This is the only portrayal of Satan to earn an Academy award nomination.
With funky eyebrows rather than horns, in Glen or Glenda.
It’s not clear who that character actually is. She appears to be more than meets the eye but there’s no indication that she’s actually Satan.
I loved that show and came in here to mention Glover. Didn’t he do a “George Burns” and also play God in one episode?
The Last Tempatation of Christ- Satan as Pillar of Fire & Angelic Girl
Any “Life of Christ” movie that includes the Temptation
Michael York in Megiddo: Omega Code II
Constantine, the only movie where the devil (ending spoiler)saves the earth and the life of the main character.
Well, I’ve seen a few TV shows bandied about, so I’ll add:
Reaper
with Sam Wise as the devil
Well, I’ve seen a few TV shows bandied about, so I’ll add:
Reaper
with Ray Wise as the devil
I’ll have to watch it again, as I may be conflating the book and the movie. I read the book first and Perez-Reverte makes it pretty clear that she’s Satan. She even discusses her fall from heaven at one point, IIRC. That may have colored my interpretation of the movie.
As an alternative, I’ll offer John Carpenter’s Prince of Darkness . I think we see only the Devil’s arm in that one, but that should count.
My all-time favorite depiction of the devil is Earl Pastko in the little-known Highway 61. Two scenes in particular (his corruption of a little girl, and his Bingo competition) are things of beauty.
Daniel
I once heard the director’s original idea was never to have the demon appear on-screen at all – to leave it ambiguous whether he even existed (as the skeptical Holden consistently refused to accept), or whether Karswell was simply killed by a train. But that cool concept was squashed by executive meddling.
If we’re doing TV shows – well, A Year at the Top did not last long and did not deserve to.
Tim Curry plays “The Lord of Darkness,” sometimes just called Darkness. Although obviously meant to be evocative of the Devil complete with horns and cloven hooves, he is not identified by one of the names or titles specified by the OP. He is also heard to pray to his mother and father for protection, something that does not fit the Christian idea of Satan at all.
In the film, she’s clearly more than meets the eye. She levitates at one point and has the demonic eye thing at another. But it’s never specified if she’s a witch, a devil, or THE Devil. In Christian tradition, there are many fallen angels but only one Lucifer. (And yes, I know the Lucifer of the Old Testament was probably not Satan, but the names are firmly identified with the same concept now.)
In Marlowe’s play, Mephistopheles is identified as *a *devil. Lucifer and Beelzebub appear separately. Perhaps they are conflated in the films though.
The demon identifies itself as “The Devil” early in the film, but one of the priests dismisses that as a grandiose statement and takes it as an indication that the possession isn’t real.
You can’t name a girl Florida! That would be wrong!
Speaking of TV Shows, does Dragonball Z count?
A couple of underrated Hammer Films from late-60s Britain:[ul]
[li]The Devil Rides Out (1968) (aka The Devil’s Bride in the US), in which Christopher Lee plays a rare good guy in one of his best roles. He’s been quoted as saying that this is his favorite horror film (he’s presumably not counting The Wicker Man (1973) as horror, which is a valid judgment). Given the title, it’s not exactly a spoiler to say that Satan puts in an appearance at the film’s climax. [/li][li]Quatermass and the Pit (1967) (aka Five Million Years to Earth in the US):The demonic figure floating over London at the film’s climax is arguably a Satanic prototype. The backstory is that grasshopper-like Martians invaded Earth 5 million years ago, and mentally altered the proto-humans such that even though the Martian race would not be able to physically adapt to life on Earth, their memories would survive in the humans – so we are all really Martians! Hence, human myths about Devils with horns are a deeply-seated race-memory dating back to the original grasshopper aliens. Thus it might be claimed that the “Demon” of pure energy that appears in the climactic scenes, which we see as having horns, is Satanic because the canonical image of Satan is derived from the horned grasshopper-like Martians.[/ul][/li][QUOTE=FriarTed]
Any “Life of Christ” movie that includes the Temptation.
[/QUOTE]
In Jésus de Montréal (1989) (Jesus of Montreal), Daniel --the protagonist and Christ figure – is taken to the top of a skyscraper by a well-spoken lawyer who tries to become his theatrical agent by offering him the riches of the world below: “Sign Here and All This Could be Yours!”.
I submit for your consideration El Día de la Bestia, Spanish movie from 1995.
[spoiler]A rural Spanish priest, after spending 20+ years in cabalistic study of the holy texts, deduces that the antichrist is about to be born in Madrid. Decided to fight against this, he goes to the big city to try and prevent the catastrophe.
His plan, rather nebulous to tell the truth, is to contact the Devil himself and compel him to reveal his nefarious plans. First, he decides that, in order to do so, he has to commit as many “evil deeds” as possible (like keying parked cars, pushing a mime in the street, etc.). Then, he needs collaborators, and he decides to recruit, among others, a clerk from a music store specialized in Heavy Metal (everybody knows that those records are chock-full of satanic invokations when you play them backwards, right?).
Things get weird from then on.[/spoiler]
Highly recommendable, I have to say.
Just my 2 eurocent!
Marlowe’s Mephastophilis is a devil, but he’s not Satan. (But I haven’t seen the film, so I don’t know if they followed the play in that, or changed things around.)
But if we do throw in Mephistopheles when we’re not sure whether he’s supposed to be Lucifer, then Michel Simon did an excellent job in La Beauté du diable.
Best devil ever! Too bad the 9/21/01 release date screwed the movie at the box office.