Am I the only one here who thought that Satan in “Passion of the Christ” was a guy? In the beginning I couldn’t figure out the person’s sex, then settled on it being a man. I was shocked to read the credits and find out it was a woman.
And what’s was up with the baby?
Are there some legends I’m not catching?
WRS
I’m not familiar with the visions of Anne Catherine Emmerich (upon which Mel supposedly based some of the movie) so perhaps s/he appeared in those. Otherwise I’m assuming s/he was strictly imagery. I think the scene with the hairy little dwarf “baby” was supposed to be a grotesque parody of the Madonna and child. (The screenwriter, Benedict Fitzgerald, is a devotee [and is the son of close friends] of Flannery O’Connor and may have been inspired by her use of the grotesque.)
Totally goes against what most writings say of Satan, which is that he is the most beautiful of the angels. The Satan scenes didn’t work at all for me, incidentally (and I thought the maggot booger was too much by about half).
The character of Satan reminded me of Maynard James Keenan, from Tool and A Perfect Circle. I found that a little distracting, and frankly, more than a little cool.
I actually thought the depiction of Satan was pretty interesting, meant to be androgynous. I think the “maggot booger” was maybe a reference to a title sometimes given to Satan “Lord of the Flies”. I’m wondering if the festering donkey carcass, with the maggots and flies, was another aspect of Satan, tempting Judas his suicide.
As for the grotesque baby, several discussions I have been a part of all seem to think that it WAS a mockery of the incarnation.
I thought satan looked like the grim reaper from “Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey”
Festering donkey carcass? I thought it was the carcass of the second goat used in Yom Kippur rites.
One goat, labelled with “For G-d,” was sacrificed to G-d. Another goat, labelled “For Azazel,” was pushed off a cliff.
Anyway, I thought the Satan person looked cool. I liked the snake part too - although I kind of anticipated what would happen to it.
“And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel” (Genesis 3:15). I kept repeating this verse. 
WRS
I totally thought Satan was a guy, too.
Actually, she was one of the parts of the movie that didn’t really work for me, since I thought her appearances were kind of goofy, and they took me out of the moment.
Also, all I could think of was how much Satan looked like Sinead O’Connor, and that last scene of her screaming in Hell almost had me laughing out loud. But it’s a minor thing.
