This thread – http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=294394 – got me to thinking about how the End Times were reliable material for Hollywood, even before the fundies started making their own movies, like Left Behind. And, of course, you can’t have a thrilling End Times story without an Antichrist! Who’s your fave? So far they’ve given us:
Adrian Woodhouse: Introduced at the very end of Ira Levin’s 1967 novel Rosemary’s Baby and of Roman Polanski’s 1968 film of the same title. In the book, he has horns and a tail. In the movie, his only unusual physical feature is his glowing slit-pupilled eyes. These eyes seem to have turned normal by the time of the 1976 made-for-TV movie Look What’s Happened to Rosemary’s Baby (generally loathed, and as Levin was not directly involved in the project he might claim it was non-canonical.) Levin wrote a sequel, Son of Rosemary (Onyx Books 1998) which I haven’t read, but I read a review – Adrian becomes a kind of religious leader. How his character development is presented (and whether he still has those funny eyes), I don’t know.
Damien Thorne: From, of course, The Omen (1976), Damien: Omen II (1978) and The Final Conflict (1981). Adopted and raised by the American ambassador to Britain and, later, by his brother or cousin (I forget which); definitely a son (adoptive) of the American white overclass, sent to an elite military school. In the second book there was some interesting character development – Damien learning of the role he was born to play, rebelling against it, finally accepting it – that is denied to most Antichrists. His only physical stigma is a birthmark, concealed by his hair, in the shape of “666” (in Arabic numerals, which were unknown outside of India when John of Patmos wrote the Book of Revelantion).
Stone Alexander: Played by Michael York in The Omega Code (1999) and Meggido: The Omega Code II (2001) – which seem less like an original-and-sequel than two alternative treatments of the same story concept. In both, Alexander develops more along the lines of an ordinary political megalomaniac and his satanic nature does not emerge until late in the story. He appears to have been born to human parents in the normal way; I’m not clear on what qualifies him for Antichrist status – maybe Satan just picks him.
Nicolae Carpathia: From the Left Behind novels of Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins – which I haven’t read, but I have seen the films Left Behind (2000) and Left Behind II: Tribulation Force (2002). These films were made with an obvious soul-saving agenda, and the story focuses on the struggles, spiritual and otherwise, of a band of almost-Christians who missed the Rapture and regret it. Carpathia is actually a secondary character. There’s little back-story about his family or background. When we see him, a character emerges who is actually rather emotionally weak, easily angered or frustrated, and unsure of himself – because he knows it’s his time to rule but he also knows he’s doomed to lose in the end (something most Antichrists seem to conveniently forget).
Also: What are the basic rules for creating a screen Antichrist? For instance, all the four above are white, and three are American and/or British (Carpathia is a Romanian). Is that a rule you can’t break? Are physical signs necessary? What about the status and background of the Antichrist’s earthly parents? And, should the Antichrist be partway sympathetic character like Damien Thorne, or a total bastard like Nicolae Carpathia?
Even if it is for my new-found wickedness and what I’ll undoubtedly be responsible in the future. I’m famousssssss.]