‘Satan Wants You’ Revisits Book that Fueled Satanic Panic; Documentary Shows How People Get Swept up in the Unbelievable

By Yasuko Onda / Yomiuri Shimbun Senior Writer

11:00 JST, August 15, 2025

Why do so many people easily fall into the trap of believing unbelievable claims? I have a feeling that recently that thought has come to mind much more frequently than before.

“Satan Wants You,” a documentary film produced in Canada, is perfect food for thought when considering such situations. The film has been screened in Tokyo and other areas in Japan.

The subject is the Satanic Panic phenomenon that gripped North America in the 1980s. A conspiracy theory that Satan worshippers were ritually abusing children spread widely, and there were many cases in which childcare workers were accused of being Satan worshippers.

The film focuses on “Michelle Remembers,” a book that fueled the panic, as well as the book’s coauthors, Michelle Smith and Lawrence Pazder.

The coauthors both lived in the Canadian state of Victoria. Lawrence was a psychiatrist, and Michelle his patient. As the two repeatedly held treatment sessions together from the 1970s, Michelle recovered a memory of a horrific experience from her childhood days — ritual abuse by a group of Satan worshippers — or so they both claimed. The book also said Michelle’s mother took her to the cult meetings, and it was the Virgin Mary who saved her from her suffering.

Although there was no physical evidence to support their absurd claims, TV talk shows were quick to jump on the story. Local Catholic clerics took them to the Vatican and reported to the Pope that Michelle had seen the Virgin Mary. Their book became a bestseller in the United States, and Lawrence served as a speaker at the annual general meeting of the American Psychiatric Association as an expert on child abuse. Michelle’s remarks that parents must be careful in choosing a day care facility for their children incited anxiety among many parents, which resulted in witch-hunt-like situations for childcare workers. Even police and the FBI became involved, and the whole scandal continued growing.

Why was society rocked by the extremely dubious claims made by Michelle and Lawrence? What was the pair’s purpose in the first place? This film follows the phenomenon in detail through interviews and old footage from TV; accounts by families and friends of the people involved and those who investigated Satanic Panic cases; analyses by academics and journalists; and videos and audiotapes, including full-length recordings of treatment sessions, left by Lawrence, who liked keeping records. By doing so, the film tries to figure out how the falsehoods spread by the two mushroomed and grew into such a big deal, and it tries to work out the truth with a wealth of remarks by various people involved.

The most shocking claims came from Michelle in old treatment sessions, particularly the one quoted toward the end. “I can’t tell what’s real anymore. I couldn’t tell what was real,” she screamed. What she shouted after that was not released to the public. What was the reason?

What then becomes clear is the panic was triggered by various desires entangled with each other: desire for power, desire for money and desire for love. Satan is scary, but men and women consumed by desire can also deeply frightening indeed. One person who provided testimony for the documentary referred to the QAnon and Pizzagate conspiracy theories, saying the same kinds of things will happen again unless we learn from history. This film is perfect for learning about humans and human society.