Hail Satan? marks the first time that director Penny Lane filmed contemporary events as they developed, though her deftness with archival material is crucial to the story’s appeal.

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On her way to becoming one of the most respected documentarians working today, Penny Lane has a reputation for her skill at using archival material. Her 2013 masterwork, Our Nixon, repurposed candid Super 8 footage shot by aides of President Richard Nixon to contrast with the paranoid, bigoted man that Americans grew to know through his secret Oval Office recordings. Her 2016 follow-up, Nuts!, delved into home movies, news reels, and excerpts from a biography to tell the story of early 20th-century huckster John R. Brinkley.

While her current film, Hail Satan?, marks the first time that Lane has filmed contemporary events as they developed, her deftness with archival material is crucial to the appeal of this story of the birth and growth of the Satanic Temple.

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