SATANIS 1970
“Satanis” is a documentary about The Church of Satan that was recorded in 1969, and released in 1970. The film was very obviously recorded before the Tate-LaBianca murders, so there wasn’t any sort of disclaimer about the crime, and the group. I bring this up because from a historical context, after Tate-LaBianca, some people looked at The Church of Satan as potentially responsible for the crime, as certain members of The Manson Family had small ties with the group.
That said, “Satanis” is a mildly interesting film that takes a look into what was still the very new Satanic Religion. You see shots of people being interviewed around San Francisco, and the common person’s opinion about Anton LaVey. Watching the film, it was clear to me that from the start, many people have had their doubts and criticisms about The Church of Satan, and Anton Lavey. What’s interesting to me, is that the way this movie appears, it’s clear that the confusion on whether Anton Lavey was a devil worshiper or not was likely intended from the start.
There are various people asked about their opinions on The Church of Satan, and a lot of people are of a negative mindset about it. Part of it comes from the obviously traditional Christian-type mindset about Satan and the devil; that Satan is bad, a tempter, and a liar. Some of the people interviewed seemed to believe that the Church of Satan was about literal Satan and demons. I remember one woman had stated that she thought that what Lavey was doing was wrong, as she felt that he was leading people to ruin. Considering that it was 1969, and The Satanic Bible had only barely came out that same year, it can’t be expected that people would know that-that’s not what Anton’s group was about. In some ways, I think that “Satanis” was actually about dispelling these types of myths.
There’s footage of two rituals performed at the Black House, and while interesting, I think that these run way too long. For people that probably never heard of the Church of Satan, or read anything about them, these scenes would likely show what their inside life was really like. In some ways, I can see this as showing that they’re not really scary, but for 1970, some of the things in this film likely still scared people.
In 2026, many of the parts within the ritual scenes appear campy and hokey. While Anton wasn’t necessarily trying to appear as a horror movie, it’s always been clear to me that certain parts of his rituals were for show. Watching this movie 5 decades after its release, there are things that just seem rather normal to me, than freaky. The opening scene with a ritual was pretty cheesy to me. One thing that I couldn’t get over was how monotone and bored everyone sounded when reading from the books in front of them. It made me wonder if the rituals performed on film were just that, performances.
You see scenes that show Anton’s wife at the time, Diane. It was interesting to see her, as she would later leave him in the 80’s. To me, it seemed like Diane didn’t seem that into the magic part of the Church, as much as she was the social aspect of it. There are parts to the film that did shock me, like when she kissed a man’s ass during one of the ritual scenes. Was this something that she always did? Did she find this demeaning? Why didn’t Anton ever kiss any man’s ass?
Interesting though, was how this film showed very open attitudes towards homosexuality. In the decades since Anton’s death, people have claimed that the Church of Satan sold out, and became woke. Ironically, Anton shows in Satanis, which was 28 years before his death, that he didn’t have anything against homosexuals at all. The Church of Satan accepted this from the start! This is also seen in another ritual scene, where a man asks for a new banker in his neighborhood to hopefully be drawn to him. It’s not explicitly said, but if you know what he’s talking about, this was a gay man, hoping for another man to have a relationship with him.
I did laugh though, when the person after this part of the ritual, asked for his penis to be “moist like leviathan”. It was quite possibly one of the biggest nerds too, and it just made me shake my head. I will admit though, I didn’t care for how overt the people in the film were with sex. Some things said in the movie seemed really gross, like about how one woman talked about her son. I don’t want to repeat what she said.
Do I think that this is the type of documentary that a regular person would watch, or understand? No. In 2026, I really don’t believe that people would watch “Satanis” and think that it’s answered their questions about Satanism or The Church of Satan. Not the deep questions, at least. “Satanis” has gone on to become more of a piece of history for The Church of Satan, something to be watched by those that are already very familiar with Lavey and his writings.
The way the Church developed after this film, “Satanis” became rather outdated by the end of the decade. Anton stopped performing rituals by 1975 I believe, and the idea of The Church of Satan as a social group was frowned upon. This is interesting, because “Satanis” does make it appear like the CoS was just a group of friends, that got together.
There are scenes where some of the members are in the room with Anton, discussing random things. It’s interesting to see how there wasn’t this dynamic of “bowing down to Anton our lord”, as some people might have thought. Instead, it appeared more like Saturday night of cards with friends. It does appear that the CoS was more of a theosophical or philosophy club, which in many ways they are. Interestingly, in news article before “Satanis” came out, it appears that Anton Lavey was a part of the Theosophical Society. I wonder if this is what inspired him to create his own group.
One thing that surprised me, was how Diane and Anton so readily admitted to performing curses on people. I’m surprised that they would be so open to admitting that on film. Another interesting point is how you see “666” painted on the chest of one woman during a ritual scene. In the years after “Satanis”, Anton wrote that “666” wasn’t a Satanic number, but “999” was. Yet here, in what was recorded in 1969, you clearly see that this was different. I’ve come across this in articles about Anton from the 60’s also; one article even shows a picture of Anton’s car, which had “666” on the license plate. I wonder if certain things like this were changed because of how bad the Satanic Panic got in 80’s. I honestly believe that many things from the original CoS years were changed after the Satanic Panic, for legal reasons.
In some of the interviews with the townspeople, you see them talk about whether they believe Anton actually worships the devil or not. Some believed yes, others no. I found it interesting that some of the Christians in the movie stated that they believed it was all just a sort of self aggrandizement for Anton. One older man even states that he didn’t think that the Church of Satan had anything to do with transcending, as seen in other religions.
There were tidbits in “Satanis” that I didn’t see mentioned anywhere else. More info about Togare, Anton’s lion he used to own, which was almost disturbing in some ways. I won’t mention everything, but apparently Diane was actually scratched, in the least, by Togare in the past. As stated in other reviews about Lavey, I have never understood the interest in owning an exotic animal in a small, suburban setting. By the time “Satanis” was recorded, Togare had already been donated to the zoo.
There were various members of the church interviewed for the film, though their names were never formally divulged. For a documentary, it would have been nice to see name cards or something. The most you could really gather was if a person was wearing a sigil of baphomet necklace or not, but even still, you’d have to have already known about that, to know that-that was a CoS thing.
I looked up “Satanis” on the newspaper archives, and there was only stuff on it from 1970. Mostly ads about the movie, some reviews lightly touched on the matter. Interestingly, some ads stated that the Church of Satan was a cult. Another article joked that they were afraid of Anton, after he admitted to performing Black Magic, and were his friend!
Satanis was released on March 4th, 1970, from what I could find. On the opening night of the film, it was played as a benefit for the church, and anyone that attended received free copies of The Satanic Bible. Interestingly, one ad for “Satanis” had “Night of The Living Dead” also advertised with it.
The movie doesn’t seem to be mentioned after 1970, as I couldn’t find any reviews or ads on it after.
I rate this 2/5 stars, not because it’s about the Church of Satan, but because the film making itself is not that great. The director really should have done more to explain who the people interviewed were, what their opinions on the church was, and let Anton and the others explain what the church really stood for. To me, documentaries are made to inform, and I don’t really believe that this film did that.
My video: https://youtu.be/D1BeXr6i5Kc
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