Satanis: The Devil’s Mass is a sporadically insightful but mostly boring documentary on Anton LaVey and his Church of Satanism. One of the most interesting things it does is dispel the notion that the Church and its members are evil as it paints LaVey, his wife, and his (very small) congregation as “normal” people who are more or less just exercising their American right of freedom of religion. LaVey tells us that at its core, Satanism is a “selfish religion” that welcomes its practitioners to indulge themselves on sex and sin without any fear of punishment in the afterlife. The thinking is that once you have indulged yourself, you know what it takes to indulge others.
One fascinating aspect is the Church’s progressive stance on homosexuality. They preach “acceptance” rather than “tolerance”. It’s a lesson that many people could stand to learn today.
Strangely, the movie is at its weakest when it showcases the Satanic rituals. The filmmakers go through such great lengths to make the participants average everyday people, that I guess it’s no surprise that the ritual sequences are so lackluster. The stuff with the nude dancers writhing around with a boa constrictor may have been titillating if it wasn’t for all the rhythmic drumming. That, combined with the muddy visuals, just about put me to sleep. Some aspects of the rituals are downright laughable (like LaVey’s black pajamas with horns sticking out of his head). I’m not sure how accurate these scenes are or if they were embellished for the camera, but something just sort of feels off about it. It’s almost as if they tried to make it look like your typical horror flick so that Joe Average Moviegoer wouldn’t feel cheated.
However, there’s just way too much boring filler (like the section detailing LaVey’s antique and knickknack collection) here to make it all worthwhile. If it was cut down to about a half-hour it would’ve been a riveting short subject. As is, Satanis: The Devil’s Mass is best viewed as a curio of its time.
AKA: Succubus.
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