‘Realm Of Satan’ Explores What Church Of Satan Members Believe: “You Are Self-Created. You Are Your Own God.” – Sundance Studio

TITLE: Realm of Satan

Section: NEXT

Directors: Scott Cummings

Logline: An experiential portrait depicting Satanists in both the everyday and in the extraordinary as they fight to preserve their lifestyle: magic, mystery, and misanthropy.

Sales Agent: Visit Films

Panelists: Scott Cummings (director/writer/editor); Peter Gilmore (participant); Peggy Nadramia (participant); Blanche Barton (participant)

First screening: Sunday, Jan. 21

Key quotes: “We’ve done so many documentaries over the years, and sometimes they’re done by people that we know and other times they’re done with people with agendas that are hidden. So, we can never really quite tell what’s going to come out of those experiences… I really was convinced that this is somebody [director Scott Cummings] who could do an actual portrait of us rather than some kind of didactic documentary, which has just been done to death.” – Peter Gilmore

[On the film being “nonfiction adjacent”]: “Of course, everything in the film is staged, but drawn from reality. All the locations are real, all the people are real Satanists. But we work together to kind of pull it away a bit from just being documentary, because just a straight documentary is not very interesting to me. So, we wanted to add fictional and magical and fantastical elements to everything.” – Director Scott Cummings

“It’s an experiential film. You give yourself over when you experience fiction. You make a contract that, okay, you’re going to startle me, you’re going to shock me, you’re going to intrigue me. That’s the best of filmmaking. That’s what Satanism is really all about, is creating your life almost as an art piece itself. And that’s exciting. And I think that’s what you’ll see in the film.” – Blanche Barton

“Our philosophy is really strongly concerned with individualism, your individual expression of who you really are. So, you are creating that. You are therefore self-created. You are your own God.” – Peggy Nadramia

The Deadline Studio at Sundance ran from January 19-22 at 608 Main Street, when the cast and creatives behind the best and buzziest titles in this year’s lineup joined Deadline’s festival team to discuss their movies and the paths they took to get to Park City.

Thank you to our sponsors McGee & Co., Final Draft, Portrait Creative Network, and Courser.