Satan Wants You’s chief achievement is that it understands its subject’s substantial sociopolitical implications and articulates them with economy and power.

| Oct 10, 2024

Anyone interested in what makes the wheels of major social panic and hysteria turn will find much to learn from Satan Wants You. Terrifying in its implications and its truths, it even manages to tie in to more current moments.

| Aug 4, 2024

It is an infuriating and oddly captivating story that will certainly angry up the blood.

| Nov 22, 2023

The great American "Satanic Panic" of the 1980s was a monument to human lunacy.

| Oct 27, 2023

As it is, the documentary is an attempt to delve into a mostly unexplored history of a modern witch hunt.

| Sep 15, 2023

Satan Wants You succeeds on many levels. It is a time capsule of a cultural moment, a shocking look at psychiatric manipulation, and the story of a woman in emotional distress. Clever and inventive, it’s a worthwhile watch.

| Aug 29, 2023

[O]ur present-day society isn’t done listening to tall tales from those who speak the loudest.

| Aug 15, 2023

Satan Wants You shines a light on the ways the media mishandled this situation. It shows you what a real witch hunt looks like. It also puts a face to some of the people who lost years of their lives because of sensationalist nonsense.

| Aug 14, 2023

Focusing on the discredited book that launched the '80s Satanic Panic, Satan Wants You unfolds in the borderline schlocky style of television newsmagazine shows, and reminds us that, like the mythical Satan, crazy never quits.

| Original Score: B-minus | Aug 10, 2023

Satan Wants You is a time capsule of 1980s moral outrage, but more than that, it demonstrates how quickly and easily misinformation can cause an epidemic of mass hysteria.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Aug 10, 2023

There is a great, big, awful picture that needs to be painted here, but this doc is too preoccupied by the devil in the details of one specific, already overanalyzed case.

| Aug 8, 2023

At its best, Satan Wants You will cement the absurdity of Satanic conspiracy theories by reveling in their irony. These conspiracies have only grown and offer journalists a chance to admit that their debunking at the time seemingly didn't matter at all.

| Original Score: 4.5/5 | Aug 5, 2023

The scariest part about Satan Wants You is how it reveals the way we Westerners, as a whole, have learned nothing.

| Original Score: 4.5/5 | Aug 5, 2023

Satan Wants You is an unflinching examination of the endurance of certain fears, and the equally persistent way that those fears can be cynically mined for financial and political gain by a morally bankrupt few who should know better.

| Aug 3, 2023

An excellent documentary that functions as both a history of the Satanic Panic and a timely reminder of the dangers of moral panics.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Aug 2, 2023

Satan Wants You’s chief achievement is that it understands its subject’s substantial sociopolitical implications and articulates them with economy and power.

| Aug 1, 2023

Thorough and expansive, with a keen undercurrent of disbelief that this ever unfolded the way it did, Satan Wants You follows the story right through, covering its twists and developments in suitable detail.

| Aug 1, 2023

A film which is forensic in its approach yet also finds room for fascinating explorations of character.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Jul 24, 2023

A clever look at mass hysteria, morality, fear-induced misinformation, and how shocking, gruesome stories have the power to distort and damage reality if marketed well.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Jul 20, 2023

Satan Wants You is a disturbing, gripping examination of the origins of the 80's Satanic Panic, but it also acts as a cautionary tale as we see new conspiracy theories rise in popularity today.

| Jun 14, 2023