Satanic Panic is a 2019 independent horror comedy written by Grady Hendrix.
It's Sam's first day working at a pizzeria as a delivery driver. She's sent out to deliver in a wealthy neighborhood that's home to a Satanic cult.
Not to be confused with the 2009 movie of the same name.
Tropes featured include:
- Abusive Parents: The opening scene shows Danica slapping Judi for having sex. It later turns out that she is forcing her to stay pure so that she can use her to give birth to Baphomet.
- Affably Evil: Samaziel greets Sam with a friendly hug, saves her from the coven, and even lets her flee when they're all dead.
- Ambiguously Bi: When Judi tells her that the mother of Baphomet needs to be a virgin, Sam tries to ask her if they could have sex to prevent it from happening.
- Ambiguously Human: Danica is stabbed in the head and is seemingly killed, but comes back to life with no real explanation.
- Attempted Rape: Samuel tries to rape Sam to prevent Baphomet from being born.
- Baphomet: The lowest prince of Hell, although he looks nothing like his Real Life depictions.
- Body Horror: For starters, there's the soul soufflé, a demon made up of human body parts. Then there's the torture of Judi with a wax figurine, where she vomits up worms and starts growing needles out of her eyes and fingertips.
- Chekhov's Gunman: That little girl at the balcony Sam passes by on her route? She's actually a high-ranking archdemon.
- Dead Star Walking: Jerry O'Connell is prominently shown on the promotional material but dies in the first scene he appears in
- Demon Lords and Archdevils: Baphomet is one of eleven princes of Hell, and the lowest-ranking. Samaziel is the highest.
- Dragon Ascendant: Gypsy aspires to replace Danica as the coven leader, seemingly succeeding only for to Danica to come back and kill her for her betrayal.
- Enfant Terrible: Samaziel, the highest-ranking prince of Hell, takes the form of a little girl when talking to Sam, and talks like one, too.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Samaziel sees the worship of the lowly Baphomet as an act of blasphemy.
- Faux Affably Evil: Danica pretends to be a jovial socialite and claims to love "making winners". In reality, she's just a power-hungry sociopath leading a Satanic coven that's entirely expendable to her, and will go from being easily forgiving to drowning someone in a heartbeat.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus: A couple.
- In the opening, when the little girl is playing hopscotch, three of the squares in a row contain the number six.
- While Sam is on her way to the coven's house, she passes Manson Street.
- Hollywood Satanism: Rich people who obtain their power and wealth through the worship of Satan and offerings of human sacrifices.
- Hot Witch: Danica is an expert in black magic and is played by the beautiful Rebecca Romijn.
- Hypocritical Humor: After trying to rape Sam:Samuel: I'm a feminist!
- Lack of Empathy: When Judi accuses Danica, her own mother, of trying to kill her she simply responds with a nonchalant "Detalis."
- Lady Swears A Lot: Gypsy has the most colourful vocabulary of all characters in the movie.
- Ms. Fanservice: Sam spends a good portion of the middle of the movie wearing a cleavage-exposing tank top.
- One-Steve Limit: Averted and used as part of the "code of the Sams" Running Gag. There's the Sam that our heroine meets on her delivery route, Danica's husband, who is also named Samuel, and finally, Samaziel, the prince of Hell.
- Our Demons Are Different: Out of the demons summoned to aid in capturing Sam and Judi, there's a häxancloak, which is a demon-possessed bedsheet that attempts to molest Sam, a tree demon in the veil of shadows that's quickly gunned down by Judi, and Danica's "soul soufflé" that she made from parts of her husband and Sam's ripped shirt.
- Sliding Scale of Comedy and Horror: Most dominantly on the comedy side, with much of the gore being Played for Laughs. Although Danica is 100% vile and almost always Played for Horror.
- The Social Darwinist: An underlying motive for Danica's cult. One of their mantras is, "Death to the weak! Wealth to the strong!"
- Vile Villain, Saccharine Show: While by no means a full-blown Knight of Cerebus, Danica does some awful and utterly gross things that contrast with the movie's comedic tone.
- Virgin Sacrifice: Danica wants to carry this out, and immediately decides that Sam is an acceptable sacrifice after seeing how utterly dweebish she is.
- You Have Failed Me: Danica causes Gypsy's lungs to fill up with water for trying to take over the coven.
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: After Judi lost her virginity, Danica chose to dispose of her by having her killed with a giant drill codpiece.
