Movies/Scenes
Representing Satan/Demons
(Personifications of Evil)
- The Shipping
News (2001)
- Quoyle has a literal confrontation with the "demons" of his past. He has seen himself (and steered his life accordingly) through the negative influence of his father and other family "demons" he has not recognized. He faces these forces and is reborn after a storm.
- Bless the Child (2000)
- From the producer of "The Omen" (Mace Neufeld), this film has good and evil battle in a way unique to most movies of this genre: while evil gets in its punches, good fights back with equal and eventually superior power. A small girl with uniqie spiritual gifts, being raised by an aunt who has lost touch with the faith of her own childhood, is the focus of the film. The scriptural scene of Christ's Temptation is replayed with a most interesting twist. Scenes centered on Good Samaritans abound in the film. (Best Good Samaritan scene: the satanic cult's leader, in the Temptation scene, tells the girl to jump off a tall building, to prove God is really there to save her-- with the assertion of Satan being there, and God being "just a nice idea." The girl eventually turns away from the ledge, sits, and says to the satanist: "After you." Next scene, the girl is being liberated from the satanic cult, and they are running into the subway. The train's doors are closing, and it looks like they'll miss the train and be caught by the satanists. At the last second, an umbrella pokes into the train's door, causing it to re-open. The umbrella's holder, a woman, looks at the child, smiles, and says "After you." I can find a hundred homilies in that 10 minutes of film.) (Jack Everman)
- The Phantom Menace
(1999)
- Darth Sidious/Darth Maul
- The Storm of the Century
(1999)
- Andre Linoge (Legion) demands a decision from the people on the Island. Which decision is the right one?
- Wild Wild West (1999)
- Dr Arliss Loveless as "Satan" (see review at Hollywood Jesus)
- Fallen (1998)
- Lives through possessing people/animals in everyday life.
- Dark City (1998)
- The Strangers do not like light or water.
- The
Devil's Advocate (1997)
- Satan as a wealthy, powerful lawyer.
- Milton as a Nietschean devil.
- Face Off (1997)
- Evil as a "wolf in sheep's clothing". (see review at Hollywood Jesus)
- Deconstructing Harry
(1997)
- Harry goes to hell via an elevator, and meets Satan (Billy Crystal). Harry realizes that he has consigned his father to hell, and says that he didn't mean it that way. (DVD ch 16)
- Natural Born Killers
(1994)
- The demonic is highlighted through the use of the color green and through demonic images. While Mickey and Mallory are the culturally revered "demons," other demons are exposed as well. Ambiguity of demon figures - color green, entwined snakes - throughout the film.
- The
Stand (1994)
- Randall Flagg as the likeable, humorous, sexy embodiment of evil.
- Needful
Things (1993)
-
Stephen King's "Needful Things" has to go into the Evil/Sin section. I would put it . . . well, almost any of those work! Great movie! What happens when Satan sets up shop in your town? (David Ferguson)
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- Trading Places (1983)
- This past week our pastor preached from the Job 1:1, 2:1-10 text. During the discussion of the conversation between God and Satan regarding testing Job, we showed a clip from the 1983 movie Trading Places, starring Eddie Murphy and Dan Ackroyd. The clip shows two older brothers (Don Ameche and Ralph Bellamy) discussing how they are going to test their star trader (Ackroyd) by causing him to lose his job, friends, fiancee, etc. (Michelle Perram, St. Paul UMC, Dayton, OH)
