My Sweet Satan (1994, Jim Van Bebber)

If I'm being truthful, I'm a little nonchalant when it comes to the works of Jim Van Bebber. I fully respect his plight as an independent film maker and his total commitment to veneering his films to the best of his ability on a completely shoe-string budget. At this point, I've seen all of his notable works and, in terms of his short film repertoire, "My Sweet Satan" is pretty top notch.

Based on the true events of Ricky Kasso - a small time suburban drug dealer with a callow infatuation with satanism - this short film reenacts the murder of a fellow heavy metal inspired satanist kid carried out due to him lifting money off of the respected (and feared) drug dealer...

The acting is piss poor, which is what you'd typically expect from a Van Bebber film since non-actors are typically used. "My Sweet Satan", however, conveys a rather strong facade of realism that adequately assimilates with the actual events that transpired. The fact that the victim screamed "I love my mother" in response to his command to say "I love Satan" by his attackers is included as well as Ricky hanging himself in his jail cell. The gore is suiting for a 20 minute short and the infamous head stomping is nicely gruesome and grisly as well as the stabbing that commences prior. Van Bebber (though no "actor") come across well as the lead maniac, Ricky, and his haircut is laughably shitty.

"My Sweet Satan" is certainly my favorite Jim Van Bebber short and a definite classic among indie cult horror... 7.5/10.