Satan is Getting Hot as Hell in American Pop Culture

"I am your nightmare," a possessed child tells Russell Crowe. "My nightmare is France winning the World Cup," the actor fires back in the April 14 release, The Pope's Exorcist. Opening the same day is Nefarious, a movie about a psychiatrist who must determine whether a man on death row who claims to be possessed by the devil is mentally fit enough to be executed.

In November, 2021, Pew Research reported that 62 percent of American adults believe in Hell, up from 58 percent in 2014, and pop culture appears to be taking full advantage of the curiosity that surrounds Hell and its inhabitants.

The Devil is front and center in movies, TV shows, podcasts and even children's books. There are Satan After School Clubs, while the proliferating Satanist groups have their own political divisions.

There's The Exorcist Files, in which Father Carlos Martins recreates exorcisms, and the podcast routinely tops the list of the most popular in the "spirituality" categories. On Netflix alone there are dozens of titles dealing with hellish demons, including Warrior Nun, Devil in Ohio, The Bastard Son & the Devil Himself and Lucifer, in which the ruler of Hell runs a piano bar in California. Comedy is also fair game, thus Ted Danson plays a torturous demon who is prone to mistakes in the Netflix series, The Good Place.

Not since 1973, when The Exorcist was a cultural phenomenon on its way to becoming the first horror film to earn an Oscar nomination for Best Picture has Satan been such a popular topic. There's even a Children's Book of Demons; sample passage: "Summoning demons has never been so fun!" A used copy of the controversial book published in 2019 sells for $253 on Amazon.com.

While there's no polling data suggesting a rise in Satanism, Martins, host of The Exorcist Files, sees anecdotal evidence that more Americans are opening the door for Satan to enter their lives. Exorcisms are way up, he says, and so is interest in them, hence his podcast hit 1 million downloads by the eighth episode.

Humans crave spirituality, says Martins, but a Gallup poll in 2021 noted that for the first time in U.S. history less than half of all Americans were members of a church, synagogue or mosque. To fill the void, many are embracing "a rejection of received social customs and expected behavioral norms in favor of embracing 'me-first' pleasure, pursuing intense feelings and experiences," Martins told Newsweek. "The adoption of Satan as a figurehead is merely another 'shock' ceiling through which the movement has broken through."

There's even an organization that sponsors "After School Satan Clubs" and a rivalry is brewing between two of the most prominent Satanist organizations in the nation. And let's not forget that at the most recent Grammy Awards singers Sam Smith and Kim Petras performed a Hell-themed version of the song, Unholy, with Smith dressed as the Devil and Petras chained in a cage surrounded by flames, much to the chagrin of some Republican lawmakers.

"This ... Is ... Evil," tweeted Senator Ted Cruz after the performance. "The Grammy's featured Sam Smith's demonic performance and was sponsored by Pfizer," tweeted Georgia Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene. Neither Smith or Petras responded to Newsweek's request for comment.

"New-age, the occult, witches, warlocks, Satan — people are intrigued, and Hollywood feeds it to them," says Pastor Greg Locke of Global Vision Bible Church in Mt. Juliet, Tennessee. The controversial pastor — he kept his church open through COVID lockdowns, criticized transgender bathrooms and challenged the integrity of the 2020 presidential election – conducts mass "deliverance" events where he says congregants shed their demons.

Three years ago, he was preaching to about 300 people in a wedding chapel; today, his Sunday night deliverance events attract as many as 3,000 under a massive tent. On March 13, Locke was featured in Come out In Jesus Name, a documentary about his church of alleged demon slayers. The one-night release earned $974,000 nationwide and ruled the box office on a per-screen basis that day, thus the $400,000 movie will re-release a few days ahead of The Pope's Exorcist and Nefarious.

"Hollywood is pushing demonic activity; we're pushing freedom from demonic activity," Locke told Newsweek. "We believe in demonic affliction and oppression. Not everything is a demon, but there's a reason some people can't get over an addiction or depression. You can't medicate your way out of spiritual heaviness. You cast it out."

In the film, Locke speaks of knowing that "voodoo and witchcraft and evil were real," but for 30 years he suffered from "the disease to please," which kept him from preaching about it because he didn't want to be dismissed as a "charismaniac."

Chuck Konzelman, who co-wrote and co-directed Nefarious with Cary Solomon told Newsweek that "curiosity with respect to demons is dangerous, and meddling with the occult is flat-out crazy." Thus, the movie serves as a warning as to what can happen when one invites Satan into their life, be it through evil deeds or the embrace of a mere Ouija board. "When you pick one up, you're saying 'yes-yes' to a willing spiritual possession. Your intention is almost certainly temporary, but demons play for keeps," he said.

In Nefarious, there are long scenes where a doctor debates an alleged demon — or perhaps an extraordinarily cerebral man who suffers from a dual-personality disorder — that are reminiscent of the opening scene from Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds, where a smooth-talking Nazi convinces a man to give up Jews hidden beneath his house. Except in Nefarious, it's the Devil trying to convince an atheist of his existence.

Agony

Nefarious also reflects the Christian values of the filmmakers, with "Satan" weighing in on hot-button issues like abortion. "Can you imagine the agony the Carpenter feels when we rip a child to pieces inside his own mother's womb?" says the alleged demon, referring to Jesus Christ.

The character, played by Sean Patrick Flanery, also claims to "know more theology than any human being who has ever lived."

"He made you in his image. But we remade you in ours," the alleged demon tells the doctor, and in doing so sums up the premise of the film: that the flaws of human beings have become so prevalent that they're celebrated in public policy, media and culture.

"So that's it? That's your entire plan? Not to make something of your own; just destroy us?" asks the doctor, played by Jordan Belfi. "No. Our plan is to hurt Him. To punish Him. And we do that by destroying what he loves. Which is you," the possessed man explains.

The role that politics plays in Nefarious is underscored by the appearance of conservative commentator Glenn Beck playing a rare role as a fictional character in a narrative film. The movie is based on the book, A Nefarious Plot, written by Steve Deace, who hosts a show on Blaze Media, co-founded by Beck.

Konzelman and Solomon are the pair behind faith-based films like God's Not Dead, only this time they say they have made a horror film for the masses, but with a twist: a distinct lack of the blood and gore that usually accompany the genre.

"There's no 'spectacle' in the film. Nobody's puking up strange substances, or climbing walls, or levitating," said Konzelman.

That's not the case in the bigger-budgeted The Pope's Exorcist, where Crowe plays Father Gabriele Amorth, the real-life chief exorcist of the Vatican for 36 years until his death in 2016. Trailers for the film feature graphic portrayals of a demon-possessed child akin to the character, Regan, played by Linda Blair in The Exorcist, where her head spinned, she vomited green goo and murdered a priest.

"It's a very dark pursuit," Crowe says of Amorth's job in a featurette that Sony Pictures released to promote The Pope's Exorcist. Sony Pictures did not respond to Newsweek's request for comment.

Beyond movies, TV shows, books and a bunch of video games featuring the devil, there is The Satanic Temple, which boasts of being the only religious organization recognized as a church by the IRS and the Federal Court System, given other church's hadn't the need to fight court battles in order to be recognized as such.

Its annual convention, dubbed SatanCon is set for April 28-30 in Boston and was sold out at least six weeks in advance. Unlike some high-profile Christian churches that shunned COVID-19 protocols, both masks and vaccines are still mandatory to attend SatanCon. Example presentations include, "Sins of the Flesh: Satanism and Self Pleasure" and "Hellbillies: Visible Satanism in Rural America."

The group awards "Devil's Advocate Scholarships" in the amount of $666 (traditionally, 666 is the mark of the devil). One of this year's recipients was an elementary school child who wrote the best essay on the topic, "What do you hate most about school?"

The Satanic Temple, founded in 2012, also raises money for abortions and has introduced "The Satanic Abortion Ritual" in order to claim religious freedom in states that restrict the procedure now that Roe v. Wade has been overturned.

It's headquartered in Salem, Massachusetts, famous for the Salem Witch Trials in the 17th century, where it also runs the Salem Art Gallery. It also operates an online gift shop (a T-shirt with "Hail Satan" scrolled on the front sells for $30) and it boasts 54 congregations nationwide. Perhaps most controversially: it helps children open After School Satan Clubs. In one district in Pennsylvania, parents packed a school board meeting to complain about a proposed Satan After School Club, and the board voted against the idea 8-1, ABC News reported last year.

Empathy

Founder Douglas Mesner, who goes by Lucien Greaves, declined Newsweek's request for an interview, but The Satanic Temple's website espouses such non-controversial tenets as forgiveness, empathy toward all creatures and freedom — including "the freedom to offend." Its website boasts more than 700,000 registered members.

Its website also states that it will only open an After School Satan Club at schools where other religious groups are already operating. "We're not interested in converting children to Satanism," they claim, offering that their focus is on "rationalism" and "an appreciation of the natural wonders" rather than "a fear of everlasting other-worldly horrors."

There's no indication of how many chapters the After School Satan Club have successfully launched, but the website also sells "The Satanic Book of Children's Activities" for $7.50. "Color Anabel's study filled with Satanic literature and philosophy," reads one page.

The Church of Satan, on the other hand, predates The Satanic Temple by 47 years, and preaches that Satanists are their "own Gods." One of its "Nine Satanic Statements" reads: "Satan represents all of the so-called sins, as they all lead to physical, mental or emotional gratification!"

Dave Harris, the Church of Satan "magister," a registered Libertarian, doesn't have much respect for The Satanic Temple, dubbing them "left-wing political folks masquerading as Satanists who use inflammatory language for headlines."

Neither The Satanic Temple nor Church of Satan promote the worship of a literal devil because that would amount to acknowledging that there are deities, and both groups preach that there are not. "A literal Satan is Christian bullshit," adding that the word, translated from Hebrew, means "adversary — one who stands in opposition. That's who we are," explained Harris.

In fact, in 1975 when a high-ranking member of the Church of Satan named Michael Angelo Aquino claimed that a literal Satan revealed his true identity to him, calling himself "Set," he was ejected from the organization, thus he started The Temple of Set.

The Temple of Set did not respond to Newsweek's request for comment, though it's website describes Set as the "oldest known form of the Prince of Darkness," and the site speaks of the "Left-Hand Path" of being your own god rather than praying to an "imaginary" one. The site promotes "Black Magic" but warns that one cannot learn the craft unless he or she fully rejects being "governed by animal emotions such as shame, fear, or the desire for social acceptance."

Satan, says Martins, the priest, "is a real, living, rational being endowed with intelligence and power," and he notes that groups like the Temple of Set "are not friendly and work very hard to keep their presence secret." Ominously, he posits, "Its members are integrated at all levels of society."

As for The Church of Satan, it even has a list of dozens of recommended movies that includes Blue Velvet, because it features "lust" and "fetishism," and Disney's 1940 animated classic, Fantasia, because it stresses "science and nature over spirituality and faith." Absent on the list are Devil-themed horror blockbusters like The Exorcist and The Omen because, as Harris puts it: "They're just Catholic torture-porn."

While Satanism has been around for hundreds of years, no one codified it as a religion, according to Harris, until Church of Satan founder Anton LaVey did so in 1966. "Prior to that, 'Satanism' was used as a pejorative by Christians," he said.

In the Middle ages, the Catholic Church accused the Knights Templar and Cathars of Satanism. In the 1600s it was the Salem With Trials. In the 1890s there was the Taxil Hoax, where a writer knowingly, falsely accused Freemasonry organizations of being Satan worshippers.

In the 1980's a "Satanic Panic" began with the publication of Michelle Remembers by psychiatrist Lawrence Pazder and his patient (and future wife) Michelle Smith. The book claimed that Smith recalled being horribly abused by Satanists after she underwent "recovered-memory therapy," leading to thousands of ultimately discredited reports of the abuse and murder of children by Satan worshippers. The panic reached its zenith with the arrests of several members and employees of the McMartin family after they were accused of Satanic ritual abuse of children at a preschool they ran in Manhattan Beach, California.

The Satanic Panic of the 1980s, in fact, is explored in a documentary called, Satan Wants You (from 666 Films, no less), which debuted in mid-March at the SXSW Film Festival.

Harris said that a renewed interest in Satanism is a sort of Satanic Panic 2.0, spurred by discussions among conspiracy theorists at 4Chan, Qanon and similar online destinations.

"So much of the Christian mythology has seeped into the American consciousness, and glorifying the bad guy is attractive," he said.

Sean Horlor and Steve Adams, the two filmmakers behind Satan Wants You, told Newsweek they settled onto the topic of the Satanic Panic of the 1980s while researching the role that 4Chan and Qanon had in spreading the debunked "Pizzagate" conspiracy theory.

Satan Wants You features audio from taped sessions where Pazder extracts repressed memories from Smith during his sessions with her circa 1976, though after the Satanic Panic subsided in the 1990s, Pazder's techniques were widely criticized and dismissed. The filmmakers note that Smith declined to participate, but it features Pazder's daughter and first wife, and Smith's sister scorning the notion that she was a victim of Satanic ritual abuse.

Pazder died in 2004 and Newsweek was unable to reach Smith for comment.

During their heyday, the media was very susceptible to the idea that dangerous Satanists were running amok, and Oprah Winfrey is shown saying, "You know, there are thousands of men and women who are secretly worshipping the Devil. The Devil!" Also, Geraldo Rivera is shown promoting a three-hour TV special on the topic, while Larry King appears confused when a woman confesses to murder on national television, telling the TV host she gave birth at age 11 so that she could stab her baby to death as part of a Satanic ritual.

The movie shows footage of a cop in the era claiming that, at 40 percent of the Satanic crime scenes he investigates, there are heavy metal records from bands like Black Sabbath and Iron Maiden present. Michelle Remembers was backed by several officials from the Catholic Church, notes the film, and Pazder's first wife says: "I can't understand why anybody would believe it. I don't know why these people would follow such a stupid book."

By the mid 1990s, reporters, law enforcement and the psychiatric community finally expressed skepticism about repressed memories of Satanic ritual abuse, and the film notes that Dana Carvey helped put an end to the panic by making fun of it on Saturday Night Live with his portrayal of "The Church Lady" — a recurring character who loudly blamed Satan for all transgressions, big or small.

While Satanism appears to come from nowhere, "There's this weird cyclical nature to it with each new generation," said Horlor.

"When we started the movie five years ago there was Pizzagate, but Satan wasn't as deeply entrenched in pop culture as it is today," adds Adams. "Satan is the ultimate scapegoat. People who are slightly out of the mainstream are accused of Satanism. People were saying Sam Smith was Satanic, so he ate it up and played the part at the Grammys."