Why are people so tough on this film?

Sadly, a lot of that evil is people believing in vast Satanic conspiracies of child molestors, and scores of innocent people being destroyed by false accusations. And before the outrage begins, OF COURSE there's real child abuse, more than is reported. Nobody's denying that. But the sort of grandiose idiocy put forth in this film as "truth" goes right back to the original Salem witch trials, which had as much basis in reality -- that is, absolutely none. This film did a grave disservice to both genuine victims of child abuse & to the fabric of society as a whole by propounding such fear-stricken lunacy.

OP: Because it was obvious that this was based on the McMartin case, and that was truly a travesty. We had some wacky satanic panic thing going on in the '80s. People's lives were ruined.
I remember sneaky-reading an article in a magazine at my mother's hairdresser's when I was old enough to know that I too young to be reading it. It was the first time I realized that grown-ups could really hurt kids, and it was traumatic. To later find out that the kids were basically coached by the very adults who were supposed to be protecting them was sickening.