Cultpix Radio

Cultpix Radio Ep.27 - Satan(ism) and Carl Abrahamsson interviewed

November 27, 2021 Django Nudo & the Smut Peddler, Carl Abrahamsson Season 2 Episode 27
Cultpix Radio
Cultpix Radio Ep.27 - Satan(ism) and Carl Abrahamsson interviewed
Show Notes

Django Nudo and the Smut Peddler welcome you backwards in preparation for this week's big topic: satan(ism).

First there is a quick plug for the last Everyman Cult Tuesday screening of the year, with Christmas special "Silent Night, Deadly Night" (1972) showing on 7 December across UK, introduced by horror guru Kim Newman. There is the Nikkatsu Sueden Porunu films showing in Stockholm. We also welcome The Chilean, our latest edition to the Cultpix Team, who will be helping us with marketing and understanding the mindset of Cultpix members as part of our quest for world domination.

Satan, satanism, its portrayal in popular culture and the virulent satanic panic in the US in the 1980s is the main focus of today's episode. We are fortunate to have the knowledgable Carl Abrahamsson in the studio to talk us through all this. Carl is multi-hyphenate: writer, publisher, musician and film-maker, as well as self-confessed satanist.

Following on from the films, psychopaths and social changes in the US in the 1970s, we trace the emergence of the satanic panic in Reagan-era US, with hysterical tabloid documentaries such as Geraldo Rivera's "Devil Worship - Exposing Satan's Underground" (1989) that links all kinds of lurid murders and crimes to satanist.  Carl makes the point that there was a great deal of projection going on from established religion, covering up its own child abuse scandals at the time. It was easier to blame New Age trends in Mondo-style docus like "The Occult Experience" (1985) or "Devil Worship - the Rise of Satanism" (1989).

We discuss the interesting characters in the interview documentary "The First Family of Satanism" (1989) that pitted radio evangelist Bob Larson against Nikolas Schreck and his wife Zeena, daughter of Anton LaVey (founder of the Church of Satan). Larson is almost the more interesting one with his freak-show style call-in radio show, where he vented against satanism, rock music and role playing games, when he wasn't performing exorcisms (sometimes with his daughter!), even over Skype for $295 a pop.

Carl then talks us through his own journey out of the closet as a confirmed satanism, which is not so much about worshiping the Devil as a form of radical individualism. His music and particularly the song "Sweet Jayne" about the relationship between Jayne Mansfield and Church of Satan founder Anton LaVey. This led to Carl befriending LaVey and winning his trust, which in turn led to the documentary "Into the Devil's Den" (2019) which features LaVey and several other key figures such as Kenneth Anger. Films like this and "Hail Satan?" (2019), which in the words of The Guardian, "portrays the Satanic Temple as a voice of reason and humanism in the US. Has the time come to rehabilitate the dark lord?"

This is an important question, because even though the satanic panic in the US of the 1980s is over - though not before dozens of innocent people went to jail for decades - new and even nuttier conspiracy theories from QAnon are surfacing. 

We end by playing "Sweet Jayne". Hail the Dark Lord, indeed.