Casey Chong with seven Satanic Panic movies of the 1980s that you may have missed…
The 1980s may have been a horror boom for the slasher genre populated by the likes of A Nightmare on Elm Street, Friday the 13th, and Halloween, but it also marked the decade bthat saw the cinematic exploitation of the Satanic Panic phenomenon, triggered by the fears and cultural paranoia involving underground cults kidnapping and corrupting innocent children and engaging in dark rituals. Certain pop cultures such as heavy metal music and even role-playing board games were being falsely accused of sending out cryptic messages that would harm society. Movies such as The Evil Dead, Night of the Demons, and Prince of Darkness dominated the Satanic Panic trend. Here, we focus instead on the seven under-the-radar Satanic Panic movies…
976-EVIL (1988)
Years after Robert Englund made his name playing the bogeyman child killer as Freddy Krueger in the lucrative Nightmare on Elm Street franchise, he tried directing a feature for a change with 976-EVIL. The title in question refers to a hotline offering a daily “horrorscope”, which sounds like a novelty to entice curious callers. The story focuses on Hoax (Stephen Geoffreys), who often suffers at the hands of high-school bullies, gradually learns about the titular hotline from a flyer, and starts dialling the number.
The hotline connects to an unseen, mysterious figure (Robert Picardo), whose voice sounds like a creepy horror host. Co-writers Rhet Topham and pre-L.A. Confidential’s Brian Helgeland’s screenplay about a hotline serves as a hellish conduit capable of corrupting a vulnerable mind may sound fundamentally silly. But it’s hard to deny its underlying metaphor for the then-controversial premium pay-per-minute phone line when it was first introduced, reflecting parental fear over the unregulated telecommunication technology at the time that their kids may become easy targets or victims of exploitation.
Englund’s otherwise clunky direction benefits from his B-movie flair, mixing macabre humor with plenty of mean-spirited kills. Geoffreys is ideally cast as a pathetic and abused teenager undergoing a demonic transformation, channelling his later performance as a teenage version of Freddy Krueger who enjoys tormenting his victims.
Evilspeak (1981)
Eric Weston’s directorial debut combines Satanism with techno-horror, specifically a personal computer that deciphers cryptic texts into something unholy and demonic. Evilspeak centers on Stanley Coopersmith (Clint Howard), an orphaned cadet at a military academy who’s been regularly bullied by his classmates. One day, while cleaning the church cellar, he discovers an old diary that belonged to the 16th-century Spanish inquisitor Father Esteban. He soon uses his computer to translate the book from Latin to English, which contains a guide to performing a Black Mass ritual. The movie may take its time to pick up the pace.
But credit still goes to Weston for his then-interesting concept that feels ahead of its time, despite requiring a huge suspension of disbelief about a possessed computer. The director also brings out the best in Howard’s sympathetic lead performance, where you can’t help but root for his arc before he eventually descends into the point of no return.
The movie culminates in an all-hell-breaks-loose finale after a predominantly slow-burning dread, with Stanley completely possessed by Esteban’s soul and beginning his massacre.
Evilspeak was notoriously branded a “video nasty” in the UK for its controversial climax, explicit gore, and a scene where a woman is brutally attacked by flesh-eating hogs.
The Believers (1987)
Based on Nicholas Conde’s 1982 novel The Religion, The Believers gets off to a deliberately mundane start, with a picture-perfect morning at home that turns into a freak accident – a routine kitchen appliance triggers a short circuit and ends up electrocuting police psychologist Cal Jamison’s (Martin Sheen) wife to death. The shocking opening scene effectively sets up the foundation of psychological trauma that scars Cal from here on, even making him fiercely overprotective toward his only son (Harley Cross).
And by grounding the domestic tragedy right from the beginning, it makes the subsequent narrative shift to Cal dealing with ritualistic murders and an Afro-Caribbean cult feel urgent and palpable. John Schlesinger maintains a slow-burn pace, prioritizing the movie’s dramatic weight on Cal’s prolonged grief. The mystery unfolds in a procedural style – one of which involves a heavily traumatized, stark raving mad cop (Jimmy Smits) – before the movie climaxes in a terrifying payoff. Interestingly, Mark Frost’s adapted screenplay would become the basis for his later celebrated work with co-creator David Lynch in Twin Peaks three years later.
The Devonsville Terror (1983)
Ulli Lommel, who also co-wrote the screenplay, details the titular Massachusetts town with a 17th-century prologue where three women suspected of witchcraft are brutally executed. The story then jumps to the present day, introducing three women – schoolteacher Jenny (Suzanna Love), environmentalist Chris (Mary Walden), and radio deejay Monica (Deanna Haas) – arriving in the town. But the town elders see them as a threat, especially given these women’s progressive mindsets that don’t sit well with their conservative beliefs.
Lommel prefers to structure The Devonsville Terror in a deliberate slow-burn approach, focusing more on the psychological horror-drama surrounding the town’s xenophobia, bigotry, and clashes between male dominance and female liberation. The movie is also notable for its atmospheric cinematography by Lommel himself, while the otherwise jarring final third act peaks with gory B-movie body horror – a showcase of practical effects ranging from glowing laser eyes to the exploding head and the graphic face-melting scene.
Midnight (1982)
Writer-director John Russo, who adapted from his own titular 1980 novel, dives straight into the horror right from the get-go, channelling the gritty 1970s exploitation style as a poor young girl ends up dead at the hands of a fanatically violent backwoods family in rural Pennsylvania. The story then shifts its focus to Nancy Johnson (Melanie Verlin, in her only lead role), who has had enough of her abusive police-officer stepfather (a sleazy Lawrence Tierney, who would go on to star in Quentin Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs a decade later) and decides to run away from home.
The protracted second act may feel like unnecessary filler, focusing on everything from Nancy hitching a ride with two young men (John Hall and Charles Jackson) in a van to their road-movie dynamics and shoplifting, making it look as if Russo lacks sufficient material to justify his horror premise. But if you look past the wooden acting and budget limitations, the otherwise mundane stretch makes the eventual encounter with the family worshipping Satanism feel like a visceral jolt for its sudden burst of violence and ominous dread. Russo returns to write and direct the shot-on-video sequel in 1993, titled Midnight 2: Sex, Death and Videotape.
Trick or Treat (1986)
You might remember Charles Martin Smith as an actor, playing supporting roles in two genre-defining films, including the coming-of-age drama American Graffiti (1973) and the Prohibition-era crime thriller The Untouchables (1987). But he also ventured into directing several features, beginning with his 1986 debut in Trick or Treat. The story delves into the underlying satanic horror of heavy metal, focusing on the high-school outcast Eddie “Ragman” Weinbauer (Marc Price), who becomes increasingly obsessed with the unreleased final vinyl record of his favorite late rock idol, Sammi Curr (Tony Fields).
After playing the record backwards, he has unwittingly summoned the malevolent spirit of Curr. Smith filled his movie with notable rock-star cameos, including KISS frontman Gene Simmons playing a radio DJ and Ozzy Osbourne as a televangelist who condemns the aforementioned music genre. Trick or Treat boasts plenty of inventive special effects, notably the stereo speaker manifestation and a massacre where students are pulverized by electric bolts from Curr’s strumming guitar.
Black Roses (1988)
The title in question in John Fasano’s 1988 Canadian horror refers to the heavy metal band arriving in the small town of Mill Basin for three-night performances. While the teenagers are looking forward to the band, the conservative-minded parents and schoolteachers don’t share the same sentiments, as they find that their dark music would corrupt the young minds. But the band has a sneaky way of overcoming the obstacle, notably a deceptive scene where they first play safe, mainstream-friendly music in front of the skeptics during an audition before revealing their true nature once they have the chance.
Fasano fully embraces the satanic theme, turning his movie into a wild, B-movie creature feature with dated but fun practical effects. Scenes include the giant subwoofer morphing into a wide-open demonic mouth that ends up devouring a human victim alive, and children transforming into rubbery lizard monsters and massacring their own parents, running rampant in this low-budget cult classic.
What are your favourite Satanic Panic movies of the 1980s? Let us know on our social channels @FlickeringMyth…
Casey Chong
