# What was up with all the Satanic movies in the 70s? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 1, 2010, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-up-with-all-the-satanic-movies-in-the-70s/527295 "2010-02-01T21:17:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Fenris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fenris/32/498_2.png) [@Fenris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fenris)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2010, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-up-with-all-the-satanic-movies-in-the-70s/527295/21 "2010-02-02T14:54:26Z")
No it wasn’t. The “satanic panic” was about 18 years after this spate of movies. The movies were made between, say, 1968-1974, the multiple personality/satanic cult hysteria was mid-to-late 1980s. ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Tildrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2010, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-up-with-all-the-satanic-movies-in-the-70s/527295/22 "2010-02-02T15:41:52Z")
Don’t forget _The Devil In Miss Jones_. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2010, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-up-with-all-the-satanic-movies-in-the-70s/527295/23 "2010-02-02T16:01:19Z")
Satan had a lot of influence back then, due to the backmasking on all the rock songs. ---
**Author:** ![Rrose\_Selavy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bcef8e/32.png) [@Rrose\_Selavy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rrose_Selavy)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2010, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-up-with-all-the-satanic-movies-in-the-70s/527295/24 "2010-02-02T16:14:43Z")
I think it was as suggested the relaxation of censorship codes etc . As well as being a strong dramatic use it was a good excuse to have a bit of nudity (for purely necessary ritualistic reasons of course) … ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2010, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-up-with-all-the-satanic-movies-in-the-70s/527295/25 "2010-02-02T16:15:55Z")
> [@ralph124c](#): > > One thing I could never figure out..if satan was so gol-danged powerful, why was he capable of being controlled by teenagers chanting fron a magic circle? You don’t get it. See, the kids **thought** that **they** were the ones in control . . . heh-heh-heh . . . ---
**Author:** ![Icerigger](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/icerigger/32/432_2.png) [@Icerigger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Icerigger)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2010, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-up-with-all-the-satanic-movies-in-the-70s/527295/26 "2010-02-02T16:16:55Z")
There was also a spin off of sorts from the Bremuda Triangle stuff in the 70s as well. The BT was sometimes caller the Devils Triangle and there were a few TV movies showing Satan as behind the mysterious goings on in that area. I remember one with the Flying Nun’s “Carlos Ramirez” as the devil causing ships to vanish and helicopters to crash while the pilot says the Our Father. This stuff scared the pants off me when I was a kid. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2010, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-up-with-all-the-satanic-movies-in-the-70s/527295/27 "2010-02-02T16:24:39Z")
There were a few hints in [_Halloween 4_](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halloween_4:_The_Return_of_Michael_Myers) (1988) that Michael Meyers was being protected by some sort of (implicitly Satanic) cult. (This appeared nowhere else in the series.) ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2010, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-up-with-all-the-satanic-movies-in-the-70s/527295/28 "2010-02-02T16:31:28Z")
> [@ralph124c](#): > > I recall reading that two ex-cops **made a god living** , by going around to parent’s groups Totally awesome typo for the thread. ---
**Author:** ![Darth\_Sensitive](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/58956e/32.png) [@Darth\_Sensitive](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darth_Sensitive)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2010, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-up-with-all-the-satanic-movies-in-the-70s/527295/29 "2010-02-02T16:40:09Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > You don’t get it. See, the kids **thought** that **they** were the ones in control . . . heh-heh-heh . . . You mean HAW HAW HAW, right? ---
**Author:** ![kelly5078](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/6f9a4e/32.png) [@kelly5078](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kelly5078)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2010, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-up-with-all-the-satanic-movies-in-the-70s/527295/30 "2010-02-02T16:42:48Z")
> [@GameHat](#): > > Ditto, with vampires for the 90s and 00s. But I’d extend it to books. And werewolves. Don’t forget werewolves. ---
**Author:** ![Rrose\_Selavy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bcef8e/32.png) [@Rrose\_Selavy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rrose_Selavy)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2010, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-up-with-all-the-satanic-movies-in-the-70s/527295/31 "2010-02-02T17:05:49Z")
Actually an analogy with Comics comes to mind, we had a lot of new Horror type comics launched in the 70s as well: > [@](#): > > Also newly allowed were “vampires, ghouls and werewolves… when handled in the classic tradition such as Frankenstein, Dracula, and other high calibre literary works written by Edgar Allan Poe, Saki, Conan Doyle and other respected authors whose works are read in schools around the world”. Zombies, lacking the requisite “literary” background, remained taboo. However, Marvel skirted the zombie restriction in the mid-1970s by calling the apparently deceased, mind-controlled followers of various Haitian super-villains “zuvembies”. This practice carried over to Marvel’s super-hero line. In the Avengers comic, when the reanimated super-hero Wonder Man returned from the dead, he was also referred to as a “zuvembie”. > **[Comics Code Authority | Updating the Code](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comics_Code_Authority#Updating_the_Code)** > > The Code was revised a number of times during 1971, initially on January 28, to allow for, among other things, the sometimes "sympathetic depiction of criminal behavior... \[and\] corruption among public officials" ("as long as it is portrayed as exceptional and the culprit is punished") as well as permitting some criminal activities to kill law-enforcement officers and the "suggestion but not portrayal of seduction." The clause "suggestive posture is unacceptable" was removed. Also newly allow Aro... ---
**Author:** ![Ellis\_Aponte\_Jr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@Ellis\_Aponte\_Jr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ellis_Aponte_Jr)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2010, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-up-with-all-the-satanic-movies-in-the-70s/527295/32 "2010-02-02T17:29:20Z")
It seems to me it would take a God-fearing hyper-religious nation to produce the kind of cultural artifacts you’re talking about. That’s the explanation right there, in your question (other posters have mentioned the immediate triggers of the phenomenon). It would be a bit weird for a secular humanist nation to make _The Exorcist_, _Rosemary’s Baby_ and the like. ---
**Author:** ![Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a587f6/32.png) [@Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freddy_the_Pig)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2010, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-up-with-all-the-satanic-movies-in-the-70s/527295/33 "2010-02-02T17:37:57Z")
> [@a35362](#): > > FWIW, I have a book about Baby Boomers and Generation X which suggests that this comes from the oldest Baby Boomers starting to have kids and resenting that they’re not the center of attention anymore, coinciding with books like “The Population Bomb” frightening people into being hostile against people with young children. They made a pretty good case, I thought. The demon-child movies weren’t really about Satan, they were about _children_. If you want to cast a child as the villain, in anything more than a comical Dennis-the-Menace way–and people did, in the late Sixties and Seventies–you almost _have_ to invoke supernatural possession. The genre peaked during the relatively secular 1970’s and faded about the time the Religious Right became more visible in politics, although this was probably coincidence. The last and sickest gasp was _Children of the Corn_ (1984), which spawned a series but by the 1990’s they were cult horror films rather than mainstream. ---
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2010, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-up-with-all-the-satanic-movies-in-the-70s/527295/34 "2010-02-02T18:06:56Z")
I think it was a reaction to many issues of the day. In one sense it was the dark side of the hippie new age spiritual movement; it was a fictional representation of what the more conservative segment of the culture feared lay at the root of the counter culture. But this sprang up, I think, from the fifties, when suddenly the atom went from representing the most fundamental material of creation, to being symbol of destruction and Armageddon. Once we learned how to destroy the world, the horrors written about in Revelations were suddenly cast in a new light: they were no longer safely fantastic fairy tales; they seemed more and more plausible in a very real way. Combine these factors with the second wave of the baby boom, and you have these images kind of floating around the collective unconscious. And while Manson came after the first glimmers of this trend, he certainly helped to propel it into a genuine cultural phenomenon. Like the atom, he made all these fictional horrors very, very real. ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Tildrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2010, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-up-with-all-the-satanic-movies-in-the-70s/527295/35 "2010-02-02T18:15:27Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > Satan had a lot of influence back then, due to the backmasking on all the rock songs. “Dude, we got totally lied to by our album covers.” – Bill, of Bill and Ted, in Hell ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2010, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-up-with-all-the-satanic-movies-in-the-70s/527295/36 "2010-02-02T18:45:57Z")
> [@Ellis\_Aponte\_Jr](#): > > It seems to me it would take a God-fearing hyper-religious nation to produce the kind of cultural artifacts you’re talking about. That’s the explanation right there, in your question (other posters have mentioned the immediate triggers of the phenomenon). It would be a bit weird for a secular humanist nation to make _The Exorcist_, _Rosemary’s Baby_ and the like. Well, I don’t know about that. The UK, despite having an established church, is (in terms of actual popular religious belief) very much a secular humanist, or “post-Christian,” nation, and has been for centuries. And it still produced [_Night of the Demon._](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_of_the_demon) ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2010, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-up-with-all-the-satanic-movies-in-the-70s/527295/37 "2010-02-02T18:48:36Z")
> [@Freddy\_the\_Pig](#): > > They made a pretty good case, I thought. The demon-child movies weren’t really about Satan, they were about _children_. If you want to cast a child as the villain, in anything more than a comical Dennis-the-Menace way–and people did, in the late Sixties and Seventies–you almost _have_ to invoke supernatural possession. Not necessarily. See [_The Bad Seed,_](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bad_Seed_(film)) or Cody Wyckoff in [_Wild Palms._](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wild_Palms) ---
**Author:** ![Ellis\_Aponte\_Jr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@Ellis\_Aponte\_Jr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ellis_Aponte_Jr)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2010, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-up-with-all-the-satanic-movies-in-the-70s/527295/38 "2010-02-02T18:49:15Z")
The cover of the April 8, 1966 issue of Time magazine simply read, “Is God Dead?” and I imagine many people worried if that were literally true. Also, there was an actual boom in hippie communes and religious cults during the late 1960s, so it was fear of that development and fear of the counterculture at large, as lissener posited. ---
**Author:** ![BMalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e274bd/32.png) [@BMalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMalion)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2010, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-up-with-all-the-satanic-movies-in-the-70s/527295/39 "2010-02-02T18:54:09Z")
[Quote=Flip Wilson] The Devil made me do it! [/quote] There’s your answer. ---
**Author:** ![woodstockbirdybird](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/woodstockbirdybird/32/7905_2.png) [@woodstockbirdybird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/woodstockbirdybird)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2010, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-up-with-all-the-satanic-movies-in-the-70s/527295/40 "2010-02-02T19:01:11Z")
> [@lissener](#): > > I think it was a reaction to many issues of the day. In one sense it was the dark side of the hippie new age spiritual movement; it was a fictional representation of what the more conservative segment of the culture feared lay at the root of the counter culture. But this sprang up, I think, from the fifties, when suddenly the atom went from representing the most fundamental material of creation, to being symbol of destruction and Armageddon. Once we learned how to destroy the world, the horrors written about in Revelations were suddenly cast in a new light: they were no longer safely fantastic fairy tales; they seemed more and more plausible in a very real way. Combine these factors with the second wave of the baby boom, and you have these images kind of floating around the collective unconscious. > > And while Manson came after the first glimmers of this trend, he certainly helped to propel it into a genuine cultural phenomenon. Like the atom, he made all these fictional horrors very, very real. This seems closest to my own theories on the subject. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-up-with-all-the-satanic-movies-in-the-70s/527295.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-up-with-all-the-satanic-movies-in-the-70s/527295.md?page=3)