Satanis: The Devil's Mass

In 1966, a one-time circus lion-tamer Anton Szandor LaVey founded The Church of Satan in San Francisco and grandiosely announced the age of Satan had begun, an age that would celebrate the carnal instincts in man, and would be characterized by the mantra of "indulgence instead of abstinence". Although a media non-entity since the early nineties, at the time, the fledging Church shocked and scandalized as much as it bemused and confused…and this was in no small part to LaVey's charisma, showmanship, and effective mixing of blasphemy (compounded in 1968 with the publication of 'The Satanic Bible') and of horror B-movie imagery which left many asking if it was just a racket, a reason to get naked for it's largely well-to-do white middle-class membership, or indeed had darker aspirations.

However, this documentary in choosing to sacrifice the weightier aspects of the Church to the titillating nude alters and B-movie lighting offers such a superficial treatment that for those for whom "Satanis" is their introduction to LaVey and the Church, the reaction of snide dismissal is totally understandable. The documentary is basically composed of three strands: talking heads of neighbours (both sympathetic and antagonistic) and Church members; extended scenes of Satanic rituals; and interviews with LaVey. The ritual scenes begin as interesting but quickly become stale and interminable and (most boringly) designed to titillate…a theme which re-emerges when members of the Church discuss sex and masturbation and, despite supposedly being advocates of the flesh liberated from Judeo-Christian conceptions of shame, giggle like pathetic teenagers (something which visibly irks LaVey as he tries to talk). In the end the only interesting pieces of the documentary (few and far between) are the interviews with LaVey himself as he waxes lyrical on the tenets of his Church with an energy and enthusiasm he would lose in later years, something evident in the still-patchy-but-much-better later documentary "Speak of the Devil" (www.imdb.com/title/tt0183811/reviews-4).

All in all, I would only recommend "Satanis" to people who are already acquainted with the Church of Satan and want to get a feel of what the first few years must have been like as to those coming to the Church for the first time would be forgiven for not seeing the nuances and complexities inherent in the organization. I recommend the documentary "Speak of the Devil" for its more mature approach and focus on LaVey himself but for those really seeking knowledge on the Church I recommend the authoritative and comprehensive book "The Church of Satan" by Michael Aquino available to download for free. Shemhamforash indeed.

This film swings the doors to the early days of the Church of Satan (CoS) wide open and was, for quite some time, the only interview footage of Anton Szandor LaVey available. (Scenes from this film are still in use today in news specials and documentaries, often times used as propaganda by some groups to turn people FROM Satanism. Most of the humor in this film will not be seen by the audiences that these groups are trying to influence.)

This documentary interviews neighbors, friends and enemies of Anton LaVey and his church and helps shed some light (dark?) on origins of the philosophies that were codified in this unique religious movement. This ilm is not without it's tongue-in-cheek moments. During one of the opening scenes, one of a Satanic ritual, the participant's solemn mood is broken when the Priest of the ceremony (LaVey) says, "Okay, that's enough for that part." Perhaps it was the director's idea to show some incidental humor in the film.

One thing that will probably strike everybody as strange is the sense of humor shown throughout the film by most of the people that are interviewed. Satanists are often seen as dour, humorless folk, but, as Anton LaVey points out in the film, a person without a sense of humor is intolerable at worst, and doesn't make a good Satanist. Humor abounds and stands in stark contrast to the rituals.

Also seen, as noted before, are some of the enemies to LaVey's cause. There are interviews with Mormon missionaries and priests from the area and they are given a chance to voice their outrage towards this philosophy. This film is highly recommended as a documentary of a rather maligned religion. It can be a bit hard to find, but it is available.

The Church of Satan was a very small and quirky organization that began in, where else, San Francisco, by Anton LaVey. This film is a documentary about the church, their beliefs, the neighbors' attitudes towards them and those who attend. While this is an interesting topic, the fact that it's such a small and insignificant organization makes it of marginal historical and social interest.

Other than showing some of the ceremonies of this organization, this documentary simply lets people within and outside the organization talk with very, very little direction from the film makers. In fact, the entire film seems rather non-planned and not particularly structured. Because of this, the film tends to wander at times and many of the interviews look as if they should be edited heavily. Simply recording people and stringing the interviews together is not great film making and some might find the whole thing tedious after a while. I truly believe the film could have been half as long or even shorter and been much more interesting and effective. There are also some nudes (mostly quite unattractive) and a bare butt being flogged. They don't particularly seem interesting or necessary and I wonder if they were added to try to "spice up" an otherwise dull film.

What I would have enjoyed a lot more would have been more of a biographical study of LaVey or Alistair Crowley--to figure out what made them tick, so to speak. Otherwise, just listening to everyone talk and talk and talk became quite a strain on most people's patience. If only they could get Louis Theroux to interview the current members and high priest of the Church of Satan--now THAT would be interesting.

TCM recently aired this obscurity (with thanks to Something Weird and the American Genre Film Archive for rescuing it). As a film it isn't much: Poorly shot (16mm) with the camera often fumbling around without edits searching for proper framing, barely adequate sound and a lack of basic of explanation of who is being interviewed and the context of LaVey and his followers.

Still, I found this a lot more interesting than its critical reputation would have it. It's very much a 'time capsule' as others have noted. San Francisco in the late 60s has always been embodied in the public mind by Haight-Ashbury, The Summer Of Love and the Hippie movement in general. LaVey and his Church of Satan fit right in even with their Black Mass trappings. Hedonists and free love folks at their core, LeVay and his disciples simply traded their tie-dyes for devil masks and leather - or, just ditched their clothing entirely (though, still in a mostly sexist manner with naked women being the 'altar' objects).

Aside from the Satanic angle, the other thing that made them public pariahs were their embrace of all types of sexual 'perversions' (LaVey's own words). Interestingly, one of those alleged perversions of the era was homosexuality - hey, they were progressives ahead of their time! Why LaVey got tabbed an underground cult leader was his insistence that he was leading a new religion, as foolish as that was. Indeed, the extensive footage here of the group's rituals leads one more towards mockery rather than fear (although the whipping scene is pretty realistic). Try as he does to make the rituals into a horror show, Director Ray Laurent succeeds more in making them look mundane and more than a bit boring. Heck, the Church of Satan didn't even use live animal sacrifices! What kind of devil worshippers don't spill blood?!

But, even at that the film is interesting: Stripped of all the costumes, nudity and devil scripture this was just a bunch of folks gathered together in some guy's darkened living room - so what if an orgy broke out? SATANIS will never be confused with fine filmmaking, but, it's a valuable document of a time and a place. And, probably the best peek at LeVay as a person -- stripped of all the pomp and circumstance -- and fearsome reputation.

This movie doesn't contain much that's really exciting, much less surprising, about the early Church of Satan, but it does show LaVey and his cronies at a time when he was still optimistic and not cynical about the future of his organization. There are also great shots of the Black House during its heyday (before the "androids" took over) and some interesting footage of Togare the lion. The filmmakers seem to have decided that Satanism wasn't as shocking as they'd hoped, so they went for humor where possible, and that wears thin after a while. The interviews where LaVey speaks for himself are fairly good, but the interviews with other Church members are annoying and at times you can see the embarrassment on Anton's face when someone else speaks – nobody in this film, aside from LaVey and his family, went on to become any kind of leader in the tiny marginalized world of the Left Hand Path, and that should tell you something about the quality of membership in SF at the time. I still find it an interesting piece, but I think about 40 minutes could be shaved off without losing anything.