After centuries as a rhetorical weapon used by Christian institutions to punish dissidents, heretics, atheists and women, then decades as a powerful symbol for the anti-Christian values of 19th century occult movements, Satanism cohered into its own oppositional identity in 1966, Year One, “Anno Satanas” of the Church of Satan. In 1990, Satanism got out a step ahead of Christianity, beating the Vatican’s list of “Some Important Films” by five years with its own publication of films approved by founder Anton LaVey in The Church of Satan.
The list is an odd collection, including explicitly satanic movies like Rosemary’s Baby and unexpected picks, including: Blade Runner, The Asphalt Jungle, Citizen Kane, Death Wish, Fantasia, I’m a Fugitive From A Chain Gang and Radio Days. High Priest Peter Gilmore explains the thinking behind it in an attached interview.
“We are not devil worshippers and so humdrum horror films portraying cultists slaying sacrificial victims provide nothing of interest,” says Gilmore. With the list, he hopes to “dispel the still rampant idea that a movie is Satanic if there’s some reference to Satan, Lucifer or other devils.”
Okay, great, but LaVey still picked some pretty rad “Satan, Lucifer or other devils” movies that convey that misimpression. That seems part of the Church of Satan mission, too. Similar to the Baphomet statue erected in Detroit, demons and devils become symbols of rejecting orthodoxy and dogmatic values.
Here are 10 of their best picks. Embrace the Satanic values contained within, or simply enjoy them as horror movies.
The Seventh Victim (1943)
The fourth in a famous run of RKO horror movies produced by Val Lewton, The Seventh Victim beats Rosemary’s Baby to the urban paranoia punch with its mysterious cult of Greenwich Village Satanists. The urbane group, more parlor society than berobed coven, are nevertheless willing to do anything to protect their secrets. Every bit as deserving of Casablanca or Citizen Kane’s fame, Night of the Hunter is one of the best thrillers in American movie history. There’s just no topping Robert Mitchum as the serial killing Reverend Harry Powell (“LOVE” and “HATE” tattooed on his knuckles), who comes to town to take money from the widow of a dead bank robber, even if it means piling up bodies and hunting her kids across the countryside. There’s just nothing like Night of the Hunter, which is characterful, astonishingly shot, sometimes funny and often horrific. Jacque Tourneur directed some of the best horror films of the 40s, especially Cat People, then moved on to other genres for a decade. His 1957 return to horror, Night of the Demon, was worth the wait. People are dying around a Satanic cult leader, but is the murdering demon real or a hoax? Night of the Demon gets far on suggestion and mounting dread, but ignore the critics: Night of the Demon is still good as hell after the rubber monster shows up. [[nid:173046]] Hail Satan, this is one clever plot. A new cemetery overseer accidentally places a black pin, indicating an occupied grave, on the map where a white pin, indicating a grave plot with a still-living owner. Wouldn’t you know it, that owner drops dead. Yes, it’s small-town Death Note. The twists don’t always add up, but I Bury the Living is like watching a great The Twilight Zone two-parter.Night of the Hunter (1955)
Night of the Demon (1957)
I Bury the Living (1958)
The Masque of the Red Death (1964)
Bright, primary colors and rich sets make The Masque of the Red Death the jewel of director Roger Corman’s 60s run of Edgar Allan Poe adaptations (The Pit and the Pendulum is another highlight). This is Vincent Price at his most believably regal and wicked, bossing around nobles and oppressing plague-stricken peasants. This is nearest American horror would ever come to Mario Bava and Dario Argento.
The Abominable Dr. Phibes (1971)
Vincent Price rises from below, bedecked in a shimmering black cloak, playing a dirge upon an immense neon pink organ. He’s backed by a robotic band: “Dr. Phibes Clockwork Wizards.” There will never be anything like this movie again. Dr. Phibes is out for revenge against the doctors who failed to save his wife and he’s got the bats, locusts, Saw-style surgery and catapult-launched unicorn horns to do it. The Abominable Dr. Phibes is a slasher built on cartoon logic, but Price gives it an operatic grandeur.
The Wicker Man (1973)
When Sergeant Howie comes to Summerisle to investigate the disappearance of a young girl, he finds an idyllic commune of family-focused pagans. Eerie, mysterious and beautiful, The Wicker Man isn’t just a horror movie, but an alternate reality — a world built a different way, with its own rewards… and dangers.
It’s Alive (1974)
It’s Alive is about a monster baby that kills the doctors that birthed it. Director Larry Cohen is the absolute master of exploitation horror pulp. Part of what makes movies like Q: The Winged Serpent and The Stuff so amazing is that they combine the cheesiest possible premises with a societal astuteness miles above “so bad it’s good” or any other camp/kitsch descriptors.
Evilspeak (1981)
In the basement of a military academy, a young, bullied cadet discovers the black magic books of a Dark Ages Spanish Satanist. Using his leet haxor skills, he translates the spells into computer-speak and starts programming his revenge. Come for Clint Howard in a rare, starring role, stay for an absolutely blockbuster climax in a flaming church.
Tourist Trap (1979)
Released a year after Halloween and a year before Friday the 13th, Tourist Trap may be the weirdest and most inventive release in the Golden Age of Slashers. Set in a bizarre, closed-down Southern tourist trap loaded with wax statues, Tourist Trap combines supernatural surrealism and slasher psychopathy. Wax figures move, teens get transformed into mannequins and everyday objects fly around rooms like a busload of poltergeists just got dropped off. Tourist Trap is both pulpy, exploitative and also genuinely eerie… a rare combination.
