Hail Satan?
Magnolia Pictures | Release Date: April 17, 2019 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
76
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 31 Critic Reviews
Positive:
31
Mixed:
0
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
91
The PlaylistCharles BarfieldApr 19, 2019
What the doc proves is that a talented filmmaker, combined with a thought-provoking subject and intensely fascinating characters can truly make some fun black magick pop off the screen. Read full review
90
TheWrapCarlos AguilarApr 19, 2019
Although fascinatingly hilarious, Hail Satan? is a conventional non-fiction effort on the technical front, but Lane does spike her frames with an offbeat score by Brian McOmber (“Little Woods”) that reaffirms the quirky tone of the piece with circus-like melodies. Read full review
90
VarietyAmy NicholsonFeb 21, 2019
The Satanic Temple’s combination of shock tactics and anti-discrimination lawsuits is check-and-mate against America creeping towards a Christian theocracy. Read full review
86
The VergeTasha RobinsonFeb 21, 2019
The sharp editing turns the film into a comedy about how wickedly successful the Temple’s trolling is, and how humorless and easily riled their opponents are. Read full review
83
Original-CinLiam LaceyMay 2, 2019
Though it occasionally gets a little repetitive in its use of archival devil movie and tabloid television clips, Lane’s film is mordantly funny and certainly persuasive in making the case that religion should be kept out of politicians’ dirty hands. Read full review
83
Entertainment WeeklyLeah GreenblattApr 18, 2019
Why end a rallying cry with a question mark? The devil is in the details, or at least in the punctuation of Hail Satan?, a movie that often seems to teeter on the line between doc- and mockumentary — a sincere examination of a social and political movement delivered with just a soupçon of Christopher Guest. Read full review
83
IndieWireDavid EhrlichFeb 21, 2019
Lane has an unmatched ability to strike the right balance between anger and absurdism, and frames the Temple in a revelatory moral light. Read full review
83
The Film StageJake HowellFeb 21, 2019
There’s a deeper message here about the virtues of community and human connection. Intimidating as they may be, the Temple’s intentions are good; their mission and Seven Tenets are impossible to misinterpret Read full review
80
CineVueChristopher MachellSep 10, 2019
The Temple’s antics are a hilarious middle finger to the establishment, while, their stand against hypocrisy and the Evangelical Right’s blatantly theocratic mission to take control of the levers of power feels vital. Read full review
80
The GuardianCath ClarkeAug 22, 2019
With her funny, light-hearted documentary, Penny Lane lets the sunshine in, focusing on the Temple’s message of open-mindedness and inclusivity – LGBTQ followers speak of a sense of belonging. Read full review
80
EmpireBen TravisAug 19, 2019
A devilishly funny documentary that blends improbable imagery, self-awareness and religious provocation with a genuine sense of political purpose. Read full review
80
Time OutJoshua RothkopfApr 18, 2019
As dark spells go, Lane’s is complex, one that will lead viewers down a surprisingly benevolent path. Read full review
80
The New York TimesBen KenigsbergApr 16, 2019
Wry and illuminating. Read full review
80
Screen DailyWendy IdeFeb 21, 2019
There’s a sense of genuinely creative mischief in some of the group’s satanic stunts, as well as a deft understanding of the workings of state legislature. Read full review
80
The Hollywood ReporterLeslie FelperinFeb 21, 2019
Wickedly funny, fascinating and niftily made. Read full review
78
Austin ChronicleRichard WhittakerMay 1, 2019
What Hail Satan? really achieves is to show this new brand of Satanism as part of the same tradition as the Dadaists and the Church of the SubGenius, fighting for actual liberty and debunking falsehoods. As one activist so adroitly explains, the devil’s work is never done. Read full review
75
LarsenOnFilmJosh LarsenMay 2, 2019
With a mixture of cheeky stock footage (including, yes, Charlton Heston’s The Ten Commandments), ironic soundtrack choices, and abrupt edits that function as record-scratch exclamation points, Lane’s film breezily stays above the fray. Read full review
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)John SemleyMay 2, 2019
If there’s a glaring oversight in Hail Satan?, it’s in the film’s singular devotion to the Temple of Satan. There’s little-to-no mention of other Satanic cults. Read full review
75
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsMay 2, 2019
The musical score, and some of director Lane’s editing strategies, have a way of playing into the more comic aspects. Yet it’s not a mean-spirited affair. In fact, it’s a sly primer in homegrown grassroots activism. Read full review
75
Washington PostAnn HornadayApr 24, 2019
As a history lesson every bit as clarifying as it is cockeyed, Hail Satan? possesses unarguable value. But it also serves as a reminder of why we embrace nonconformity, pluralism and tolerance. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleCarla MeyerApr 24, 2019
Hail Satan? is too lacking in conflict (apart from the eternal one) to be a true study of a movement. But it’s a highly entertaining survey. Read full review
75
RogerEbert.comMatt Zoller SeitzApr 19, 2019
It's as if the group had studied the "Rabbit season! Duck season!" exchange from the Bugs Bunny-Daffy Duck classic "Rabbit Seasoning," and figured out how to turn the punchline into a political movement. Read full review
75
The A.V. ClubKatie RifeApr 16, 2019
Lane’s lighthearted approach will probably convert more than a few viewers to the TST cause — it’s a short walk from pissed-off atheist to smirking satanist. Given how entrenched the culture wars have become in America, maybe all Satan needs at this point is a good publicist. Read full review
75
Movie NationRoger MooreMar 23, 2019
Alarming, inspiring and yes, laugh-out-loud funny, Hail Satan? is a delightful documentary dissection of America’s favorite anti-religion, The Satanic Temple. Read full review
70
Arizona RepublicBarbara VanDenburghMay 1, 2019
A cunning civics lesson about religious pluralism that will have civic-minded citizens throwing up the devil horns even if they’re not quite ready to proclaim mocking allegiance to Satan. Read full review
70
Rolling StoneDavid FearApr 20, 2019
While the movie also offers a much-needed context of the “Satanic panic” of the ’80s and ’90s — backwards messages and heavy metal and Dungeons & Dragons, oh my! — as well as vintage afternoon-TV handwringing and glimpses of organizational in-fighting, it’s these scenes of folks engaging in real political showdowns by any ridiculous means necessary that give the movie its sense of currency. Read full review
70
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternApr 18, 2019
It’s a fascinating documentary about ragtag political activists making fundamentally serious mockery at a high level of media savvy. It’s about jujitsu as performance art — turning an opponent’s outrage to one’s advantage; about deadpan as dramatic technique, and about the damnedest strategy you could imagine, summoning up Satan as a champion of religious freedom. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesMichael RechtshaffenApr 17, 2019
While director Penny Lane (not a pseudonym) energetically goes about shattering our preconceived notions at every intriguing turn, the film is at its most potent tracing society’s history of “satanic panic,” from the Salem Witch Trials to the rise of the evangelical lobby on the shoulders of the Red Scare to the 1980s when Dungeons & Dragons was viewed as a demonic gateway game. Read full review
70
New York Magazine (Vulture)Emily YoshidaApr 17, 2019
Lane observes with both wryness and palpable admiration as groups across the country embrace the gothic pageantry of the Temple as a means of exercising their political freedom. Read full review
63
Boston GlobeMark FeeneyApr 24, 2019
Goofy is easy. Earnest is easy in a different way. Disturbing is both easy and hard. They’re all dissimilar, and Hail Satan? has lots of all three. Read full review
63
Slant MagazineChristopher GrayApr 15, 2019
The documentary shrewdly illustrates how media savvy can turn a fledgling protest into an international cause célèbre. Read full review
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