TCM recently aired this obscurity (with thanks to Something Weird and the American Genre Film Archive for rescuing it). As a film it isn't much: Poorly shot (16mm) with the camera often fumbling around without edits searching for proper framing, barely adequate sound and a lack of basic of explanation of who is being interviewed and the context of LaVey and his followers.
In 1966, a one-time circus lion-tamer Anton Szandor LaVey founded The Church of Satan in San Francisco and grandiosely announced the age of Satan had begun, an age that would celebrate the carnal instincts in man, and would be characterized by the mantra of "indulgence instead of abstinence". Although a media non-entity since the early nineties, at the time, the fledging Church shocked and scandalized as much as it bemused and confused and this was in no small part to LaVey's charisma, showmanship, and effective mixing of blasphemy (compounded in 1968 with the publication of 'The Satanic Bible') and of horror B-movie imagery which left many asking if it was just a racket, a reason to get naked for it's largely well-to-do white middle-class membership, or indeed had darker aspirations.
SATANIS: THE DEVIL'S MASS is a documentary about the San Francisco Church of Satan from 1969-70. Going into it without expectations, it's informative, humorous, and quite entertaining.
If you are looking for insight, wisdom or a serious review of the teachings of Anton LaVey, it would be best look elsewhere. This film is an uneven, rambling attempt to juxtapose LaVey's Church of Satan followers with outsiders who live in the neighborhood.
It's an early documentary about Anton Lavey and his Church of Satan. Lavey is a man whose clerical hard seems to consist of a black velvet jumpiest, a cape and horns on the hood.
I expected frightening Black Mass imagery and charismatic acolytes of the Anti-Christ proclaiming the victory of evil over good. All I saw was some naked old ladies sitting around a dirty living room looking high while men dressed up in dime store devil costumes supervised a BD spanking session set to bad drumming.
This is a documentary film about Anton LaVey and the Church of Satan in San Francisco. I don't know if it was shocking back in the day.
I caught this on TCM. You have to wonder if the message of the filmmakers is that all Belief Systems are just that: BS.
This movie doesn't contain much that's really exciting, much less surprising, about the early Church of Satan, but it does show LaVey and his cronies at a time when he was still optimistic and not cynical about the future of his organization. There are also great shots of the Black House during its heyday (before the "androids" took over) and some interesting footage of Togare the lion.
