“Michelle Remembers” is a book published in 1980 that claims to recount a woman’s recovered memories of childhood Satanic abuse. I read the book when I was in 8th or 9th grade. Even at that age I was dubious about claims that the Virgin Mary and Michael the Archangel appeared to her while she was hanging in a cage. The part about crazy people in a cult eating babies was much more believable.
The story takes place in Victoria, Canada, and Michelle says male members of the cult cut off their ring finger to prove their allegiance to Satan. Well, I have family in Victoria and soon after I read the book my family went to Vancouver Island to visit them again. There was a man in the market with that exact finger chopped off. I looked at him wide-eyed and he gave me a scary look. I interpreted it as, “You know I’m in the Satanic cult! I may have to sacrifice you!”
It probably meant, “Goddammit, ever since that stupid book came out, people keep staring at the finger I lost in that logging accident.”
I also lived one town over from McMartin school, and often passed by when they were digging it up looking for secret tunnels. So Satanic Panic hit close to home.
Now Tubi has produced a documentary on “Michelle Remembers,” called “Satan Wants You.” There was so much I didn’t know! The documentary explains that “Michelle Remembers” was patient zero of Satanic Panic. Michelle and her co-author (and eventual husband!), psychiatrist Lawrence Pazder even went around “training” police departments to recognize Satanic crimes. The therapists who interviewed the kids from McMartin Preschool actually brought Michelle and Pazder in to help with the interviews! That’s where they got all that crazy shit from. So many innocent people were wrongly imprisoned and lost their reputations and livelihoods because of that stupid book.
The documentary has a good pace and a slow reveal. They interview the main characters as well as experts and have access to the original tapes. They also have a lot of footage from 80s daytime TV and news stories about recovered Satanic memories. I’m not sure if it will be as interesting to people who didn’t live through that bizarre era, but if you did, this is a must-see. And thanks to Q-Anon, Satanic Panic is making a comeback, so it is a timely warning. Available on Tubi and Amazon.
