Episode 666: The ’80s Satanic Panic
Added 2025-01-20 12:43:26 +0000 UTCJeremy: I mean, it's episode 666. What did you expect?
But even if something devil-themed was inevitable for this particular episode of the show, I hope that you will be pleasantly surprised by our approach here. This is not some low-hanging fruit topic like "coolest devils in video games" [note to self: add "coolest devils in video games to schedule] but rather a carefully researched deep dive into a wide-reaching cultural phenomenon and its direct impact on the games we enjoyed... or didn't have the chance to enjoy due to self-censorship by publishers, as the case may be.
This may be, admittedly, something of a sensitive topic. Not so much for religious reasons but rather due to the sobering effect this particular moral panic had on many people's lives. I had intended to take a light touch with this episode, but that wasn't entirely possible simply because the Satanic panic ruined a few lives, and quite undeservedly. Diamond joins me for this episode, but I also called in some ringers: Chris Sims and his podcast partner Benito Cereno, who host the Apocrypals podcast and have extensive knowledge of this corner of cultural history.
Edits by Greg Leahy.
07:27 - Van Halen: "Runnin' with the Devil"
20:50 - Pixies: "Bone Machine"
25:45 - Rosemary's Baby (1968 OST): The Coven
33:19 - The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It: Wilds of the Devil
40:05 - Mike Oldfield: "Tubular Bells"
55:00 - The Final Conflict: Blooding | Carolyn Kendrick: "The Devil's Nine Questions"
1:07:06 - Krampus: Bells, Bones and Chains
1:21:14 - Elvis Presley: "(You're The) Devil in Disguise"
1:27:54 - "Weird Al" Yankovic: "Nature Trail to Hell" | Super Castlevania IV: Prologue
1:40:21 - Pokémon Red & Blue: Lavender Town
1:56:22 - Ninja Gaiden (NES): The Menace of Jaquio
Closing - Iron Maiden: The Number of the Beast
Comments
My capstone research paper for my BA in History was on the Satanic Panic. Love this.
Michael Castleberry
2025-01-29 23:16:55 +0000 UTCFirst of all, EXCELLENT episode (and I’m only 1/3 of the way through). I really appreciated learning about each of your backgrounds and how that affected your experiences with the Satanic Panic. Even though I lived through the panic, my memories of it are limited to the hysteria around heavy metal music. Second: I have strong memories of watching Mazes and Monsters when it first aired on prime time TV. Based on the release date I was 14, which is probably why I was fascinated with the concept, but I saw it as “only a movie”, not as a warning of real danger.
JRIII
2025-01-29 14:22:00 +0000 UTCGreat episode, and the point on general-absent-parenting angst (and possibly also some intergenerational lapsed-faith/not-being-as-religious-as-we-should stuff too?) was the one I was waiting for. Though Jeremys broad generalisation of boomers/post-WW2-culture throwing them all into one-generation-fits-all did cause me pain, those are the sort of generalisations that detract from the overall credibility of an episode. Even just acknowledging he was speaking in very broad terms would have been good!
Wood Duck
2025-01-28 10:19:04 +0000 UTCReally good episode, you covered the topic seriously and respectfully with the right amount of humor. It's funny how all of this barely seemed to affect me as a kid. My mom was way more afraid of stranger danger after someone tried to abduct a neighbor. I think her biggest worry about me getting into D&D is that I would get TOO into D&D and not do anything else, which, based on how obsessed I was with video games, was fair. My mom was an 80s metalhead though so I guess she was already converted to Satanism.
James Eldred
2025-01-21 12:46:33 +0000 UTCsome kids in my hometown had the cops called on them because they were playing vampire the masquerade and their jug-hooting neighbors thought they were a satanic cult
Billiam
2025-01-21 03:38:50 +0000 UTCI still won’t Google it!
Diamond Feit
2025-01-20 21:45:29 +0000 UTCin my neck of the woods, it was mostly about D&D and rock music. My church brought in someone who was an "expert" on these things and mostly talked about the music side of things. This persisted into the mid-90s in the region of Ohio where I lived. A couple of goth pranksters freaked some folks out and people thought it happening again. Also, in the mid-90s, there was a huge panic about child abuse (which people believed had satanic ties) in Wenatchee WA (I lived there for a few years much later) that lead to many innocent people being locked up. (43 adults were arrested on 29,726 charges of child sex abuse) There was definitely a through-line from the 80s moral panic to people jumping on board with that. Its sometimes called the "Wenatchee Witch Hunt".
JJR
2025-01-20 18:48:56 +0000 UTCHow fitting, episode 666 landing on this inauguration day.
Nuno Amaral
2025-01-20 17:46:23 +0000 UTCAs this episode number got closer, I was hoping for something on-theme!
Mike R
2025-01-20 17:17:16 +0000 UTCThat was the only appropriate reaction to someone using the words skibidi toilet
Craig
2025-01-20 14:34:21 +0000 UTC
