Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.

In the 1980s, tabloids like the National Enquirer and daytime talk shows from Oprah to Jerry Springer were talking about everyone’s biggest fear: that animals and small children were being kidnapped by witches and sacrificed to the devil. A new psychological method known as Recovered Memory Syndrome was in vogue, and countless adults who suffered trauma as a child, were somehow recalling bizarre satanic rituals doing back to their earliest memories. And in courtrooms across America, daycare workers, teachers and social workers were accused of heinous crimes, leading to arrests, trials and prison sentences, based on dubious testimony. Who would have thought this all harkened back to a young woman named Michelle Smith and her psychiatrist Lawrence Pazder in peaceful Victoria, BC?

Satan Wants You! is a new documentary that delves into the case of Michelle Smith, her psychiatrist Lawrence Pazder, the bestselling book Michelle Remembers that followed and the ramifications it led to. This compelling film tears the veil from this story, using period TV footage, and new interviews with family members and everyone involved. Satan Wants You is written and directed by Vancouver-based documentarians Steve J. Adams and Sean Horlor. Steve and Sean are a prize-winning team known for their films on pop culture and queer topics and whose doc Someone Like Me won the Audience Choice award at Hot Docs in 2021.

I spoke with Steve and Sean, in person, at TIFF 2023.

Satan Wants You! had its world premiere at this years Hotdocs Film Festival, and is now playing at the Rogers HotDocs Cinema in Toronto.