Realm of Satan | Deadline Studio at Sundance
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Transcript
00:00 [MUSIC PLAYING]
00:03 Realm of Satan is a portrait of the Church of Satan
00:19 made in collaboration with the leadership and membership
00:21 of the Church of Satan.
00:23 And it's a picture of the church as it exists today.
00:25 We've done so many documentaries over the years,
00:28 and sometimes they're done by people that we know.
00:30 And other times, they're done with people
00:31 with agendas that are hidden.
00:33 So we can never really quite tell what's going to come out
00:35 of those experiences.
00:37 But with Scott, he approached us by showing us
00:39 his film "Buffalo Juggalos," which
00:41 is a portrait of an unusual culture that
00:44 was near where he lived.
00:45 And by seeing that, I really was convinced
00:47 that this is somebody who could do an actual portrait of us
00:51 rather than some kind of didactic documentary which
00:53 has just been done to death.
00:55 You know, when I approached the film,
00:56 I approached it as a magical object, actually.
01:00 And in a way, I consider the film
01:04 to be a psychodrama or a product of ritual.
01:08 So we've entered into a contract in making the film
01:11 and watching the film that everything that happens
01:13 in the film is we're choosing to believe, whether or not--
01:18 you know, it's a choice.
01:19 We have the contract.
01:21 Yes, it exists.
01:22 So whether that be totally VFX magical
01:26 or whether that be somebody washing the dishes,
01:29 those things are both equally valid, both equally real.
01:33 And of course, everything in the film
01:35 is staged but drawn from reality.
01:38 All the locations are real.
01:39 All the people are real Satanists.
01:40 But we work together to kind of pull it away a bit
01:44 from just being documentary because just
01:46 a straight documentary is not very interesting to me.
01:50 So we want to add fictional and magical
01:52 and fantastical elements to everything.
01:55 So everything is kind of flattened into the same world
01:57 of a space that isn't a space your average non-Satanist
02:03 could access, maybe.
02:05 Well, there's something also very interesting in that,
02:06 in satanic ritual, since we're not devil worshippers,
02:09 we don't believe in the devil, our rituals
02:11 are not worship services.
02:13 They are psychodramas, which is why he said that.
02:16 And what we do is we suspend our disbelief
02:20 when we create a ritual.
02:21 That's why we can say, hail Satan.
02:23 We don't believe Satan exists.
02:25 So it ends up being this kind of very fulfilling self-theater
02:29 that can be purgative, exciting, enlightening.
02:34 It's cathartic.
02:36 Well, the interesting thing is it's sort of a reconciliation.
02:39 The way Anton LaVey conceived of Satanism
02:43 was that it's basically rational,
02:46 but it's also indulgent.
02:48 The history and the context in which he was exposed to it
02:52 and the way he evoked it into the world in the Satanic Bible
02:57 and started the Church of Satan was to say, OK, well,
03:03 there's a rational part of humans,
03:04 and then there's a poetic side of humans.
03:06 And that's what Scott's film really brings about, I think,
03:10 is the power of film to evoke, to suspend that disbelief
03:16 and walk in.
03:17 It's an experiential film.
03:19 You give yourself over when you experience fiction.
03:24 You make a contract that, OK, you're going to startle me.
03:27 You're going to shock me.
03:28 You're going to intrigue me.
03:31 And that's the best of filmmaking.
03:33 And that's what Satanism is really all about,
03:36 is creating your life almost as an art piece itself.
03:41 And that's exciting.
03:43 And I think that's what you'll see in the film.
03:46 Our philosophy is really strongly
03:48 concerned with individualism, your individual expression
03:51 of who you really are.
03:53 So you are creating that.
03:55 So you are therefore self-created.
03:57 You are your own god.
03:58 And within the realm of the law and societal pressures
04:06 and to that extent, we do what we will.
04:10 We do our will.
04:11 And it's a lifelong discovery of individual expression.
04:15 It's very important to us.
04:17 One of the things I loved most about Satanism
04:20 and working with these guys is that Satanism
04:23 has an innate sense of humor to it.
04:26 And we shared a sense of humor, I think, also,
04:29 and also a sense of a love of old movie magic and things
04:34 like that.
04:35 But that idea that, yes, it's a rational religion.
04:41 It doesn't believe in Satan.
04:42 But we can still have fun with these ideas.
04:45 And actually, we like the aesthetics of this.
04:47 And we like the iconography.
04:49 And we can still like this stuff and kind of party with that
04:54 and be provocative with that, but not
04:59 believe in the devil as this guy who's talking--
05:05 I'm saying to us, to Satanists.
05:08 They don't believe the devil is communicating to them.
05:11 That's not a correct thing.
05:14 Yeah.
05:14 But it's fun to watch The Exorcist.
05:17 It's fun to play with that iconography and to embrace it
05:21 and to live within it.
05:23 Well, there never seems to be a choice for the Satanists
05:27 that I've met.
05:28 It's something that comes out of them naturally.
05:31 It's their natural predilection.
05:33 They never made that choice to be on the edge.
05:36 They just were there.
05:37 That's where they always put themselves.
05:39 And using the metaphor of Satan is the perfect thing for them.
05:44 I've had members-- I've asked them,
05:47 what would you do if we had this whole philosophy
05:50 and this entire framework, but we just took Satan away?
05:53 Because it makes people uncomfortable.
05:55 And they immediately say, I'd quit.
05:59 Because the symbol of Satan puts them exactly where they are
06:05 in terms of the greater Christian organized
06:12 religious hierarchy, mindset, self-sacrifice, self-denial.
06:20 They are the opposite of that.
06:22 And that is why Satan is the perfect symbol for them.
06:26 And I think also one of the reasons why we worked so well
06:30 together is that to take a position as a Satanist
06:34 is to take an adversarial position.
06:36 Actually, it's to stand against the tide.
06:38 And the film is also staking that position as a film.
06:43 It's an adversarial film.
06:45 In a lot of ways, it's not a standard documentary.
06:47 It will maybe make some people uncomfortable or angry.
06:51 And that's totally by design.
06:54 So it's something I'm very proud of.
06:57 So our ethos is connected.
07:01 And Satanism is not for everybody,
07:03 nor is it intended to be.
07:05 As you say, it's difficult to live a life of self-reflection
07:08 and challenge for yourself and not just swallow the pap that's
07:12 been pre-digested and spat out for you from society
07:17 to feed you.
07:17 But you want to walk your own path.
07:19 The left-hand path is a very individual one.
07:22 And we've been around for almost 60 years.
07:24 And the people that we've seen grow through Satanism
07:27 and achieve through Satanism and fully credit it
07:31 for focusing their life and challenging them.
07:33 And it's very solitary.
07:36 And yet, it can be so richly rewarding.
07:40 And there are Satanists in so many walks of life.
07:43 That's one of the things that the film shows,
07:45 a lot of different professions that Satanists
07:47 might be involved with.
07:49 But Satanists are not required to stand up for Satanism
07:52 or to tell anybody they're a Satanist,
07:54 because their life could be ruined by that.
07:57 So you don't get to be the president of the PTA
08:00 if you run around wearing a sigil of Baphomet.
08:02 But you could make an awesomely good one
08:04 if you tuck that Baphomet.
08:06 And our people do that.
08:07 So they're in police departments, in the military.
08:10 They teach.
08:11 They're in cooking schools.
08:13 They are everywhere.
08:16 And they do-- everything they do,
08:17 they try to do to their very best ability.
08:20 Generally in the workplace, why should that
08:21 come up in discussions of politics
08:24 or in discussions at school?
08:26 Why does that even--
08:28 I mean, we find it creates more division
08:31 than talking about good recipes or maybe fashion or movies
08:37 coming full circle.
08:39 I mean, I think the movie is really
08:41 conceived of as an experience.
08:44 It's kind of a thing that I want audiences to come into the
08:47 theater and not be ready for, and then kind of confronted by.
08:53 When I think of the movie, I think of that old Maxell tape
08:57 commercial where the guy turns on the music
08:59 and his hair just goes back.
09:02 And that's kind of the experience
09:03 I want people to have.
09:04 I think, for me, it would be just a dream
09:07 to have as much theatrical distribution as possible,
09:11 just because it's a big screen movie, for sure.
09:16 It's not a movie--
09:17 I mean, I don't want to say it's not a small screen movie,
09:19 but it's a big screen movie.
09:20 It's a visual movie.
09:22 It's visual storytelling.
09:25 It's a movie that I think gives a lot of visual pleasure.
09:28 So to kind of restrict that to a small screen
09:32 feels a bit of a shame to me.
09:35 So I hope a lot of people can get a chance to see it big
09:40 and with an audience.
09:41 I also love the idea that--
09:44 I mean, I love the idea that it could just start showing up
09:48 at midnight in Topeka, Kansas for three years or something
09:57 and have an audience that just comes.
09:59 That's my real dream, and secretly shared on file servers.
10:04 But that's not good for making money.
10:07 But it's just this secret thing that just gets passed around.
10:11 I kind of love that idea.
10:14 [MUSIC PLAYING]
10:17 (upbeat music)
10:20 (upbeat music)