Difference between revisions of "Category:Devil (film subject)"

Devil (film subject)

"But who prays for Satan? Who, in eighteen centuries, has had the common humanity to pray for the one sinner that needed it most?" - Mark Twain.

• Conrad Veidt, in Satanas (Satan / 1920 Murnau), feature film

A three-part historical film, with episode one taking place in ancient Egypt, the second is based on the Hugo novel, and the third episode takes place during the 1917 Russian revolution. Sadly, only stills and clips remain from this movie.

• Häxan (1922 Christensen), feature film

Haxan was a Swedish/Danish documentary on how superstitions clouded how people reacted to mental illness and stirred hysteria and witch-hunts. The film also re-enacted historical events, just like on today’s various history channels. The writer/director, Benjamin Christensen, played the devil, Djævlen, as well as god, and assorted parts. Christensen presents a detailed study of the 1400s-era German Inquisitors Handbook, the "Malleus Maleficarum." This book is still referenced today in occult circles. At the time it was Scandinavia’s most expensive movie. That didn’t get it into America, who banned it because of nude scenes, torture sequences and depictions of sexual perversion.

• Fantasia (1940)

• Heaven Can Wait (1943 Lubitsch), feature film (Laird Cregar)

An old roué arrives in Hades to review his life with Satan, who will rule on his eligibility to enter the Underworld.

• Cabin in the Sky, 1943 (Rex Ingram)

Rex Ingram plays the Devil in this all-Black cast movie, directed by Vincente Minnelli.

• Angel on My Shoulder (1946), feature film (Claude Rains)

Gangster Eddie Kagle (Paul Muni) meets the devil, Nick (Claude Rains), in hell after he's shot to death by his former partner. Nick devises a way for both of them to get revenge and gives Eddie a chance to return to Earth to avenge his death by occupying the body of a man causing the devil distress.

• Damn Yankees (1958)

The musical film follows an avid baseball fan who agrees to sell his soul to the devil for the chance to bring his team, the Washington Senators, to victory against the Yankees. Ral Walston plays the devil, referred to in the film as Applegate.

• Lon Chaney Jr., in The Devil’s Messenger, 1961

• The Devil Rides Out (1968) (Eddie Powell)

They don’t credit the actor who plays the Goat of Mendes, but it was Christopher Lee's stunt double, Eddie Powell.

• Rosemary's Baby (1968)

In the Roman Polanski-directed horror film, Mia Farrow plays a housewife who gives birth to the spawn of Satan after becoming entangled in a series of ominous events. The lusty, scaly one who needs a manicure is played by Clay Tanner. Tanner was a consummate TV actor, appearing on such shows as Bonanza, The Fugitive, Get Smart, Perry Mason, McHale's Navy, The Outer Limits, The Virginian, and Stoney Burke. Tanner also played the role of Satan during the rape scene of Rosemary's Baby.

• Invocation of My Demon Brother, 1969

Anton LaVey, the founder and head of the Church of Satan played His Satanic Majesty and Bobby Beausoliel was cast as Lucifer.

• Phantom of the Paradise, 1974

Contracts are big with Satan and in the seventies, the biggest, most coveted contract a kid could want was a record contract. Brian De Palma brought them together and threw them into a mix of Faust, Dorian Grey and Phantom of the Opera. To play the devilish deed-holder he brought in Paul Williams.

• The Devil’s Rain, 1975 (Ernest Borgnine)

Ernest Borgnine does double diabolo duty as the high priest of a Satanic coven, Corbis, and as a half-man, half goat entity in The Devil's Rain.

• Victor Buono, in The Evil, 1978

• Time Bandits, 1981 (David Warner)

The Evil Genius in Time Bandits is a forward thinker and a mechanical tinkerer. He understands digital watches and is on his way to understanding video cassette recorders and car telephones. Once he gets them he’ll be able to understand computers. And then he will be the Supreme Being. David Warner plays the devil as a curious man, happy in his discoveries, inquisitive and ambitious.

• Oh, God! You Devil (1984)

A comedy. Power struggles between God and Satan are settled with a poker game.

• Legend (1985)

The fantasy film, directed by Ridley Scott, tells the story of a young boy (Tom Cruise) on a quest to stop the Lord of Darkness (Tim Curry) from destroying daylight and saving his love, Princess Lily (Mia Sara), from the devil's temptation.

• Crossroad (1986)

Ralph Macchio plays Eugene, a small time Julliard-trained blues guitarist looking for the holy grail - or maybe just a way to sell his soul to the devil, too.

• Angel Heart (1987) (Robert De Niro)

Private investigator Harry Angel (Mickey Rourke) is asked to track down famous jazz musician "Johnny Favorite" by a man named Louis Cyphre (Robert De Niro). But his search takes a turn for the worst when he discovers that Johnny Favorite was a famed magician who sold his soul to Satan for fame, and Louis Cyphre (a homophone for Lucifer) is Satan himself.

• Prince of Darkness (1987)

A research team finds a mysterious cylinder in a deserted church. If opened, it could mean the end of the world.

• The Witches of Eastwick (1987) (Jack Nicholson)

In George Miller's comedy-fantasy film, Jack Nicholson stars as the cunning and mysterious Daryl Van Horne (Satan in disguise), who seduces and manipulates three women (played by Cher, Michelle Pfeiffer and Susan Sarandon) living in the small town of Eastwick. When the women realize they are witches with supernatural abilities, they make a pact to exact revenge on him using witchcraft.

• Needful Things (1993) (Max Von Sydow)

Based on Stephen King's 1991 novel of the same title, the horror film follows a shopowner named Leland Gaunt (Max von Sydow) who opens a store called Needful Things in Castle Rock. Leland, who is later revealed to be the devil, houses all of Castle Rock's residents' deepest desires in his shop and uses it to spread greed, fear and violence to the town's population.

• Tales from the Hood, 1995 (?)

• The Prophecy (1995)

Viggo Mortensen plays Lucifer in the fantasy horror flick The Prophecy. The film focuses on a young girl, Mary, who is visited by Lucifer and is told a secret. Angel Gabriel (Christopher Walken) descends to earth to take a soul that will end the war in Heaven, but his mission can only be stopped by a specific priest and Mary.

• Deconstructing Harry, 1997

Billy Crystal’s Larry slept with Woody Allen’s girlfriend and then Crystal’s devil takes him to hell.

• The Devil's Advocate (1997) (Al Pacino)

Kevin Lomax's (Keanu Reeves) career is on the rise when he is offered a position at a top law firm in New York City by the head of the firm, John Milton (Al Pacino). After relocating from Florida to New York with his wife (Charlize Theron), Lomax begins spending all his time at work, leaving his wife isolated and alone at home, who begins seeing demonic visions. Later in the film, it is revealed that Milton is Satan and Lomax is his son.

• End of Days (1999)

Atheist ex-cop Jericho Cane (Arnold Schwarzenegger) no longer believes in God after the murder of his wife and daughter. But when Satan (Gabriel Byrne) inhabits the body of a man a day before the turn of the millennium in search of his chosen bride, the only hope for the world not ending lies in Cane, who must prevent the devil from bearing her child between 11 p.m. and midnight on New Year's Eve.

• The Messanger (1999) (Dustin Hoffman)

Dustin Hoffman gives us a very laid back Satan, underplaying him to provoke madness.

• The Ninth Gate, 1999

Emmanuelle Seigner is the devil as enigma on a dark Paris street, or a library or plane. She can ride and she can fight and she can fly.

• Tom Kane, in The Power Puff Girls, 1999

• End of Days (1999)

At the end of the century, Satan visits New York in search of a bride. It's up to an ex-cop who now runs an elite security outfit to stop him.

• Little Nicky (2000)

After two of the devil's three sons escape Hell to wreak havoc on Earth, the devil must send his third son, the mild-mannered Nicky, to bring them back before it's too late. In this comedic fantasy Little Nicky, Adam Sandler plays Nicky, Satan's (Harvey Keitel) mellow third son, who is sent to earth to bring back his two older brothers who escaped hell in an effort to wreak havoc.

• Bedazzled (2000)

Elliot Richards (Brendan Fraser) is approached by the scantily clad devil (Elizabeth Hurley) who approaches his hopeless self and offers him seven wishes in exchange for his soul. Though he takes the deal, his wishes may not be as wonderful as they appear.

• Absolutely Fabulous, 2001 (Anita Pallenberg)

• Constantine (2005)

Peter Stormare plays Satan in the 2005 fantasy horror film Constantine. John Constantine (Keanu Reeves), a demon hunter whose purpose on Earth is to send demons back to the underworld, helps Det. Angela Dodson discover the truth about her sister's — a former devout Catholic – alleged suicide. In his attempt to discover the truth of her death, Constantine encounters Satan head on.

• Ghost Rider (2007)

Nicolas Cage plays Johnny Blaze/Ghost Rider in the 2007 action fantasy thriller Ghost Rider. The film tells the story of Blaze who gives up his soul to the devil, Mephistopheles, in exchange for the health of his father. The devil tricks him and Blaze runs away and becomes a famous motorcyclist. Later on, Mephistopheles proposes Blaze become "Ghost Rider" in an effort to defeat his evil son, Blackheart.

• The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (2009) (Tom Waits)

Tom Waits plays devilish character Mr. Nick in the 2009 fantasy adventure The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus. When Doctor Parnassus (Christopher Plummer) fell in love with a mortal woman, he made a deal with the devil (Waits) by trading his immortality for youth and promised one of his children to the devil on their sixteenth birthday. As his daughter's birthday looms, he makes a new bet with Mr. Nick in an attempt to take back his daughter.

• Devil (2010)

A group of people are trapped in an elevator and the Devil is mysteriously amongst them.

• [[Lucifer (2015)]