Devil Worship: The Rise of Satanism 1989
“Devil Worship”, as I’ll call it, is Christian propaganda from the late 80’s, that participated in the Satanic Panic. The film, from the very beginning, is obviously biased, and trying to scare the viewer who is assumed to also be a Christian, but simultaneously malinformed about the subject matter.
From the very start, other films are advertised in the first 3 minutes, various religious type movies. The actual documentary begins afterwards, though calling it a “documentary” is sort of a stretch.
I will be honest, in that this review is going to be more of a rebuttal, as I wanted to see for myself, how much the creators even got right. If anything at all.
The movie starts off with the claim that Satanic groups and Satanism is on the rise, though there aren’t any statistics to prove this. Various news articles are clipped and quickly shown, though we, the viewer, are not given the time to actually read any of them. At first glance, I became suspicious, because I wasn’t sure if this meant they were hiding something,
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I found it ironic, that the film was talking about Satanism in America, when the narrator, or one of the first speakers was clearly not an American! Caryl Matrisciana is credited as having been a writer and occult researcher, but when I looked her up on the internet, there wasn’t much to back up this history of hers. Apparently, she was known for other films such as “Islam Rising”, “Pagan Invasion”, and “The Evolution Conspiracy”. This should already paint the type of people who made this film. Caryl apparently died in 2016. [ https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1506479/ ]
What’s interesting, is that Satanism is considered to be a rising threat in the movie, though they admit that it was unknown, the numbers of people involved. They also admit that not all Satanic groups are criminal, but there had been rising crimes done by Satanic people. They list just about every crime ever, and of course, the desecration of Christian churches. I immediately found it ironic, considering they probably wouldn’t have cared, if it was a Mosque, or a Synagogue.
This video alone, already proves that what people like Professor Barton wrote to be true: Satanism was being blamed for everything, if we sum it up simply.
What I found crazy, is that in proving that Satanists were desecrating bodies and mutilating animals, they showed pictures of mutilated animals and bodies! I thought it was so ironic, how this allegedly safe and godly film seemed to have a fondness for the macabre more than the Satanists themselves.
You see clips of Anton Lavey in this, from very early in the film. There’s no way something like this could fly today, as they’d be easily copyright striked! There are clips of the film “Satanis”, which, I get the feeling, they didn’t ask to use.
They show pictures of graffiti that have “Satan” “666” and the pentagram, like as if the audience would be shocked. But I question, where did they find these photos? Is it possible that they staged it all for the film? It’s very funny to me that they made the claim that Satanism has always been around, yet secret, yet they’re trying to convince the viewer that it was also on the rise. Once again, they were just making claims, without any proof.
How would they know that Satanism was once “hidden or secret”, if they didn’t perhaps…practice witchcraft and black magic themselves? Isn’t there a quote somewhere that goes, “The devil reads the bible too.”?
A “former Satanist” named Audrey is interviewed in the movie, and I found her to be laughable. What made her a “former” Satanist? She claims that “according my bible” that all witchcraft was bad.
The movie also frowns upon Wiccans and White Magic, but not in the Anton way, where he pointed out the hypocrisy of them, but in the Christian way, where all magic and witchcraft is seen as bad.
Interestingly, a wiccan named Nigel points out how Satanism is a “perversion” or reversal of Christianity, which in many ways, is true. Of course, this film takes that out of context, using it to promote the idea that Satanism is bad.
Wicca is also painted to be bad, like a gateway to evil. One alleged “wiccan” claimed that they liked the practice at first, because it had nothing to do with Christianity whatsoever, while also worshiping nature. In that sense, yes, it’s true, but of course this piece of propaganda tries to paint that anything not having to do with Christianity is evil! This alleged former Satanist, goes on to say that the horned god in the religion was actually Lucifer. Which, of course it would be, right? It always has to go back to “proving” that it’s a gateway to Satan, and scare the uninformed from making their own opinions.
They claim that the inverted pentagram was the symbol of black magic. And I question, how would they know this? The pentagram itself, not inverted, is not a Satanic symbol. It is also called a pentacle, and seen in more pieces of media than you can ever imagine. Now, the inverted version is seen in the sigil of Baphomet, that was popularized by The Church of Satan, though it is important to note that Anton did not create this symbol himself!
After Anton’s death, his own daughter, Zeena, made a fact sheet about him, and she even stated:
“The Baphomet emblem used by the Church of Satan was neither original to it nor created by ASL, hence cannot be trademarked. The original Baphomet dates at least as far back as the medieval Knights Templar. The artwork for the current emblem's goat/pentagram first appears in a 1931 book by Oswald Wirth. The complete emblem with the added circles and "LVYThN" Hebrew letters appears on the cover of a book by Maurice Bessy two years before the creation of the Church of Satan. Early photos of Church activities often show ASL or his disciples using the Bessy book as a photo-prop because of its prominent cover-Baphomet, and he included that book in his Compleat Witch bibliography. The Baphomet, including this rendition of it, is clearly in the public domain.”
Of course, this fact sheet came out nearly ten years after this film, but it is important to note, the truth of the symbol. [ https://web.archive.org/web/20110903122224/http://satanismcentral.com/aslv.html ]
The person talking here is a man named Bill Schnoebelen, who is allegedly a writer, occult expert, and former Satanist. Looking him up, there’s very little about him, and the only piece of writing that you can find from him is book about Freemasonry, published in 2000! So at the time of the film, he hadn’t even written anything! Further, IMDB states that Bill has claimed in the past to be a Freemason, Satanist, member of the Illuminati, and a vampire! [ https://www.amazon.com/Masonry-Beyond-Light-William-Schnoebelen-ebook/dp/B0FNPZLXLC ]
Once again, these are the type of people in this movie, trying to inform you that Satanism is bad, and Satanic crimes are real.
As stated before, alleged former Satanist Audrey, states that her bible says that God sees “witchcraft as witchcraft”, not distinguishing between white, black, or grey. I also have to note that this person has a non-American accent, despite this supposedly being about Satanism on the rise in America.
I found what Audrey said to be interesting, because in a way, it was very “Satanic” of her to call witchcraft all of the same thing. This is something that Anton Lavey virtually felt. In articles from the 60’s, and even in his books, Anton pointed out how hypocritical it was people to call themselves “White Witches”, because all magic was considered to be evil in Christianity. In Anton’s eyes, White Witches would often claim to only do magic for good, yet when someone would annoy them, they’d still cast spells to “make the person into a toad”. Basically, despite people saying that they didn’t do curses and hexes, and practiced white magic only, the moment these people became angry, they would cross the line into Black magic, which I think is true.
The claim that witchcraft is bad is allegedly in the bible, though it’s not pointed out where exactly in this film. Looking it up, there are multiple instances of this, one being from Deuteronomy 18.
To quote NIV:
“9 When you enter the land the Lord your God is giving you, do not learn to imitate the detestable ways of the nations there. 10 Let no one be found among you who sacrifices their son or daughter in the fire, who practices divination or sorcery, interprets omens, engages in witchcraft, 11 or casts spells, or who is a medium or spiritist or who consults the dead. 12 Anyone who does these things is detestable to the Lord; because of these same detestable practices the Lord your God will drive out those nations before you. 13 You must be blameless before the Lord your God.”.
New King James Version:
“Avoid Wicked Customs
9 “When you come into the land which the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not learn to follow the [d]abominations of those nations. 10 There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or his daughter pass[e] through the fire, or one who practices witchcraft, or a soothsayer, or one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer, 11 or one who conjures spells, or a medium, or a spiritist, or one who calls up the dead. 12 For all who do these things are [f]an abomination to the Lord, and because of these abominations the Lord your God drives them out from before you. 13 You shall be [g]blameless before the Lord your God. 14 For these nations which you will dispossess listened to soothsayers and diviners; but as for you, the Lord your God has not [h]appointed such for you.”
King James Version:
“When thou art come into the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee, thou shalt not learn to do after the abominations of those nations.
10 There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch.
11 Or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer.
12 For all that do these things are an abomination unto the Lord: and because of these abominations the Lord thy God doth drive them out from before thee.
13 Thou shalt be perfect with the Lord thy God.”
And from Douay Rheims:
“When thou art come into the land which the Lord thy God shall give thee, beware lest thou have a mind to imitate the abominations of those nations.
10 Neither let there be found among you any one that shall expiate his son or daughter, making them to pass through the fire: or that consulteth soothsayers, or observeth dreams and omens, neither let there be any wizard,
11 Nor charmer, nor any one that consulteth pythonic spirits, or fortune tellers, or that seeketh the truth from the dead.
12 For the Lord abhorreth all these things, and for these abominations he will destroy them at thy coming.
13 Thou shalt be perfect, and without spot before the Lord thy God.
14 These nations, whose land thou shalt possess, hearken to soothsayers and diviners: but thou art otherwise instructed by the Lord thy God.”.
Though the majority of the message remains the same, there are some differences in how it’s written in these different versions. What I found most interesting is how in Douay’s version, the word “expiate” is used. It’s defined as atoning for sin. It makes me wonder if the idea of sacrificing your children, or making them burn at the stake for sinning was supposed to be banned.
Not to get too far into the weeds, but I found it interesting how yes, the bible does paint witchcraft, as a whole, as bad. But it never says why. It just says that it does. The idea of this part of the bible saying this was to have people obey these as rules. To not take on the cultures from other lands, which on one hand is likely why we experience such horrible genocide in America when the settlers came; but it conjures another question from me.
If the bible says that witchcraft, interpreting dreams, soothsaying, and all these things are wrong…doesn’t that imply that witchcraft is real? Does Deuteronomy unintentionally admit that magic is real? If it wasn’t real, then why would people told not to do it?
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One of the news clips showed a picture of Megadeth’s album “Killing Is My Business…And Business Is Good”. Looking at the article, it was clearly an attempt at trying to make Metal look like a gateway to Satanism.
For some reason, they brought yet another non American to prove their point in the film, about Satanism on the rise in America.
Aliester Crowley is mentioned, and you immediately see the Christian homophobia about Crowley’s bisexuality. This was a laughable way to make him appear Satanic and bad. They also talked about his book “Magick”, which makes me wonder…how did they come across him, in the first place? How did the creators of this, know about this stuff?
They claim that Crowley’s book gave instructions on child sacrifice. Looking this up, there wasn’t any evidence that he ever actually sacrificed anybody. Supposedly, people say that he was talking about ejaculation. Even still, I don’t think the argument is very strong that Crowley’s books would have forced people sacrifice children. First of all, you’d have to assume that people would read. Second, Crowley was British, and I thought we were talking about America here.
They claim that Anton’s books, “The Satanic Bible” and “The Satanic Rituals” were among Satanism’s most important books. This made me laugh, because it surely made Anton some money, from people curious if this was even true.
Yet another British person is interviewed in the film, a “former Satanist/Black Witch”.
They take “Satanis” out of context, and then make up stuff about Satanists being violent. They claim that Satanists take everything to the extreme, and it’s excused because of their religion. This is obviously not true, and outlandish, because The Satanic Bible does not condone violence in any way. It’s very funny to me, how much they steal from Satanis, clips are throughout the movie! The creators had to have watched the film, but I suppose they ignored the part where Anton says in it, that they don’t actually spill any blood during their rituals.
The movie then categorizes the different Satanists.
1. The Dabbler
2. The Religious
3. Non-Traditional
4. Generational
The Dabbler is defined as the teenager, and they show a young metalhead in a Venom shirt. They claim that dabblers are teens that might a little from their friends, or a book from the bookstore. Supposedly, these are the same people putting graffiti on the walls and knocking over tombstones…because that’s something you can prove. They’re considered to be the types to perform animal sacrifices, and are apparently considered “lower level Satanists”, but the higher level ones. Once again, I ask how they even know this?
The second level is the Religious Satanist, and of course, they use a picture of Anton Lavey. I found this hilarious, because why did they have so much media of Anton? This film uses multiple pictures of Anton, and shameless rips from “Satanis”!
The movie claims that the Religious Satanists were protected by law, and it seemed to almost bother them. Not much is said after this, and it just seemed like they wanted to give Anton his own category.
Third, is the Non-Traditional Satanist. This section isn’t very clear, because it’s basically the dabbler, but in group form. These alleged Satanists would use Biblical aspects to form cults, but then may or may not commit crimes. One of the examples was of an article about a child being killed with an upside down cross shoved in their heart. While tragic, I have to point out that this doesn’t necessarily affirm the killer was a Non-Traditional Satanist, or Satanist at all. I think it would be clear to say that the killer had some sort of severe mental illness. This also made me question, who is labeling the Satanists? Are we to trust the Christians on who is a Satanist? What about the people themselves? How do we know whether or not these people consider themselves to be Satanic?
Fourth, is the Generational Satanist. The idea is that there are people who have Satanism in their family, and it’s passed down from generation to generation. Allegedly, these people would be molested and forced to eat feces, and other disturbing things. There are clips of things like cult members an abortion in the news, like as if this proves those people were Generational Satanists. The film makes claims while presenting unrelated news articles like as if they’re “proof”.
The movie then goes on to interview people and their experiences with Satanism, which highly laughable. One guy claims that his grandfather took him to the barn, claiming that he was “The Chosen One”, and was to absorb his grandfather’s power after death. I thought this was interesting, because “Chosen One” is a very Christian concept, seen in Revelation in the bible. Christians seem to have a thing about being the special people, and their concerns with being part of the “144”.
The film goes on to say that Satan was the god of Witchcraft, which I found laughable. In the least, the creators of this could have done a little more research, because if they picked up a book about Greek mythology, they would have come across Hecate.
They then describe the plot to “Paradise Lost”, and claim that it’s what Satanists believe.
The movie itself admits that there are no statistics that Satanism is widespread, and on the move in America! Now in one guy’s opinion, he thought that it was more widespread than you’d think. But that is still just an opinion, and not fact!
They then claim that Satanism in the UK was on the increase. More British people are interviewed, where it’s just their opinions on whether it was on the rise. They claimed that it could be anyone. Anyone and everyone could be a potential Satanist, and therefore get ready to do crimes. The fake author from before, Bill, claimed that he was a former member of the Church of Satan, and he claimed that they were proud that none of the military installations at the time had avowed Satanists? I don’t know what he meant by that, and in fact, that’s not true.
In 1967, I believe, Anton Lavey actually was at the funeral of a veteran, who was a part of his church! Once again, this movie proves itself to be lying about anything, and everything.
Bill then went on to claim that Satanists were drawn into the military because of all the war and death. This doesn’t make sense to me, because if Satanists were all into that, and would thus join the military, then wouldn’t that mean you could easily find Satanists? Just go to the local recruiting office, right? In their logic, every Corporal, Captain, and Major would be Satanist? The logic is not there. They tried to use Michael Aquino’s military affiliation as some sort of “proof” of this. Bill claimed that war and the military was one huge human sacrifice.
The film claims that teenagers use magic so that they can get back at their parents. There is not proof of this in the film, and yet another claim.
They go on to show footage about serial rapist and killer Richard Ramirez, who was a terrible person, and interested in the devil. Granted, they put too much emphasis on his spiritual beliefs, and not the criminological aspects of his crimes. They make it seem like Satan made him commit his crimes, and not the forensic ones. It’s actually disgusting in a way, that his victims are seen as nothing more than victims of religion, and not a person with severe psychological issues.
We then see a picture of more graffiti on a wall, this time Satan and 666 inside a Star of David of all things.
They claimed that Satanists were publicaly recruiting, and show an old poster of Anton Lavey. This is a poster that is actually seen in the background of Anton’s house in the movie “Witchcraft 70”.
They claimed that recruiters would go to schools and recruit children. There’s no proof of this whatsoever. Allegedly, teens would be recruited by going to parties, and getting alcohol and drugs. One former Satanist claimed that her coven gave her heroin.
Of course, Rock and Metal is seen as another reason for Satanism. They try to drive very hard, that Richard Ramirez was influenced by Metal for his crimes. Some of the greats such as Venom, Slayer, and Mercyful Fate are mentioned, the Christians in the film claiming that those bands would teach teens about Satan.
The movie goes as far claiming that cartoons are trying to recruit children too. They tried to say He-Man was one of these cartoons, because the show used Magic, even if it was “good magic”.
Of course, “Dungeons and Dragons” was mentioned. Supposedly, you could learn actual spells from it. Ouija boards are also mentioned, which was comical. This was obviously taken from “The Exorcist”, which in the book, Rags was using one as a toy, which invited the demon which possessed her.
One former occultist claims that from the Ouija board, they got into other things, such as incense…which is again, comical. Incense is used in Christianity itself. It’s mentioned in the bible, even in Ezekial. Things like this show me how even the ultra religious don’t read their own book.
They then claim that Satanism leads to suicide, and proceed to show actual pictures of suicide! How is that Christian? What happened to respect for the dead?!
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From there, they claim that people are often blindfolded or drugged, so that they can’t find the place they’re being taken to for Satanic rituals. They show more footage from Satanis, and then some paintings, one from H.R. Giger. First of all, the idea that everyone is taken by blindfold is unsubstantiated. Where is the proof? Second, all of footage that is stolen from “Satanis”, takes place in Anton’s house himself. There was no mystery about that. For the longest time, Anton’s address was posted in the newspapers!
They claim that sex rituals are mandatory, and go so far as claiming where children would be included. This is a ridiculous claim, where no proof of this presented at all. What also bothers me, is how the film shows shots of The Satanic Bible, which specifically speaks about NOT harming children.
They try to act like they care about the kids, and that there are children being tortured and shit on by Satanists. One claim went so far in their mental gymnastics, in saying that some Satanists will even dress up like Christian Clergy members, and molest children in the church. At what point can we just admit that those Catholic priests were committing crimes? But of course, they would never admit that a Christian would do wrong.
It’s sad that actual crimes of child abuse were only looked at because of the claim of Satanism. Why did Satan have to be involved, just for abusers to be dealt with?
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They go on to talk about the Black Mass, which shows more footage from “Satanis”. Ironically, the ritual scenes in “Satanis” were in English, and didn’t speak in reverse, as this movie claims.
The subject of animal mutilation is brought up, and once again, you see pictures of animals actually mutilated. It was sickening to see how these dead animals were exploited for such a terrible film. There were two women interviewed, alleged former high priestesses from the Temple of Olympus. You know that their story of animal sacrifice was fake, because one of the women stated that she was able to kill an animal super quick. Anyone that has gone fishing, or hunted their own food, know that it takes a lot of strength to clean an animal used for food. I can’t understand how anyone would watch this film and not realize that it was fake.
There are more depictions of alleged sacrifices, where even a baby was supposedly sacrificed. One woman claims that she was forced to swear to never say anything, because she signed a parchment in blood. Why would that matter more than going to the police? Why did these former Satanists not go to any law enforcement agent after allegedly leaving their covens? It doesn’t make sense.
There’s a man interviewed in front of a police department, and it’s so disingenuous. There’s no proof that this man is an officer, and we’re supposed to believe that he is one, because of where they recorded his parts of the film. This goes to show how slimy the creators of this really are.
I am shocked with how many photos of actual dead bodies there are in this. How did they get these?
The film claims so many outlandish things. One of the biggest contentions is that Satanists do evil, for the sake of evil, to spite God. But I find that this film is evil. Lying to others is evil. Doesn’t it go against Christian doctrine to be so manipulative?
I was appalled that the movie stated that parents have the right to invade their childrens’ privacy, because “their privacy belongs to you”. This is such a disgusting mentality to me, and anyone that believes this, should not be a parents in my eyes. Just because you have a child, does not mean that you own them. You cannot own a person.
Parents that invade their children’s privacy and respect, cannot expect their children to want to associate with them, when that child eventually grows up.
If Jesus died for my sins, then wouldn’t that mean he’d understand, if I worshiped Satan? Isn’t everything already forgiven?
The film ends with some quotes that are supposed to drive the viewer close to God. The conclusion to the film is so ridiculous, and I have to seriously wonder if this is parody or not. To me, anyone that would seriously believe anything in this film, is either extremely disturbed, or willfully ignorant.
To me, this film was clearly a cash grab for the Satanic Panic. Everyone interviewed as clearly acting, reciting lines that were stock, and likely written by the same person. I wondered if some of the “British” people involved were faking their accents. One person seemed to switch up their accent at times.
I suppose that Anton was right though, when he said that Satan is The Church’s best friend, because he’s the one that keeps them in business. It reminds me of my favorite bible verse actually, Matthew 16:26.
“For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?”.
Obviously, I do not have a high opinion of this film, and it absolutely aged terribly. When you think about it’s main concepts, the idea is to not enjoy anything. You can’t listen to Rock or Metal, you can’t watch cartoons, you can’t even read a book or play a game because it might have magic, which is Satanic in itself.
I wonder, in the decades since, if this is something that Christians would still approve of. Would they agree with this? Or would it make them cringe at how out of date, out of touch, and the lack of reading put into this.
Another question I have is, if magic isn’t real, then why are they afraid of Satanists? Are Christians afraid of Satanists doing Black Magick on them? Is this a real fear in the religion of Christianity? Where would a fear like this come from?
For obvious reasons I give this an F. Not even any stars. Just, an F.
My video: https://youtu.be/dEhcJPfddY8
