My Sweet Satan

Apparently based on a real life murder case, low-budget short My Sweet Satan stars Jim Van Bebber (director of cult low budget classics Deadbeat at Dawn and The Manson Family) as Ricky, a Satan worshipping, drug dealing low-life with really stupid hair who kills one of his reprobate pals for stealing his drug money (and possibly for daring to have an even sillier haircut than himself).

It's hard to like a film that is packed so full of thoroughly unlikeable characters sporting, but hey, it's under twenty minutes long, and is worth seeing if only for the painful looking nipple-piercing scene (which is done for real) and the truly repugnant murder in which the victim is stabbed repeatedly by Ricky before he and a friend stomp the poor sap's head into an unrecognisable smushy mess of blood, bone, brains, and eyeballs.

I recently bought Arrow's excellent blu-ray of Jim Van Bebber's cult classic "Deadbeat by Dawn" (1988), amongst the extras are four of his short films including this one, however the year given is 1993, not 1994. Once again Van Bebber not only writes and directs but also plays the lead role. In this instance he is Ricky, a Satanist with "Ozzy" tattooed on his knuckles who wears an Iron Maiden t-shirt and sports a bizarre Hare Krishna type haircut. He and a fellow Satan metalhead pick on a teen called Gary who sports a shocking ginger mullet. Ricky - "Say you love Satan", Gary - "I love my mother". At only 14 minutes there is very little plot but we are treated to must be the most violent and goriest human sacrifice that I have seen. Odd flashes of old carvings and paintings of The Devil make a nice touch. A close up of a nipple piecing is not for the screamish!

Jim Van Bebber's short film My Sweet Satan (1994) is supposedly based on real life character, who committed a horrible murder, was then sentenced to prison, where he finally killed himself by hanging. Director Van Bebber plays Ricky Kasslin, the main character, who is young fellow who listens to heavy metal, has one of the ugliest hair cuts ever, and acts like some animal, and believes that Satan is his Master and he loves Satan the most.

This film really makes me wonder why this kind of things happen. Those Satan worshippers are depicted miserable, but dedicated lost persons and souls, who find a meaning to their lives by worshipping and praising the Satan, the most evil thing imaginable. I think this film definitely doesn't promote Satanism, since the final phrase Ricky's friend says in prison is so underlining, and tells the opinion of writer/director.

This shortie has some very interesting cinematic elements, most notably the soundtrack which consists of different metal bands, but also very menacing sounds and moans which are played also backwards and create very ominous atmosphere and a feeling of evil and pure wickedness. Also, different kinds of camera techniques add to the atmosphere and the film is very great in its elements and visual power.

The infamous ending is very disturbing and graphic, and the whole short film is full of violent and off putting imagery like actual body piercing, blood and terror, but the last murder is the worst, and that murder finally led the main character to prison and suicide. The suicide is also very relentlessly and realistically depicted, so this film is definitely not nice to watch. The film is important since this madness really exists in the world and this film just shows some facts and asks couple of questions without moralizing. I liked this very much and appreciate the cinematic talent of Van Bebber and give this 9/10. This little film is not likely to be easily forgotten once experienced.

This is the kind of film that Harmony Korine later became more successful doing...that is, chronicling the lives of bored suburban white trash Satan worshippers on dope. Van Bebber knows his milieu and does what he can in 19 minutes but it's really just buildup to a conclusion you won't soon forget.

I would consider myself pretty jaded when it comes to extremely violent/disturbing type films but when I watched MY SWEET SATAN today I was completely blown away. It's a short film (about 20 mins.) and stars underground horror-action director Jim Van Bebber as Ricky Kasslin who is a character based on a (supposedly) true incident. It's nothing more than doped up, heavy metal white trash kids who worship Satan and crucify chickens. Sounds like family entertainment, eh? The "stomp" ending really had me gagging and is quite possibly the most intense, sick, and disturbing scene I've ever had the (dis)pleasure of watching! Oh yeah, and talk about that up-close (real) nipple piercing! I was practically squirming in my chair! I don't think I'll be popping this back into the DVD for quite some time....