for them, only to get a n expired coupon. Sounds like a typical American raise to me...
She ends up getting a delivery up at a fancy schmancy, bougie housing development. Her coworkers rave about the big tips they've gotten, as well as some of the crazy things that go on up in the area (insert dumb innuendos here). She goes out to deliver and the man of the house hold takes the pizzas and slams the door in her face. In serious frustration, Sam decides to enter the mansion to demand her tip (you go girl). In doing so, she accidentally stumbles into a Satanic meeting. Noting that Sam isn't a part of their Baphomet Club, and that she's a virgin, they kidnap her to be sacrificed-- this is why you never trust the bougie part of town.
There are plenty of twists and turns as Sam tries to survive the night, with witchcraft-esque rituals, creepy daughters of Satanists, and a drill dildo for some reason? The craziness gets really fun in this film. We'll leave the synopsis here.
This movie really made me laugh. I haven't laughed at a horror film like this since I first started obsessively watching The Evil Dead series! The goofiness of how the Satanists are trying to accomplish their sacrifice creates both tension and some really good jokes that are tongue-n-cheek to the topic. One thing I found really interesting is that they demonstrate the actual fear that anyone could be a Satanist, like what happened during the historic Satanic Panic. The main villain isn't some crinkly witch, she's a bombshell that looks like some kind of CEO of a company that might be a really innocent business. It just goes to show that you can't really trust anyone. The film also had other "normal" looking people be Satanists too. I like that they didn't go very stereotypical in character design.
In my opinion, many of the jokes really hit either because of the direction, the delivery, or because of just how ridiculous some of the lines were. My favorite is, "My mom and her butt buddies are going to booty call Baphoment". Like, what? I laughed at that line for a good 10 minutes. So cringe, but so glorious!
The soundtrack was also good. It set the tone perfectly with the classic 80's synth and heavy, wavy, low notes that you'd typically see in a lot of films from the time of the historic Satanic Panic. It establishes a sense of underlying suspicion, especially due to the repetition of certain motifs. There are also some more orchestral/vocal pieces which tends to really fit the devilish kind of movies such as The Omen or The Exorcist. These tracks are far and few between, but it breaks up the synth driven music and are applied well to their given scenes; haunting enough to establish the spiritual, but subtle enough to just be a suggestion of fear.
My favorite scene has to be the drill dildo scene. It's not exactly what you're thinking, and there's nothing graphic that happens in this scene, but it made me laugh so hard from just the unexpected appearance of it. I was so flabbergasted and confused, which made it even funnier, especially after a character is yelling and raving insanely about the weirdest things. I'll link a video I took below.
Wool Hat ☕
Equipment:
ReplyDeleteMixing bowls
Strainer
2-quart or larger saucepan
Candy thermometer or instant-read thermometer
Stiff heatproof spatula
Baking sheet
Silicone baking mat
Bench scraper or chef's knife
Rolling pin
Measuring cups and spoons
Ingredients:
1 cup powdered sugar
2 1/2 tablespoons nonfat powdered milk
1/8 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup light corn syrup
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Red and yellow liquid food coloring
Instructions:
Place 1 cup powdered sugar and 2 1/2 tablespoons nonfat powdered milk in a sifter or fine-mesh strainer and sift into a large bowl. Add 1/8 teaspoon kosher salt.
Line a baking sheet with a silicone baking mat and set it near the stove. Place 1/2 cup granulated sugar, 1/3 cup corn syrup, and 2 tablespoons unsalted butter in a 2-quart or larger saucepan. Cook over medium heat until the sugar dissolves and the butter is melted, swirling the pan gently once or twice, 6 to 8 minutes.
Clip a candy thermometer or instant-read thermometer to the side of the pan. Bring the syrup to a full boil. Continue boiling without stirring until the syrup is 245°F to 250°F, 1 to 5 minutes. If you go over the temperature, remove the pan from the heat and quickly add a few tablespoons of water to the pan to reduce the temperature, and monitor the temperature carefully as it reheats. Remove from the heat immediately once the syrup reaches temperature.
Add 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract. Be very careful since the syrup will bubble up and sputter quite a bit when you add the vanilla.
Add the powdered sugar mixture and stir with a stiff heatproof spatula until you've formed a thick paste-like dough and very little dry mixture remains. (I've found that it smells quite bad at this point — have faith!)
Pour all the dough onto the baking sheet, scraping the pan as well as you can.
Let the dough cool until you are able to handle it, 10 to 15 minutes. Don't wait too long, though; the dough will stiffen as it cools and become harder to roll out.
Cut the dough into 3 pieces using a bench scraper or chef's knife. Make a well in the center of one piece and add 10 drops of yellow food coloring. Make a well in the center of a second piece of dough and add 10 drops of yellow food coloring and 5 drops of red food coloring (to make orange).
Knead both pieces of dough until uniform in color. Be sure to leave the remaining white piece of dough well away from the kneading area so it doesn't get any color. Knead against the baking mat so you don't dye your countertop or work surface. You can also knead more dye into the dough if the color doesn't seem quite right to you.
Pinch off a piece of dough from each color roughly the size of a ping-pong ball. Roll each one into a thin 1/4-inch-thick rope. If a rope gets too long and hard to roll, you can break off the end and smash it back into the remaining dough.
Arrange the ropes side by side in whatever order you like (yellow-orange-white is classic!), and then gently pinch them together so they stick to each other.
Gently roll over the ropes with a rolling pin just to flatten out the curved edges.
Use the bench scraper or chef's knife to cut out triangles of candy. Angle your scraper at a forward-slash angle and then at a back-slash angle as you work down the length of the ropes.
Repeat with remaining dough/ Continue rolling and cutting the dough until it's all used up. If the dough becomes too stiff to work with, microwave individual pieces in 5-second increments until it becomes pliable again.
Spread the candies out onto the baking sheet in a single layer to dry for a few hours. Separate any candies that are sticking together. Once dry, the candies can be stored in an airtight container for several weeks