Back around 1997/98 it seemed like you couldn’t browse the new releases at your local video store without seeing fewer than a dozen end times movies. The approaching new millennium (Willennium?) scared the pants off a lot of people and created a cinematic boomtown for low budget mega-church financed armageddon movies. Christsploitation flicks are the absolute bottom of the barrel. All horribly acted, shot on cheap-ass video and packed with more middle-eastern newsreel footage than than the Dawn of the Dead remake title sequence. Not one of them had anything new to offer. Each one carried the same tired message: Accept Christ as your personal lord and savior or the last thing you’ll need to worry about is the Y2K bug. What I didn’t know was that this wasn’t the first time that independent cinema experienced a burst of rapture movies. Back in the late 60’s and early 70’s, quite a few of these live-action Chick Tracts were made with a heavy evangelical tilt that would intimidate even Stephen Colbert. So what does this all have to do with you?
Dread Central reported this afternoon that the long in production, Satan Hates You, may finally be on its way to completion. In production since 2005, Satan Hates You is a movie that I have been marginally aware of, mentioned briefly here or there, but a premise that I can certainly get behind. A spoof of Christian scare movies that no doubt lifts every move from the most absurd anti-Satan tracts that you may or may not have found under your windshield wipers at some point in your life. Satan Hates You sports the finest title I’m likely to ever hear, not to mention that sweet poster above. It also features quite the cast, featuring such players as: the ever-awesome Angus Scrimm, his Phantasm buddy Reggie Bannister, World War Z author Max Brooks and Michael Berryman not to mention a shitload of other people. Producer credits go to Habit/Wendigo director Larry Fessenden, directed by James Felix McKenney of robot-attack flick Automatons (on the slate for review here as well). I’ll keep you updated on its progress. It’s looking up to be a good time.
For more information, check out the Satan Hates You Website and if you’re into that whole Myspace thing, I guess they have one of those, too.
For a real chuckle, check out the Satan Hates You tract.
