Satanic cults have long been a staple in horror films, from Rosemary’s Baby and The Devil Rides Out, to more recent ones like House of the Devil and Malum, where the protagonist often has to unravel the sinister machinations of the cult and save some innocent soul. Unfortunately, some people can’t tell the difference between fantasy and reality, a sad fact which is the subject of the award-winning documentary film Satan Wants You, “the shocking story of how a young woman and her psychiatrist helped ignite the global Satanic Panic with their best-selling memoir, Michelle Remembers”.
The Devil went down to Vancouver
Michelle Remembers was published in 1980 and marketed as a memoir of therapy sessions between the titular Michelle Smith and her psychiatrist-turned-husband (yeah — husband) Dr. Lawrence Pazder. The story details how, during therapy with Pazder over a 14-month period between 1976-77, Michelle “recovered” repressed memories of childhood abuse by a cult of devil-worshippers in 1960s Vancouver. Michelle Remembers was an instant hit, with Pazder and Michelle being offered a “$100,000 hard-cover advance, $242,000 for paperback rights, royalties, and a potential movie deal,” according to a 1980 Maclean’s article.
The book even had the blessing of the Catholic Church, containing a preface from Bishop Remi De Roo and detailing how he and Father Guy Merveille helped Pazder and Michelle secure a meeting with a Cardinal in Rome. Soon, daytime TV talk shows were featuring alleged survivors of Satanic ritual abuse (a term Pazder invented), as well as self-proclaimed experts on Satanism (including Pazder) talking about the danger of the occult and devil worship. Pazder toured the country giving lectures to law enforcement about the dangers of satanism and cults, and both he and Michelle acted as consultants in the infamous McMartin trial.
“A bizarre part of our culture”
Co-directors Sean Horler and Steve J. Adams explained to Dread Talks they were partly inspired to make Satan Wants You because Michelle Remembers and its legacy represent a “bizarre part of our [Canadian] culture.” Horler and his family moved to Victoria shortly after the book was published, and he told TVO Today Docs,“They were everywhere, Michelle and Larry. They were on TV, they were on the radio, they were in the newspapers,” describing the environment he grew up in as a “black cloud of fear” that settled over Victoria.
“I couldn’t go to downtown because they [Satanists] had altars set up in the back and murdered kids and drank babies’ blood and killed animals,” Horlor explained the perception to Matthew Carey for Deadline. “The local graveyard — where a huge portion of Michelle Remembers is set – [I] could not go there during Halloween because the Satanists were going to come out and steal you as a kid. People wearing black clothes in town were Satanists. You had to avoid them. They were going to abduct you, kill you.”
Unlike many of the schlockumentaries (e.g. Demon House, Sons of Sam) that have come out in recent years, Satan Wants You neither exploits the fear and sensationalism of its subject matter nor tries to persuade the viewer to adopt the filmmakers’ point of view. The film soberly assesses the damage done to both those who believe they have recovered memories of abuse, as well as those who were accused of abuse. Ultimately, both sides were victims of mass psychogenic illness, and Horlor and Adams aren’t shy at being critical of recovered memory therapy.
Horlor and Adams do an excellent job of consulting people with expertise in the backgrounds of memory, investigation, and Satanism, with the film featuring interviews from Committee for Skeptical Inquiry Fellow Elizabeth Loftus, former FBI special agent Ken Lanning, author and journalist Debbie Nathan, and Magistra Templi Rex of the Church of Satan, Blanche Barton. Satan Wants You doesn’t just present information on Michelle Remembers and the Satanic Panic in a condensed and concise manner, it brings something new to the study of the subject by providing interviews with family and friends of Michelle Pazder, as well as Marylyn, Lawrence Pazder’s ex-wife, and his daughter, Theresa.
Michelle’s younger sister, Charyl Proby-Austman, has always denied that the events in the book ever took place (having, you know, grown up in the same house as Michelle), and both Marylyn and Theresa acquired evidence which further discredits Michelle Remembers‘ story, including a copy of Michelle’s elementary school yearbook, which proved that during the time in which she claimed she was held captive by Satanists she was, in fact, attending school.
Perhaps the most shocking contribution Satan Wants You makes to the story of Michelle Remembers comes in the form of audio recordings. Someone anonymously sent the filmmakers cassette tapes of therapy sessions between Michelle and Pazder. According to Adams, “The majority of the tape is her, Michelle, screaming. But then when you actually begin to get into it and hear what’s being said, we realized that it’s exact passages from the book. So, we could tell that what we were listening to was actually happening in the therapy office.”
But that’s not all. Marylyn (Pazder’s ex-wife) actually recorded phone conversations between herself and Father Guy, in which he expresses the church has tremendous interest in the publication of Michelle Remembers, expecting it to earn millions of dollars and be good publicity for the Catholic Church.
A legacy of harm
The legacy of Michelle Remembers is one of broken families and gross injustice. People who were accused of ritual abuse had their reputations destroyed or went to jail, and people who came to believe themselves victims were traumatized by their experiences. Some of those who were found guilty of ritual abuse and imprisoned have only recently been released. Dan and Fran Keller spent 21 years behind bars before being freed in 2017. Melvin Quinney served eight years in jail and had to register as a sex offender for 30 years, before finally being exonerated in 2023.
By the late ’90s, media interest in Satanic ritual abuse began to dry up, and insurance companies became unwilling to pay settlements for recovered memories. Pazder slipped into obscurity and died of heart failure in 2004. Michelle Pazder is still alive and, according to her sister, has never recanted or acknowledged her story as false. Horlor and Adams reached out to Michelle twice before she refused to participate in the filming of Satan Wants You.
Satan Wants You documents the mistakes of the past and draws direct parallels between the Satanic panic and the QAnon conspiracy theory of today. While back in the ’80s and ’90s the Satanic cults were alleged to consist of the most wealthy and powerful individuals, the only people who were actually accused were easy targets like parents and teachers. Pizzagate and QAnon, however, upped the ante by naming politicians like Hillary Clinton and George Soros as adrenochrome-drinking members of the cabal. With that in mind, Satan Wants You is well worth the watch for anyone who wonders just how the hell people can believe such things.
A version of this article originally appeared on the website for Skeptical Inquirer magazine.
AIPT Science is co-presented by AIPT and the New York City Skeptics.
Join the AIPT Patreon
Want to take our relationship to the next level? Become a patron today to gain access to exclusive perks, such as:
- ❌ Remove all ads on the website
- 💬 Join our Discord community, where we chat about the latest news and releases from everything we cover on AIPT
- 📗 Access to our monthly book club
- 📦 Get a physical trade paperback shipped to you every month
- 💥 And more!
You must be logged in to post a comment.