The Great Satan captures the diabolical frisson of watching weird old VHS tapes
by Joseph Shelton
Though you’ve never seen anything quite like The Great Satan, the insane, exhausting and hilarious surrealist documentary-in-montage, but you’ve certainly seen some of the things out of which it’s been cobbled. Compiled and
presented by the website Everything is Terrible, known for their absurdist re-appropriations of found VHS tapes, B-movies and vintage media, The Great Satan focuses particularly on media that had something to do with the devil. Its dizzying, fast-paced melange of images and sounds favor the bizarre and the ridiculous: Tim Curry’s hammy performance as the demonic villain in Ridley Scott’s early fantasy Legend is presented alongside old evangelical, anti-Mormon screeds and bits of Jerry Maguire.
If I’m not making it clear just what the hell The Great Satan is, that’s because it’s kind of hard to tell, let alone describe; it is more experienced than watched. It’s frequently offensive, gory and silly, and often all three at once. Perhaps its most interesting achievement is its gleeful flaunting of intellectual property – each snippet is 15 seconds or less, constituting free use. An alcoholically-inclined viewer could make a hell of a drinking game out of taking a shot every time they show something you recognize, while taking a shot every time you don’t recognize something would be enough to make you catatonic.
But its not entirely without context. Everything is Terrible has always had a
fascination with religious instructional videos, particularly those released during the 80s and early 90s’ obsession with Old Scratch. Partially precipitated by the widespread but unfounded hysteria about the possibility
of hooded Satanists secretly running daycares and preschools, the so-called Satanic Panic eventually lead to broad fears of ritual murders and eventually played a large part in the wrongful convictions of, among others, the West Memphis three. Here the Satanic Panic is presented as the ultimate pop-culture farce, what Shakespeare might have called “a tale told by an idiot.”
The Great Satan isn’t for everyone. In fact, it’s not for most people. But if it is for you, then 1.) you’re a real strange cookie, and I’m proud of you, and 2.) you’re going to love it. Hell, I’ll bet you’ll laugh your ass off, and you sure won’t look at Jerry Maguire the same way again (while you’re at it, Google Everything is Terrible and Jerry Maguire, and you’ll find
they have the world’s largest collection of Jerry Maguire VHS tapes). So if that sounds as
diabolically entertaining as I find it, then please get thee to Movie Lovers and rent it. Just remember, your soul may be at stake.
Movie Lovers is Bozeman’s independent movie rental store with hundreds of titles you won’t find on streaming services. •
