Pop-Cultural Paranoia in the 1980s
“An electrifying descent into ‘80s-era cultural terror.”
~ Mike McPadden, author of Heavy Metal Movies
In the 1980s, it seemed impossible to escape Satan’s supposed influence. Everywhere you turned, there were warnings about a widespread evil conspiracy to indoctrinate the vulnerable through the media they consumed. This percolating cultural hysteria, now known as the “Satanic Panic,” not only sought to convince us of devils lurking behind the dials of our TVs and radios and the hellfire that awaited on book and video store shelves, it also created its own fascinating cultural legacy of Satan-battling VHS tapes, audio cassettes and literature. Satanic Panic: Pop-Cultural Paranoia in the 1980s offers an in-depth exploration of how a controversial culture war played out during the decade, from the publication of the memoir Michelle Remembers in 1980 to the end of the McMartin “Satanic Ritual Abuse” Trial in 1990.
Satanic Panic features new essays and interviews by 20 writers who address the ways the widespread fear of a Satanic conspiracy was both illuminated and propagated through almost every pop culture pathway in the 1980s, from heavy metal music to Dungeons & Dragons role playing games, Christian comics, direct-to-VHS scare films, pulp paperbacks, Saturday morning cartoons, TV talk shows and even home computers. The book also features case studies on Thee Temple ov Psychick Youth and Long Island “acid king” killer Ricky Kasso. From con artists to pranksters and moralists to martyrs, the book captures the untold story of how the Satanic Panic was fought on the pop culture frontlines and the serious consequences it had for many involved.
“An often hilarious, sometimes terrifying view into the damage that can be caused when belief outweighs reason.”
~ Daniel XIII, Famous Monsters of Filmland
The Authors
SATANIC PANIC features essays and interviews by authors and media critics including Adam Parfrey (Apocalypse Culture), Gavin Baddeley (The FrightFest Guide to Werewolf Movies, Lucifer Rising: Sin, Devil Worship and Rock n’ Roll), Liisa Ladouceur (Encyclopedia Gothica), David Flint (SHEER FILTH!), Alexandra Heller-Nicholas (Rape Revenge Films: A Critical Study), Adrian Mack (The Georgia Straight), Forrest Jackson (Cosmic Suicide: The Tragedy and Transcendence of Heaven’s Gate), Alison Nastasi(Flavorwire), Leslie Hatton (Popshifter), David Canfield (Twitch), David Bertrand (Fangoria; Spectacular Optical), Alison Lang (Rue Morgue, Broken Pencil), Kevin L. Ferguson (Eighties People), Wm Conley (Deathwound), Kurt Halfyard (Twitch), Samm Deighan (Satanic Pandemonium), Stacey Rusnak (The Postnational Fantasy: Essays on Postcolonialism, Cosmopolitics and Science Fiction), Ralph Elawani(C’est complet au royaume des morts), Gil Nault (Liturgie apocryphe), one-man band John Schooley and Joshua Benjamin Graham, alongside co-editors Kier-La Janisse (House of Psychotic Women) and Paul Corupe (Canuxploitation). The book also features comic art by Rick Trembles (Motion Picture Purgatory) and original illustrations by Toronto artist Mike McDonnell.
CONTENTS
FOREWORD: MEETING SATAN AND HIS FAMILY
By Adam Parfrey
INTRODUCTION
By Kier-La Janisse
“THE ONLY WORD IN THE WORLD IS MINE”: REMEMBERING ‘MICHELLE REMEMBERS’
By Alexandra Heller-Nicholas
THE UNHOLY PASSION: SEX AND GENDER ANXIETY IN RUSS MARTIN’S EROTIC HORROR PAPERBACKS
By Alison Nastasi
DICING WITH THE DEVIL: THE CRUSADE AGAINST GAMING
By Gavin Baddeley
20-SIDED SINS: HOW JACK T. CHICK WAS DRAWN INTO THE RPG WAR
By Paul Corupe
MASTERS OF THE IMAGINATION: FUNDAMENTALIST READINGS OF THE OCCULT IN CARTOONS OF THE 1980s
By Joshua Benjamin Graham
DEVIL ON THE LINE: TECHNOLOGY AND THE SATANIC FILM
By Kevin L. Ferguson
ALL HAIL THE ACID KING: THE RICKY KASSO CASE IN POPULAR CULTURE
By Leslie Hatton
“WHAT ABOUT THESE 10,000 SOULS, BUSTER?” GERALDO’S DEVIL WORSHIP SPECIAL
By Alison Lang
THE FILTHY 15: WHEN VENOM AND KING DIAMOND MET THE WASHINGTON WIVES
By Liisa Ladouceur
SCAPEGOAT OF A NATION: THE DEMONIZATION OF MTV AND THE MUSIC VIDEO
By Stacy Rusnak
TRICK OR TREAT: HEAVY METAL AND DEVIL WORSHIP IN ’80s CULT CINEMA
By Samm Deighan
STEALING THE DEVIL’S MUSIC: THE RISE OF CHRISTIAN METAL AND PUNK
By David Bertrand
THE TRACKING OF EVIL: HOME VIDEO AND THE PROLIFERATION OF SATANIC PANIC
By Wm. Conley
BEDEVILING BOB: PRANKING “TALK BACK WITH BOB LARSON”
By Forrest Jackson
CONFESSIONS OF A CREATURE FEATURE PREACHER: OR, HOW I LEARNED TO STOP WORRYING ABOUT SATANISM AND LOVE MIKE WARNKE
By David Canfield
BOUC EMISSAIRE: MANIFESTATIONS OF SATANIC ANXIETY IN QUEBEC
By Ralph Elawani and Gil Nault
THE DEVIL DOWN UNDER: SATANIC PANIC IN AUSTRALIA, FROM ROSALEEN NORTON TO ‘ALISON’S BIRTHDAY’
By Alexandra Heller-Nicholas
GUILTLESS: BRITAIN’S MORAL PANICS, SATANIC HYSTERIA AND THE STRANGE CASE OF GENESIS P-ORRIDGE
By David Flint
FALSE HISTORY SYNDROME: HBO’s ‘INDICTMENT: THE MCMARTIN TRIAL’
By Adrian Mack
END OF THE ’80s: PARANOIA AS COMIC CATHARSIS IN JOE DANTE’S ‘THE ‘BURBS’
By Kurt Halfyard
Size: 230mm x 180mm
Binding: Paperback
Extent: 368 pages
ISBN: 978-1-903254-86-8
Publication date: 13 August 2016
Market: Social & Cultural History / Popular Culture / Occult
Weight: 1200g
Edition: Second Edition
Cover Price: £19.99 (UK) / $29.95 (US)
