It's been 40 years since Mia Farrow experienced the most horrific one-night-stand ever and gave birth to "Rosemary's Baby." But while Farrow's encounter with Beelzebub was extraordinarily unpleasant, it's just one of many guises that the Father of Lies has taken on the silver screen.
With that in mind, Beliefnet presents a dozen Mephistophelian movie manifestations--some scary, some funny and one that'll make you swear off cherries forever.
Rosemary's Baby (1968)
We don't see much of Rosemary's infernal Don Juan in this horror classic's infamous rape scene, but it's enough to make us fear Ruth Gordon forever. Legend had it that Anton LaVey, founder of Satanism in America, played the Devil in the film. No such luck: The part went to a guy named Clay Tanner, according to IMDB.com--a fellow whose previous credits included "KAOS Agent No. 3" in "Get Smart." He must have done a hell of a job, though (or maybe actors just covet that cool apartment in the Dakota), because A-list talent's been lining up to play the Infernal One ever since.The Devil and Max Devlin (1981)
Who knew Satan could look so much like America's favorite dad? That's exactly what happened in this Disney dark comedy, featuring Bill Cosby as smokin' Barney Satin. It's a variation on the old Faust stories, with Satin promising Max Devlin--a newly deceased curmudgeon played by Elliot Gould--another crack at life if Devlin can round up three souls to take his place in hell. The Cos gets to wear a devil suit near the end, but no one winds up taking that one-way ticket to Hades: They all just have to stand in line for Space Mountain for a really, really long time.Oh God You Devil (1984)
Not many folks have played both God and the Devil--and George Burns may be the only one to have portrayed both in the same movie. In this installment of the "Oh God" movies, Burns seems to have far more fun playing Harry O. Tophet (the last name is a synonym for "hell" in Judaism)--maybe because the Devil naturally gets the cheesiest lines. "If you want anything," he says at one juncture, "I'm in room 666." One might suspect that Burns knew a thing or two about Faustian deals. What, you think this hard-drinking, cigar-smoking comedian made it to age 100 by accident?Legend (1985)
The Devil isn't always cracking jokes, and there's nothing funny about Tim Curry's turn as the Lord of Darkness in the Tom Cruise fantasy "Legend"--not intentionally, anyway. Curry's fearsome demon looks like a real Hell's Angel, with monkeybar horns and a torso-baring suit straight out of the "Goths R Us" spring catalog. His nefarious plot: To cut the horn off a poor, defenseless unicorn, ensuring the sun will never rise again. One wonders if he hates the sun so much because of the eternal sunburn he seems to bear.The Witches of Eastwick (1987)
With Jack Nicholson's penchant for gleefully amoral characters, one might be tempted to call his turn as Darryl van Horne--an alias for Satan himself--as typecasting. Van Horne says he's just a "horny little devil" with a hankering for the 1980's sexiest screen sirens (Michelle Pfeiffer, Susan Sarandon, Cher). More importantly, though, he wants to father children with all of them, ensuring a bevy of infernal infants to run roughshod over humanity. Things don't go so well for the demon, though: His paramours turn against him, and before you know it, van Horne's projectile-vomiting cherries. "Nothing to be alarmed at," he assures us. "Just a little female problem." Which proves once again that love can be the pits.Angel Heart (1987)
Academy Award-winning actor Robert De Niro adds his own take on Satan with this suave, creepy portrayal of Louis Cyphre, a refined, cane-wielding Prince of Darkness with a hunger for souls and hard-boiled eggs--both of which he likes heavily salted. He's got a particular craving for the soul of Johnny Favorite, who signed a contract with Cyphre but weaseled out of the deal by vanishing, seemingly, into thin air. Bad move: "I don't like messy accounts," Cyphre fumes, as he hires a private investigator to track down Favorite and get him to pay up. Don Corleone, eat your heart out.The Prophecy (1995)
Long before he became Aragorn, king of J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle Earth, Viggo Mortensen played a far darker prince. But frankly, Mortensen's Satan wasn't so much the ultimate bad guy as he was a flower-eating philosopher who may have listened to too much of The Beatles' White Album as a child. The real evildoer in "The Prophecy" is the archangel Gabriel, leader of a pack of angels who don't particularly like us mortals and head of a second heavenly rebellion; Satan is more adviser than The Adversary, helping humankind open the gates of heaven for their souls again--maybe because Hell's getting overcrowded. "For while Heaven may be closed, I am always open," says Satan. "Even on Christmas." This theological mess spawned a handful of sequels, but Mortensen, somehow, didn't find his way into any of them. Go figure.The Devil's Advocate (1997)
"Better to reign in hell than serve in heaven," railed Satan in Paradise Lost. And, for "Devil's Advocate" star Al Pacino, the closest approximation of hell on earth is the cutthroat law firm of Milton, Chadwick, and Waters. As Satan, Pacino is gleeful, vengeful, and ever-so-charismatic, battering the gates of heaven with a linguistic cudgel and drawing apprentice lawyer Keanu Reeves ever closer to his infernal bosom. God? "He's an absentee landlord," Pacino tells Reeves. "Worship that? Never." Man? "I cared about what he wanted and never judged him." Of course, Pacino's dastardly Devil pillages, rapes, and murders at will--all on billable time, apparently--suggesting that a little accountability ain't such a bad thing.End of Days (1999)
It takes a special kind of Devil to match up to perennial hero Arnold Schwarzenegger, but Gabriel Byrne puts his best Gucci-clad foot forward in this apocalyptic tale. Byrne, disguised as a banker on a quest to impregnate his prophesied paramour with his own infernal seed, strides through Days like a financier from hell--extending high-interest loans of life to some unfortunates, snuffing out the credit lines of others. But despite the trail of bodies and burned-out buildings he leaves in his wake, Byrne's Satan is foiled by Schwarzenegger, who kills himself rather than letting Byrne get the girl.South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut (1999)
Maybe Satan just needs a hug--preferably from the mustachioed former dictator of Iraq, of course. South Park's Satan, as voiced by Trey Parker, is a misunderstood evildoer who would rather sunbathe on gay cruise ships, sail on rainbow-festooned hang gliders, and sing dramatic musical numbers than be the living embodiment of evil. Still, it's a living. "Without evil there could be no good," he sings, "so it must be good to be evil sometimes." He and infernal lover Saddam Hussein nearly destroy the world, but when Saddam gets too big for his britches, Satan tosses the nefarious strongman back into hell and, in so doing, saves South Park. "Feel free to come back and visit us any time you want, Satan!" Chef says.Constantine (2005)
Eight years earlier, Keanu Reeves was an unwilling pawn to Al Pacino's Satan in "The Devil's Advocate." Now, as John Constantine, he meets the Lord of the Flies again--who this time comes in the guise of white-suited Peter Stormare, visiting earth to collect Constantine's troublesome soul. Seems Constantine, despite his demon-battling hobby, has made enemies beyond the Pearly Gates, and the Devil--whom Stormare gives a leering, white-trash vibe--would like nothing more than to bring Constantine down for a little home cookin'. But when it looks like heaven will welcome Constantine after all (after the hero sacrifices himself for the greater good), Beelzebub gives the guy another crack at life--in the hopes that Constantine will screw it up again.Tenacious D in the Pick of Destiny (2006)
Not only does The Devil get all the good music, he can play it, too. At least that's what the fledgling rock band Tenacious D discovers when they unwisely challenge the Evil One to a rockoff. "He rocks too hard because he's not a mortal man," gasps band member, KG (Kyle Glass) to his partner, JB (Jack Black). This leaves Tenacious D SOL, for this Satan (played by Dave Grohl) is a profanely fearsome monster with horns, hooves, and a killer goatee who wants to punish the duo for swiping the Pick of Destiny (which is actually part of one of Satan's fangs). But just as the demon attempts to drag KG into hell, he accidentally blows part of his horn off and, as a consequence, loses his power. And the band? Well, they turn the hellish relic into the "Bong of Destiny." Even apart from the big bad guy, Satan's horn is still smokin'.
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