Your Own Personal Tempter: Best & Worst Satans

Cafe Society
1

A friend who saw Constantine with me liked Peter Stormare’s depiction of Satan as a demented Vincent Schiavelli-esque New Yorker while I think Satan should be in film, as he is in real life, British. What are your favorite takes on Old Nick either in film or literature?

In film:

Al Pacino in The Devil’s Advocate- the film is dreadful but I loved the final 30 minutes of Pacino hamming it up and asking for a grandbaby

Elizabeth Hurley in Bedazzled(the remake)

Peter Cook in Bedazzled (the original, if only because it has one of my favorite exchanges:

Stanley Moon (Dudley Moore): You’re not the devil! You’re a bleedin’ nutcase.
The Devil: They said the same thing of Galileo, Pasteur, Columbus and Einstein.
Stanley: They also said it about a lot of bleedin’ nutcases.

Robert Judd (as “Scratch”) in CROSSROADS (the "ol’ Blues man goes to
redeem his soul ala Robert Johnson version with Joe Seneca and Ralph
Macchio, not the same
titled totally unrelated movie of a couple of years ago

The worst would be either

Celentano (sp?) in THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST or
Jeroen Krabbe’s Eurotrash take on him (complete with ponytail) in the godawful
miniseries JESUS.

Just for sexiness, I once saw a photo of Alexis Denisov (Wesley from Angel) as Satan from a production of Byron’s CAIN- he was clad in a serpentine loincloth and wings and looked hotter than Pandemonium’s patio in August.

Literary:

Anne Rice’s Memnock the Devil (a case of a blind squirrel finding a nut)

2

Gabriel Byrne made a good satan. Twice I think.

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One of my favorite Satan’s is John Glover as he portrayed it in “Brimstone” the tv series. His manner here is very"british like", well dressed, delights in his pure evil, with a wicked sense of humor.

You should know this actor from tons of movies, and his current portrayal of Lionel Luther on Smallville, who does one of the few good acting jobs on that show.

I also have always felt that Christopher Walken would make a good satan, with his dark and offbeat style.

4

I kinda like Satan from “South Park”. * Ow!*

“Saddam, why do you always make love to me from behind?”

5

Well, the IMDB has 171 listings (some basically redundant) of men (and 25 women) playing Satan or closely related characters. Oddly, they didn’t include Emmanuelle Seigner, who played either one of Satan’s demons or the Great Deceiver himself, in Polanski’s The Ninth Gate. (Seigner was great in the role, of a certain age and with a certain cruelty and crudeness in her features that worked well for the film.)

I think the female Satans have the advantage of surprise, insofar as everyone basically expects Satan to be a male figure. OTOH, a male Satan can impregnate a woman with the Antichrist, whether she’s willing or not, aware or not, even in the guise of an incubus, if necessary – and what could be more horrifying than that?

6

Peter Cook was a good one, but I’m partial to Mr. Applegate as played by Ray Walston in Damn Yankees. He certainly has the best song.

7

I suppose I should use a spoiler:

DeNiro as “Louis Cipher” in Angel Heart. All the better when you know that he’s really doing a Scorsese impression.

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AAAAUUUGH!!! Mods, please fix my horrible coding error. (Does Gaudere’s Law apply to making a coding mistake at the worst possible time?)

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Viggo Mortensen was a vicious and very pretty Lucifer in The Prophecy. Alas, it was a very small role.

I enjoyed Robert DeNiro as ‘Louis Cyphre’ in Angel Heart, all long fingernails rolling the hard-boiled eggs to break the shell. Creepy.

I liked Satan being interpreted as an blond, angelic, barely pubescent girl/being in The Last Temptation of Christ.

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Um, nevermind, Mods.

11

A female satan getting it on with an unsuspecting woman? Where can I get tickets? :smiley:

And I’ll toss out a vote for the Simpsons satan, a.k.a. Ned Flanders.

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I’d say Anton LaVey brought the most sincerity to the role…

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Literary:
It would have to be Satan in Heinlein’s ‘Job: A comedy of Justice’. I can never picture Satan as evil and this paints a far more logical devil.
review

14

I was always rather partial to two “Twilight Zone” Satans, Burgess Meredith and Julie Newmar. Burgess just relishes the role, and Julie’s just ROWR!

15

As far as literary portrayals go, I think Milton still wins.

16

I liked Bulgakov’s Satan (Woland) in The Master and Margarita far better. Although Milton Satan is good, too.

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Was it a spoiler that Deniro’s character was Satan in Angel Heart? I remember being aware of it immediately. I mean, his name was a pretty big clue.

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John Lovitz

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While not technically “Satan”, Tim Curry’s Darkness from Legend is still probably the coolest visual representation of a traditional “devil” character that I’ve seen.

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That was probably my favorite film satan.

But then again, what the hell do I know? I liked Harvey Keitel’s satan.