In January 2021, a historic home in Poughkeepsie, New York, which was built in 1900 and used by members of the Church of Satan (COS), was destroyed by arson. Known as the Halloween House which was a popular spot for trick or treaters, it was owned by Joe “Netherworld” Mendillo, a church member whom COS High Priest Peter Gilmore described as a “dark side Martha Stewart.” The well-kept home was adorned with sculptures of devils and a hearse was parked in the driveway, where a sign over the garage was “Devil’s Garage.” As a report in The Guardian noted, Mendillo, who died the year before the fire, was, as Gilmore explained, “always gracious and offered people advice on gardening, home restoration and décor, among other topics. He was a knowledgeable man and generous to those requesting his informed perspective.”
Images of the “House of Netherworld” as it looked before the fire are preserved in Realm of Satan (Visit Films), an absorbing experiential documentary with a novel approach, directed by Scott Cummings, which received its premiere at Sundance 2024. One scene in the film shows a member placing a sign that indicates offering a $6,666 reward for any information about the identity of the man who doused the property with gasoline and then lit it on fire.
Photo: Courtesy of Gerald Kerkletz.
While Cummings has been to Sundance in past years as the editor on premieres including Never Rarely Sometimes Always, Monsters and Men, Menashe, and Wendy, Realm of Satan is his feature-length directorial debut. He first explored the style of filmmaking evidenced in this documentary through a short film, Buffalo Juggalos (2014).
The film has no talking heads to contextualize or foreground scenes or any extensive dialogue passages. Cummings lets the visual imagery propel the narrative structure in the film and only in the last segment of the film we hear COS members’ voices in the midst of a ritual. In fact, many members seen in the film echo what Mendillo was like and how he lived his life.
There also are erotic scenes and displays of magic tricks showing various members. The overall authentic effect of documentation truly evokes the question about why are so many people bothered by an organization which embodies, as notes about the film’s background indicate, an “atheist philosophy that rejects any belief in the supernatural; Satanists are pragmatic, materialist, and carnal. Satanism challenges its adherents to take responsibility for their own successes and failures, acknowledging man to be just another animal.”
In an interview with The Utah Review, Cummings said, “I have a Utopian view of the whole thing.” He added, “There is a lot about the subject I wanted to celebrate and what I look upon fondly.”
Working seven years on the project to know Gilmore, High Priestess Peggy Nadramia and many other members, Cummings explained that the COS is a mysterious, shadowy society which acknowledges that having people explain what it actually is runs against the COS a concept. “It’s meant to be evocative, not explainable,” he said, adding the late founder Anton LeVay noted, “that the word has a magic which is powerful and it’s evocative and it gets people’s imagination going. And, when you explain it, you suck the magic out of it.”
The approach Cummings took in Realm of Satan underscores that reality that while we are inundated with so much information, much of it which often becomes meaningless and useless. This stands out notably in comprehending something that we often judge by automatic reflex because of second- and third-hand stereotypes and erroneous characterizations. “It’s about mystery and making people confront something that they don’t understand and maybe that they don’t have access to,” he said. “For me that feels like a more interesting experience. For people to step into a place where they see the uncanny … and experiencing this that is out of reach. There are still mysteries in the world. This is a thing that is special. It’s like a party where maybe you’re not invited to and, hey, if you want to look more into it, great but if not, you just want the experience, that also is fine.”
Cummings said he hit it off with Gilmore, who is a cinephile, recommending films such as Hard to Be A God, a 2013 Russian epic medieval science fiction film directed by Aleksei German, and Rod Steiger’s No Way To Treat a Lady, the 1968 film directed by Jack Smight which effectively blended genres of psychological thriller and black comedy.
“There were moments where we felt we were on the same page,” Cummings said, “and more so with him than anyone else I have worked with in front of a camera.”
One of the film’s most impactful subjects for the theme comes through Robert who has cerebral palsy and is a dedicated member. Cummings recalled that when Robert met Gilmore for the first time, he stood up from his wheelchair and with a walker stepped through the gallery to embrace him.
Robert epitomizes what Cummings explained that “the whole ethos of the Church of Satan is basically that you live your best life from the cards you were dealt.” He added, “Somebody like Robert really applies Satanism to his life and he finds a lot of value in it.” Noting that Robert has found his self-actualization, Cummings said, “He is very successful in his life and I think that is what is potent about him and why he is a really good representative of Satanism. He is the rock in what story is there in the film.”
Cummings initially had planned to open the film with scenes of various rituals and then the closing moments would chronicle a big ritual but he realized that it might be too tricky of a puzzle to reconcile editorially. The finished version is lucid and compellingly interesting for leading the viewer through the film, as it steadily coalesces into a narrative whole. “It starts with a lot of vignettes and moves into some elements of traditional documentary information and then all of sudden it switches into a road movie, essentially where all of these characters go to a ritual,” he added.
Cummings said a lack of aesthetics is deemed a cardinal sin in the Church of Satan, which he took as an opportunity to allow the viewer to luxuriate for a longer moment and absorb the imagery. For those viewers really paying close attention, it becomes evident how Cummings’ expertise in editing presents the imagery in layers that evoke a lot more than what would be imaginable in a voiceover or spoken dialogue.
Cummings remembers how underwhelmed he felt viewing a British documentary about Francis Bacon, who set the groundwork for empiricism’s value in the scientific method. “It was like the most normal documentary,” he said. “When you make a traditional, safe work about somebody who was so radical, it’s like the work should match the subject in a way. Why would you want to diminish the subject? Respecting the subject means you kind of have to go for it. The work has to meet them where they are.”
Cummings initially had planned to open the film with scenes of various rituals and then the closing moments would chronicle a big ritual but he realized that it might be too tricky of a puzzle to reconcile editorially. The finished version is lucid and compellingly interesting for leading the viewer through the film, as it steadily coalesces into a narrative whole. “It starts with a lot of vignettes and moves into some elements of traditional documentary information and then all of sudden it switches into a road movie, essentially where all of these characters go to a ritual,” he added.
Cummings said a lack of aesthetics is deemed a cardinal sin in the Church of Satan, which he took as an opportunity to allow the viewer to luxuriate for a longer moment and absorb the imagery. For those viewers really paying close attention, it becomes evident how Cummings’ expertise in editing presents the imagery in layers that evoke a lot more than what would be imaginable in a voiceover or spoken dialogue.
Cummings remembers how underwhelmed he felt viewing a British documentary about Francis Bacon, who set the groundwork for empiricism’s value in the scientific method. “It was like the most normal documentary,” he said. “When you make a traditional, safe work about somebody who was so radical, it’s like the work should match the subject in a way. Why would you want to diminish the subject? Respecting the subject means you kind of have to go for it. The work has to meet them where they are.”
Cummings recalled an experience with the Church of Satan early in the film project, which reinforced his belief that an experiential film would be best suited to telling their story. He attended an event with 1,000 members in a huge hotel ballroom, where they chanted, “Hail, Satan!” and there was a naked woman on an altar as well as a man in a cowl robe. Meanwhile, hotel staff were coming in and out the ballroom, to serve food and drinks. “Did the waiters know this was going to happen?,” he said. “Whatever has happened in those people’s lives since then, they still talk about that night, and that was like seven or eight years ago. I guarantee the volume of stories that have come out of that night and the volume of fantasies that have come out that night but they also saw something they were not totally able to access it until after. Maybe some of them figured it out and they looked into it and maybe some of them didn’t.”
Indeed, film can be a spellbinding ritual on its merits. Realm of Satan offers the opportunity to observe a vibrant subculture, acknowledge there are other realities just as important as our own worldviews and to walk away from it while leaving the door open just enough to process that experience in whatever way that feels most comfortable to the individual viewer.
For more information about the festival and tickets, see the Sundance Film Festival website.