Rotten Tomatoes

Movies / TV

    Celebrity

      No Results Found

      View All
      Movies Tv shows Shop News Showtimes

      Do You Know the Muffin Man?

      TV-PG 1989 1h 37m Drama List
      Reviews 57% Fewer than 50 Ratings Audience Score A police officer (John Shea) and his wife (Pam Dawber) discover their son and other children have been abused at a preschool. Read More Read Less

      Where to Watch

      Do You Know the Muffin Man?

      Prime Video

      Rent Do You Know the Muffin Man? on Prime Video, or buy it on Prime Video.

      Audience Reviews

      View All (2) audience reviews
      cjcalvert Incredibly irresponsible made-for-TV film that further perpetuated the now debunked idea of satanic ritual abuse. Every bad stereotype of the imagined satanic panic of the 1980's is present here. When police, prosecutors, therapists, mental health experts, the media, and parents abandon logic and reasoning in favor of emotion and superstition, it has real world consequences. Those consequences being the wrongful convictions of countless day-care owners and workers, teachers, parents, and others. Those who were acquitted had their reputations tarnished and were often left in financial ruins. It seems that Americans always need a scapegoat, an other, in an us vs. them narrative to explain why bad things happen, or when societal changes challenge the white, Christian, heterosexual patriarchy. It's happened all throughout history whether it's the Devil, or satanists, or witches, or Communists, or minorities, or working women, or feminists, or anti-war protestors, or heavy metal, or Dungeons and Dragons, or stranger danger, or so on and so forth. The movie pretty much follows the standard script from a typical 1980's SRA case. A mother accuses the local daycare of abusing her child after the child tests positive for gonorrhea. From there come the suggestive, leading, and repeated questioning of the children, stories of molestation, murdered rabbits, black robes and candles, dead pets, blood, rituals, sacrifices, Satan, pentagrams, etc, etc, etc. The only difference here is that the movie passes these things off as fact rather than fantasy. There was always little to no evidence ever found in actual cases of day-care SRA like McMartin, Kern County, Oak Hill, Martensville, Jordan, MN and others. The satanic panic was a modern day witch hunt, and unfortunately it seems to be making a comeback with nut job conspiracy theories like QAnon and pizza gate. Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars 08/28/22 Full Review Audience Member great movie deals with a tricky subject and shows just how much times have changed in twenty years the acting by the young children is brill a must see film Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars 02/07/23 Full Review Read all reviews Post a rating

      Cast & Crew

      Movie Info

      Synopsis A police officer (John Shea) and his wife (Pam Dawber) discover their son and other children have been abused at a preschool.
      Director
      Gilbert Cates
      Screenwriter
      Daniel Freudenberger
      Production Co
      The Avnet/Kerner Company
      Rating
      TV-PG
      Genre
      Drama
      Original Language
      English
      Release Date (Streaming)
      Dec 13, 2019
      Runtime
      1h 37m
      Most Popular at Home Now