My Sweet Satan (1994) Reviews

MY SWEET SATAN is an excellent 20 minute short film made in 1993 by Ohio-based independent filmmaker Jim Van Bebber. Van Bebber made his feature film debut in 1988 with the gritty urban action/exploitation movie DEADBEAT AT DAWN. My Sweet Satan is based on the true story of Ricky Kasso, also known as "The Acid King", who was a member of a satanic cult of metalheads known as the "Knights of the Black Circle". They apparently held one of their rituals on the site of the actual Amityville Horror house. In 1984 Kasso and one of his friends were arrested for the prolonged torture and murder of Gary Lauwers, who had stolen 10 bags of angel dust from Kasso while he was passed out at a party. Two days after his arrest Kasso commited suicide by hanging himself in his cell. In MY SWEET SATAN Van Bebber stars as Ricky Kasslin (I assume the name was modified due to legal issues); and like his anti-hero character Goose in DEADBEAT AT DAWN Van Bebber really has a commanding and charismatic screen presence. The film starts off with Kasslin hanging himself in his prison cell, then the story flashes back to the days leading up to his imprisonment. I like the scene near the beginning where an American flag mural on a wall fills the screen as Kasslin walks up and into frame like General Patton about to address his troops. Except Kasslin's "troops" are a group of outcast teens who hang out with him because he has great drugs and they have nothing else better to do. Kasslin and his pals spend their days out in the woods sacrificing animals to Satan, headbanging to metal, drinking, and smoking weed (while proclaiming, "We smoke this marijuana in your name Satan"). At a party one night Gary (Mike Moore) steals $96 out of Kasslin's pocket when he thought Kasslin was passed out. As a result, Kasslin and his best friend Jimmy (Terek Puckett) set Garry up by offering him free hits of acid and taking him into the woods where they brutally murder him as a sacrifice to Satan. Then the film leaps back to Kasslin hanging himself in his cell. I usually don't give away the conclusion of a film in my reviews, but this is a short film which is not about a twist ending or anything like that. You can tell where the film's headed right from the start; and it's told in a semi-documentary fashion where Kasslin's friends are narrating the events after-the-fact. This style of semi-documentary storytelling would be put to effective use in Van Bebber's excellent second feature film THE MANSON FAMILY (which I highly recommend). The Director of Photography on MY SWEET SATAN was Mike King who was also the DP on DEADBEAT AT DAWN. Both films were shot on 16mm, but where as DEADBEAT AT DAWN had a dirty gritty print due to the fact that they were going for a '70s grindhouse/exploitation look, MY SWEET SATAN has a clear clean print (which suits the straightforward semi-documentary aspect of the film). As far as the shock-factor, there's an actual (male) nipple piercing performed at one of the parties. Whether this is shocking to you or not depends on whether you find body piercing shocking. I have piercings and I've seen enough that it doesn't shock me in real life; but there's something about seeing it on film in extreme close-up that's still cringe-worthy. And the murder of Gary is brutal, disturbing, and gory all at the same time (so splatter fans take note). The chilling aspect of the murder will linger with you long after the film's over.