My Sweet Satan
They were bored teenagers playing grown-up games with no thought of responsibility or the larger consequences, Ricky Kasslin de facto ringleader with his tattoos and ready supply of drugs which he would dish out to maintain favour among his hangers on, Jimmy Thompson his unquestioning right-hand man, getting high, making up rituals and sacrificing animals in graveyards with no idea what they were doing.
His parents threatening to disown him or have him thrown in prison, living from party to party and sleeping in the park, Ricky out of control and with no “off button,” a young man who in other circumstances or with support might have grown into a responsible adult or a serial killer had he not been so impulsive, punishing younger kid Gary Larsen for a handful of cash stolen from his pocket while he was passed out.
A short film of inarguably bad decisions which recalls the nihilism of early Greg Araki, My Sweet Satan is written and directed by Jim Van Bebber who also stars as Ricky, pouting and put-upon poster-child for the alternative scene of 1994 when it was released, riding the downward spiral with Nine Inch Nails and as in thrall to Ozzy Osbourne as to the idea of Satan, Ricky paying dress up with no clue that Satanic doctrine instructs that no harm should be done to others.
Crime and punishment in swift succession, the guard watching over Ricky and Jimmy (Terek Puckett) taunting rather than offering any sympathy following the murder of Gary (Mike Moore), from the fire burning beneath the Moon rising over the trees, My Sweet Satan is on a predictable one-way track of self-destruction, undeviating and with nobody even attempting to steer it in another direction, the Skid Row discography of the era from Youth Gone Wild to Wasted Time, prison regrets changing nothing when no attempt was made to intervene.
My Sweet Satan is streaming on the Arrow platform now
