During the 1980s and ‘90s the world was gripped by 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 the feature documentary Satan Wants You, filmmakers Sean Horlor and Steve J. Adams dive deep into the untold story of how Dr. Pazder and Michelle Smith became international sensations, supported by the Catholic Church and amplified by law enforcement and America’s Daytime TV boom. The film features shocking, never-before-heard audio recordings of the pair’s original therapy sessions and interviews with a high priestess of the Church of Satan, a Wiccan police detective, an FBI ‘Mind Hunter’ as well as the devastated families of both Michelle and Lawrence.
Satan Wants You is 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.
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