Chronicling the extraordinary rise of one of the most colourful and controversial religious movements in American history, Hail Satan? is the inspiring, entertaining and critically lauded new documentary from acclaimed filmmaker Penny Lane (Nuts!, Our Nixon).
Her focus is the Satanic Temple, the non-theistic group founded in 2013 in Salem, Massachusetts. Though it uses satanic imagery, the group doesn’t actually believe in Satan (a fact that often gets overlooked in right-wing news coverage of their stunts) but rather use the idea of religious pluralism to advocate against theocracy and to challenge corrupt authority. Setting up a new series of anarchic public actions, they prove that with little more than a clever idea, a mischievous sense of humour, and a few rebellious friends, you can speak truth to power in some unexpectedly profound ways.
Provocative, charming and frequently hilarious, Hail Satan? is also very timely – with the religious right’s influence on right-wing US politics clearly increasing, and recently extending to a series of troubling and controversial abortion bans – and has a resonance beyond the States with its focus on a group of often misunderstood outsiders whose unwavering commitment to rationalism and social and political justice has empowered thousands of others around the world.
