Midnight Movie: Law Enforcement Guide to Satanic Cults [VHS]

Senseless moral panics will never go away, but the 80s and early 90s did ’em best, as proven by today’s featured video. The introduction has the sweater-clad host inviting us to “pay attention and notice the reverse of everything that is normal becoming abnormal.” What does that even mean? Word salads like that sound suspiciously like the kind of nonsense you’d hear an actual cultist say.

It’s not long until the video brings in a fake expert who visits a neighborhood park. There he conveniently stumbles upon the remnants of a Satanic ritual. It’s immediately clear the only orgy that actually took place there was the orgy of evidence manufactured by the unscrupulous filmmakers. “Oh, look. There’s a pentacle right there, mere feet from where we set up our cameras. Let’s go have a look.”

As expected, the video manages to link Satanism to decorative candles, video games, modern music, homosexuality, pornography, and everything else “concerned parents” wanted to condemn at the time. Then there’s the excessively detailed list of signs that indicate your child may be the victim of a Satanic cult. This list is indistinguishable from a list of “signs your kid might be abused, period,” but the filmmakers seem convinced only Satanists are capable of such crimes.

While the Guide to Satanic Cults is chock-full of hilarious (but potentially dangerous) misinformation, the middle section drags. When the “expert’s” segment ends, I’d suggest fast-forwarding to the aforementioned “bikini girl” scene, which is obviously the repressed host’s excuse to touch a nearly naked model. I don’t know how she didn’t crack up laughing when he removed the fitted sheet from her body. And I imagine the editors had to use a pretty advanced noise gate to cover up all his heavy breathing.

Leave a comment