Devil in the arts and popular culture
The Devil, (Satan, Lucifer, Beelzebub, Mephistopheles) appears frequently as a character in literature and various other media. In Abrahamic religions, the figure of the Devil, Satan personifies evil.[1]
A devil (lower case) is a "evil spirit, demon, fiend" (OED).
Entertainment
Music
Classical music
The Devil is featured as a character in many musical representations from the Middle Ages to modern times. Hildegard of Bingen's 11th-century Ordo Virtutum features him, as do several baroque oratorios by composers such as Carissimi and Alessandro Scarlatti. During the 19th century, Gounod's Faust, in which the Devil goes by the name Mephistopheles, was a staple of opera houses around the world.
Highly virtuosic violin music was sometimes associated with the Devil. Tartini's Devil's Trill sonata and Paganini's Devil's Laughter caprice are examples. The theme is taken up by Stravinsky in the "Devil's Dance" from The Soldier's Tale.
Other pieces that refer to the Devil are Franz Liszt's "Mephisto Walzer" and Joseph Hellmsberger II's "Teufelstanz", as well as Haydn's lost opera "Der krumme Teufel".
"Archangel of Light" (another name for Lucifer) is a title song of the classical music band with the same name, by the composer Carlos David López Grether
Popular music
- Jazz was often called the Devil's music by its critics in the 1920s.[2]
- The Rolling Stones' "Sympathy for the Devil" (1968) features Mick Jagger speaking as the Devil.
- "The Devil Went Down to Georgia" (1979) by the Charlie Daniels Band was the first modern popular song to feature a battle between the devil and a musician. The theme of battling the devil has been revisited several times in other songs.
- Black metal is a subgenre of heavy metal that is commonly associated with the devil for its use of anti-Christian lyrics and symbols commonly associated with Satanism, such as the pentagram and inverted cross.
- "N.I.B." by Black Sabbath is a song about "the Devil falling in love and totally changing becoming a good person." (Geezer Butler, 1992 documentary The Black Sabbath Story: Volume One) The song's chorus references Lucifer specifically: "..Look into my eyes, you will see who I am; My name is Lucifer, please take my hand."
- "Lucifer" is the name of a song by U.S. rapper Jay-Z from his 2003 album, The Black Album.
- The Moonspell song "Dreamless (Lilith and Lucifer)" is about a romantic relationship between Lucifer and the demoness Lilith.
- The Swedish death metal band Kaamos has an album called Lucifer Rising. There is also an album of the same name by doom metal band Candlemass.
- The band Inkubus Sukkubus has a song entitled "Lucifer Rising".
- The final song on the Behemoth album Evangelion is called "Lucifer".
- Though not directly named, Lucifer is referenced in many of the horror punk/deathrock Supergroup Son of Sam songs, particularly 'Michael' on Songs from the Earth.
- Korean boyband SHINee released a song in 2010 called "Lucifer".
- Composer Mort Garson used the pseudonym Lucifer for his 1971 Black Mass album.
- Lucifer[3] and Lewis "Cypher"[4] are pseudonyms used since 1993 by Duncan Lewis Jowitt for solo releases, including the 10-minute orchestral "Symphony For The Devil"[5] (2014).
- Rapper/hip-hop artist Immortal Technique's song "Dance With the Devil" from his Revolutionary Vol. 1 album (2001) is well known and deemed one of the greatest "story telling" rap songs of all time.
Film and television
When Satan is depicted in movies and television, he is often represented as a red-skinned man with horns or pointed ears on his head, hooves or bird-legs, a forked tail (or one with a stinger), and a pitchfork. When trying to blend in or deceive somebody, he is often represented as an ordinary human being, and sometimes only his voice is heard.
Film
Satan as a personification of evil provides many narrative opportunities. Struggles with Satan have been used to symbolize human weaknesses and temptations, as in the films Bedazzled (1967, remade 2000) and Oh, God! You Devil (1984). In horror and suspense films, Satan provides for a virtually all-powerful foe.
Film | Year | Actor | Character | Description | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Faust | 1926 | Emil Jannings | Mephisto | Faust, an old alchemist sells his soul for his youth but gets it back after he sacrifices himself. | [6] |
The Student of Prague | 1926 | Werner Krauss | Scapinelli | Balduin, a poor university student and fencer sells his soul to become more popular but ends up having to fight his doppelgänger to save it. | [7] |
The Devil and Daniel Webster | 1941 | Walter Huston | Mr. Scratch | Jabez Stone, a poor farmer sells his soul for seven years of luck and prosperity but gets it back with the help of Daniel Webster. | [8] |
Heaven Can Wait | 1943 | Laird Cregar | His Excellently | When kind playboy Henry Van Cleve dies and goes to Hell, he is not so sure whether he is evil enough to stay. | [9] |
Angel on My Shoulder | 1946 | Claude Rains | Nick | He teams up with local small time gangster Eddie Kagle to get revenge on Smiley Williams while getting him to pose as Judge Frederick Parker, who is his double. | [10] |
Alias Nick Beal | 1949 | Ray Milland | Nick Beal | A successful district attorney sells his soul to catch a mob boss and to run for governor but he gets it back with the help of his wife and local priest. | [11] |
The Story of Mankind | 1957 | Vincent Price | Mr. Scratch | He goes by the name of Mr. Scratch and opposes the Spirit of Man at a trial to determine the fate of mankind and the planet Earth in front of the High Judge when the potential of nuclear war with the H-Bomb becomes a threat to Heaven, but is stopped. | [12] |
Up In Smoke | 1957 | Byron Foulger | Mr. Bubb | Sach Jones sells his soul to the Devil in order win a horserace but gets it back when his horse loses. | [13] |
Damn Yankees | 1958 | Ray Walston | Mr. Applegate | "Mr. Applegate" bargains with a middle-aged baseball fan to give him youth and prowess in baseball in exchange for his soul, but he gets it back in the end. | [14] |
The Devil's Messenger | 1961 | Lon Chaney Jr. | Satan | Although not actually referred to by name, Chaney's character is Satan in this anthology film edited together from three episodes of the TV series 13 Demon Street with new wraparound scenes, set in Hell to link the chosen episodes, in which Satan sends out his chosen servant Satanya (Karen Kadler) on missions. | [15] |
The Greatest Story Ever Told | 1965 | Donald Pleasence | The Dark Hermit | Satan tries to tempt Jesus into worshiping him but fails. | [16] |
Rosemary's Baby | 1968 | The Devil | Rosemary Woodhouse is raped by the Devil and gives birth to the Antichrist. | [17] | |
Satan's Triangle | 1975 | Kim Novak, Alejandro Rey, Doug McClure | A made-for-TV film in which at the film's climax it is revealed that the Devil assumes different guises and bodies to trap people who have strayed into the Bermuda Triangle. | [18] | |
The Omen (film series) | 1976 | Various | Damien Thorn | In which Satan's son Damien Thorn is the Antichrist. | [19] |
The Devil and Max Devlin | 1981 | Bill Cosby | Barney Satin | In which Satan makes a Faustian pact with Max Devlin to deliver three innocent people to Hell in exchange for longer life. | [20] |
Legend | 1985 | Tim Curry | Darkness | In which Satan is represented by the Lord of Darkness, who threatens to destroy all mankind and enter the Earth into an eternal Ice Age. | |
Crossroads | 1986 | Robert Judd | Scratch | The Devil is portrayed as a trickster who takes souls in exchange for unparalleled musical prowess, a la Faust. | [21] |
Angel Heart | 1987 | Robert De Niro | The Devil | In which the character "Louis Cypher", a play on the name "Lucifer", is revealed to be the Devil at the end of the film. | [22] |
Prince of Darkness | 1987 | The Devil | In which the Devil has stored his essence in a container and attempts to break to the world through a mirror, seen only in the end. | [23] | |
The Witches of Eastwick | 1987 | Jack Nicholson | Daryl Van Horne | Three women who are unaware of the power they possess, unknowingly summon what they consider to be the perfect man. He seduces all three of them and their lives dramatically improve. But, when they attempt to distance themselves, they see their worst fears materialize. The film does not directly refer to the man as the Devil, but it is strongly implied. | |
The Last Temptation of Christ | 1988 | Leo Marks (voice) | Satan shows Jesus a world in which he was never crucified but is defeated. | ||
The Phantom of the Opera | 1989 | John Ghavan | Dwarf | Erik Destler sells his soul so that the world would love his music. In return the Devil scars his face so that he can never be loved. | |
We Are Not Angels | 1992 | Srđan Todorović | The Devil | A comedy film in which the Devil fights the Angel (played by Uroš Đurić) for the soul of the Belgrade playboy (Nikola Kojo), who is unaware that he impregnated a high school student. | |
Needful Things | 1993 | Max von Sydow | Leland Gaunt | Based on Stephen King's novel of the same name, the film depicts the character of "Leland Gaunt" as the Devil himself, who opens a new antiques store in Castle Rock, Maine by the name of "Needful Things". | [24] |
The Prophecy | 1995 | Viggo Mortensen | Lucifer | Lucifer attempts to prevent Gabriel from triggering an angelic civil war that will create a new Hell to 'compete' with Lucifer's own. | [25] |
The Devil's Advocate | 1997 | Al Pacino | John Milton | John Milton — a reference to Paradise Lost — who is ultimately revealed to be Satan in human form, manipulates his son (Keanu Reeves), a criminal attorney who is ignorant of his true parentage, to accept his demonic heritage. In one of the plot where Milton loses by deception, you can see his fall hinting at the "Ancient Legend". This means that Lucifer was an angel until he was expelled to hell. | [26] |
The Ninth Gate | 1999 | A trio of 17th century books feature engravings supposedly created by Lucifer; legend states that the nine correct engravings, when brought together, reveal an inscription that will summon the Devil. | [27] | ||
End of Days | 1999 | Gabriel Byrne | Satan | Satan is the main villain, portrayed as a malignant, invisible force that takes possession of a businessman in order to conceive the Antichrist before the turn of the millennium, only to find himself opposed by an atheist ex-cop–turned–private–security–guard when he attempts to capture and rape the young woman who was prophesied to become his bride. | [28] |
Little Nicky | 2000 | Rodney Dangerfield | Lucifer | Lucifer is the father of Satan and preparing to retire as ruler of Hell; he is presented as a sympathetic character more interested in maintaining balance than actually taking over the world. | [29] |
Bedazzled | 2000 | Elizabeth Hurley | The Devil | Hopeless dweeb Elliot Richards is granted seven wishes by the Devil to snare Allison, the girl of his dreams, in exchange for his soul. | [30] |
The Crow: Wicked Prayer | 2001 | David Boreanaz | Satan | Luc "Death" Crash (a Satanic cult leader), is possessed by Lucifer (here called Satan) and wishes to jumpstart the Apocalypse by impregnating Crash's fiancée Lola Byrne (who is also a part of the cult) with the Antichrist, but is distracted by Jimmy Cuervo. The sun rises before Lola can be impregnated, and Jimmy impales Crash on a spike and slits his throat. Lucifer is sent back to Hell following his host's death. | [31] |
The Passion of the Christ | 2004 | Rosalinda Celentano | Satan | Satan is portrayed by a woman as a ghost-like figure with a more androgynous appearance than the traditional image of a red-skinned, horned satyr-like monster. She is implied to be the mastermind behind the Pharisees' plot to kill Jesus and also the one who influenced Judas' betrayal. In the film, Satan tries to distract Jesus while he prays at Gethsemane, watches sadistically (while holding a demonic child) as Jesus is whipped 39 times with the cat-o-nine-tails, and follows Jesus through the crowd as He walks to his death. She also sends several of her demons to torment Judas after the 12th disciple betrays Jesus, which leads to his suicide by hanging from the rope used to lead the donkey that carried Jesus to Jerusalem. After Jesus' death and the destruction of the Temple (as Jesus had prophesied), Satan returns to Hell and screams in agony at her defeat. | [32] |
Constantine | 2005 | Peter Stormare | Lucifer | Lucifer makes an appearance after being summoned by John Constantine to prevent Mammon from entering the human world, stating that he prefers waiting for humanity to damn itself rather than Mammon's plan to condemn the world to Hell himself; he later removes the source of Constantine's lung cancer to give the redeemed Constantine another chance to prove that he belongs in Hell after Constantine sacrifices a chance to save his own life to ask Satan to release someone else from Hell. | [33] |
Ghost Rider | 2007 | Peter Fonda | Mephistopheles | Mephistopheles sets everything in the film into motion, making deals for souls. Desperate to get back one contract for 1,000 souls before his son Blackheart does, he calls in the marker he has on daredevil Johnny Blaze in exchange for curing his father's cancer, turning him into his bounty hunter. | |
Drive Angry | 2011 | Satan | Satan only features as a behind-the-scenes figure in this film, dispatching the mysterious Accountant to stop John Milton after he escapes from Hell to save his baby granddaughter from being sacrificed by a ruthless cult. However, when he learns about the plan to sacrifice the baby, Satan has the Accountant give Milton the chance to stop the sacrifice, stating that Satan is more the warden of a very large prison rather than the personification of evil, and is actually against the sacrifice of innocents in his name. | ||
The Devil's Carnival | 2012 | Terrance Zdunich | Lucifer | Lucifer is the leader of a carnival occupied by demons portrayed as carnies, which three sinners must go through; God is depicted as the enemy of Lucifer. | [34] |
This Is the End | 2013 | Satan | Satan is portrayed as an enormous seven-headed creature with magma-like skin. | ||
Rosemary's Baby | 2014 | The Devil | TV miniseries remake of Rosemary's Baby. | ||
The Witch | 2015 | Charlie (Goat)
Daniel Wahab Chaudhry |
Black Phillip / Satan | Francesco Maria Guazzo illustrates a typical sabbath as "the attendants riding flying goats, trampling the cross, and being re-baptised in the name of the Devil while giving their clothes to him, kissing his behind, and dancing back to back forming a round".
In the final scene Thomasin wanders naked into the forest with Black Phillip, again incarnated as a goat, where she discovers a coven of witches dancing around a bonfire. The witches begin to levitate and a laughing Thomasin joins them above the trees. |
Television
TV Show | Year | Actor | Character | Description | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
The Twilight Zone | 1961 | Vaughn Taylor | Teague | He poses as a warlock named Teague who tries to convince, Sgt. Joseph Paradine into freezing the Union Army so that the Confederacy can win the American Civil War. However, after his death, Paradine burns the book and marches onto Gettysburg. | |
Battlestar Galactica | 1978 | Patrick Macnee | Count Iblis | In the 1978 sci-fi TV series Battlestar Galactica, the two-part episode "War Of The Gods" features a character very much like the Devil who is portrayed by Patrick Macnee. His name is Count Iblis — Iblis being the Islamic name of the Devil. | |
Fantasy Island | 1980-1981 | Roddy McDowall | Mephistopheles | Roddy McDowall appears twice as Mr. Roarke's supernatural nemesis Mephistopheles, who is determined to defeat Mr. Roarke and claim his soul, first in "The Devil and Mandy Bream" in which a woman has sold her own soul to the Devil to save her husband's life and then in "Devil and Mr. Roarke" in which Mephistopheles uses Mr. Roarke's assistant Julie to force Roarke into another confrontation. | |
Highway to Heaven | 1985 | Michael Berryman | The Devil | After Mark is involved in a car-bicycle accident that seriously injures a 5-year-old boy, a despondent Mark is tricked into selling his soul. Jonathan risks his own soul by recruiting a con artist to help Mark get over his self-pity and get past what happened, but the Devil and his own earthly cohort have plans of their own to acquire Jonathan's wings. The Devil makes a cameo appearance in the later Halloween episode "I Was A Middle-Aged Werewolf" in which he sells Mark a special sandwich. | |
Northern Exposure | 1991 | The Devil | Northern Exposure season 3 episode 5 "Jules et Joel" features an adult male Halloween trick-or-treater dressed as the Devil who demands Joel Fleishman give him a treat, which he refuses to do. The man sprays Joel with silly string and runs off, being chased by Joel who does not make it past his porch before running into a support and getting knocked out. | ||
Star Trek: The Next Generation | 1991 | Satan | The Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "Devil's Due" includes a character pretending to be Satan with both the traditional image and the Klingon version. Throughout the episode, she appears in a default form of an attractive mischievous woman. She is eventually revealed to be a con artist attempting to exploit a planet's mythology to take control of it. | ||
Touched by an Angel | 1994 | Various | Satan | Touched by an Angel has Satan occasionally appear in the guise of a human being. Each time, he manipulates people around him in an attempt to thwart the angels Monica, Tess and Andrew in their efforts to work for God. John Schneider, Todd Rulapaugh and Mandy Patinkin each portrayed Satan in one episode, and David Ogden Stiers appeared as Satan in the two-episode series finale. | |
Stargate SG-1 | 1997 | David Palffy | Sokar | Stargate SG-1 has an alien character, Sokar, who adopts the persona of Satan, possessing a great army with which he wants to take control of all other System Lords, and ultimately of the galaxy itself. He creates his own Hell on Ne'tu, the satellite of his homeworld, where he sends his enemies for torture and punishment. | |
Brimstone | 1998 | John Glover | Lucifer | John Glover portrayed the Fallen Angel Lucifer in the short-lived series Brimstone. | |
The Powerpuff Girls | 1998 | Tom Kane | HIM | HIM is a powerful, flamboyant demon and a reoccurring antagonist in the series. He is strongly implied to be the series representation of the Devil. | |
Jesus | 1999 | Jeroen Krabbé Manuela Ruggeri |
Satan | The Devil tries to tempt Jesus but fails in two different forms. | |
Angels in the Infield | 2000 | Colin Fox | The Devil | The Devil is the main antagonist of the film. | |
Xena: Warrior Princess | 2000 | Zeus Mendoza | Lucifer | Xena: Warrior Princess season 6 episode "Heart of Darkness" shows Lucifer as a fallen archangel after Xena causes him to commit all seven deadly sins. After his transformation into Satan, she promptly shoves him into a portal to Hell, taking the place of the former leader of Hell, Mephistopheles, whom Xena has killed. | |
The Collector | 2004-2006 | Various | The Devil | The Collector has the Devil as a major antagonist, portrayed by a different actor in each episode. To identify him (or her) to the viewer, his eyes appear to fill with fire at times. | |
Reefer Madness | 2005 | John Mann | Satan | The Devil is shown as a minor character in the film. | |
Doctor Who | 2006 | The Beast | The two-part Doctor Who story "The Impossible Planet"/"The Satan Pit" features a version of the Devil called "the Beast", who claims to have served as a subconscious basis for devil-like entities in religions throughout the universe. This depiction places more emphasis on the Devil's monstrous appearance, depicting him as a gargantuan, red-skinned beast with horns and a skeletal face. | ||
Fallen | 2006 | Bryan Cranston | Lucifer | Fallen, the ABC Family trilogy, shows Lucifer as a major character. | |
Reaper | 2007 | Ray Wise | Satan | Reaper portrays Satan (played by Ray Wise) as a smooth-talking gentleman, often with a jocular manner, making contact with Sam Oliver to inform Sam of his missions as Satan's bounty hunter due to a deal his parents made prior to his conception. | |
Supernatural | 2007–2018 | Mark Pellegrino[35] Jared Padalecki[36] | Lucifer | Lucifer is stated to be the god of the demons in the season 3 episode "Sin City", later stories revealing that he created the first demon by corrupting a human soul as part of his rebellion against God. He is presented as less evil and more of a tragic villain, claiming that he was condemned to Hell because he defied God's commandment to love humanity over him and claiming that their actions since he fell have merely proven him correct in his disdain of them. The archangel Gabriel and Death both dispute this, saying that humans replaced Lucifer as God's favorite and describe his rebellion as nothing more than a temper tantrum of the former favorite child complaining that 'Daddy' (God) preferred 'the new baby' (humanity) more. He served as the main antagonist in the show's fifth season after he was released from Hell, attempting to take protagonist Sam Winchester as his vessel so that he could battle his brother Michael and fulfil his role in the Apocalypse, but he was eventually returned to his cage. He is released again in the eleventh season when he convinces the brothers that he is their best chance at defeating their new foe, Amara-essentially God's 'sister'-but after Amara departs, Lucifer revels in chaos and death until he is banished after taking the President as a vessel. Lucifer is eventually banished to a parallel universe following the birth of his Nephilim child, Jack Kline, and forms a back-and-forth 'alliance' with the Winchesters in the 13th season to oppose the Michael of that parallel world, until he is finally killed when Dean Winchester agrees to act as the vessel for the alternate Michael after Lucifer recharges himself with Jack's grace. | |
Torchwood | 2007 | Abaddon | Torchwood episode "End of Days" features a gigantic demonic being named Abaddon, called the "Son of the Great Beast" (a reference to the aforementioned Doctor Who episodes). Abaddon kills people by casting his shadow over them to absorb their life energy, which becomes his downfall when he absorbs the immortal Captain Jack Harkness and chokes to death on him. | ||
Ashes to Ashes | 2008 | Daniel Mays | Jim Keats | The third series of Ashes to Ashes introduces the character Jim Keats (played by Daniel Mays), a Discipline and Complaints officer sent to audit the Fenchurch East police station. Fenchurch East is revealed as a Purgatory for police officers, with Gene Hunt essentially acting as an "archangel" saving souls and sending them to Heaven, and Keats as the Devil taking souls to Hell. | |
Your Pretty Face Is Going to Hell | 2011 | Matt Servitto | "Satan", a.k.a. Darren Farley | Originally presented as the Satan, who rules all of Hell, in seasons 1-2, in season 3 it is revealed that he is a mortal by the name of Darren Farley, Senior Vice President of the 11th Circle of Hell, "Miscellaneous". Farley rose up the demon ranks to middle management, and that "Satan" is a title given by the real Satan to such subordinates. | |
Being Human | 2013 | Phil Davis | Captain Hatch / the Devil | The fifth season of BBC supernatural drama Being Human reveals that the Devil was trapped in a human form in 1918 as part of a plan to kill him—the devil having apparently triggered the First World War as part of a plan to provoke a vampire/werewolf conflict so that he could feed on the resulting energy—but the ritual was disrupted, and the Devil was bound but not completely weakened or killed. Surviving into the present day, the Devil attempts to manipulate Hal Yorke (the vampire who originally participated in the ritual to bind him) and Tom McNair (a werewolf who now shares a house with Hal) into conflict with each other so that he can feed on the energy they create. Although he eventually gains enough power to manifest his full powers, he is seemingly killed in the series finale when Hal, Tom and their ghost friend Alex Millar perform the binding ritual once more, the Devil's death apparently restoring them to humanity (although other evidence hints that this may be another illusion). | |
Rick and Morty | 2014 | Alfred Molina | Mr. Lucius Needful | In the episode "Something Ricked This Way Comes" (2014) of the science fiction comedy television series a character "Summer" reports to her first job: in an antique shop, run by the Devil, that sells items that fulfill a desire for the owner but come at a price, making the item essentially worthless (the shop and the Devil's name, Mr. Needful, are both references and parodies of the Stephen King novel Needful Things). During the episode a protagonist "Rick" sets up a competitive counter-business across the street that removes the curses and runs the Devil out of business. The devil is so dismayed that he tries to kill himself, but Summer finds himself in the middle of his suicide attempt and revives him. They relaunch with a new dot-com company that becomes wildly successful. As it turns out, the Devil had no plans to include Summer in reaping the profits and has her hauled off by security. Betrayed by the Devil, she and Rick build muscle mass to get physical revenge. | |
Salem | 2014–2017 | Oliver Bell | Samael | The Devil makes pacts with witches in exchange for diabolical power. The coven eventually brings the Devil to Earth by having him possess the body of a young boy. | |
The Messengers | 2015 | Diogo Morgado | The Man | The Messengers shows the Devil as a major antagonist. | |
Lucifer | 2015- | Tom Ellis | Lucifer Morningstar / Samael | God's most powerful son and archangel, Samael, falls into Hell and becomes the Devil and the punisher of evil for all eternity after his rebellion against his Father. Now known as Lucifer Morningstar, he abdicates his role from the underworld and moves to Los Angeles as the owner of the nightclub Lux. His brother, Amenadiel, consistently pursues Lucifer to return to Hell and do his job, but he only shrugs it off and expresses that he does not want what their Father has "forced" him to do. Lucifer cuts off his angel wings to show his anger for God, however, he does not want to be completely removed of his angel identity despite being the Devil. One day, a celebrity and close friend was killed in front of him, forcing him to team up with the Los Angeles Police Department, and later the official consultant and partner of Detective Chloe Decker. | |
The Vampire Diaries | 2016 | Wolé Parks | Arcadius / Cade | Cade is ruler of hell, also known as the Devil. In the series, he moves to Earth, specifically in Mystic Falls, to take souls of "the worst of the worst." Tasking 2 sister sirens to do the job of killing humans who have done extremely terrible things, Cade takes the souls of those who are assigned to do their jobs, making them completely unkillable. He threatens to destroy the entirety of Mystic Falls by releasing hell fire. | |
The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina | 2019 | Luke Cook | Lucifer Moringstar | ||
Good Omens | 2019 | Niall Greig Fulton Benedict Cumberbatch (voice) |
Satan | ||
Animation
The Devil has been a popular recurring character in many animated films, either theatrical shorts, animated TV series and/or in the anime genre. When a character has to take a moral choice a tiny-sized angel and devil often appear on both sides of his shoulders, representing the two possible choices he can take: the "good" path or the "bad" one. Demon-like characters have been featured as an occasional character in several animated series, either under the name Satan or as the Devil. When the Hays Code censorship was still in effect between the mid-1930s to the mid-1960s the Devil sometimes went nameless or received a different name referring to diabolical characters from other mythologies to avoid offending religious viewers. Examples of this practice are for instance Chernobog in Fantasia or the description of Hell as Hades in the Looney Tunes short Satan's Waitin' (1954). Even though these demons and their environment were not specifically identified as Satan and Hell, viewers still would make the connection based on the visual representation. Another way to avoid connotations with Satan was to make the demonic character an anthropomorphic cartoon animal.
Film / TV episode | Year | Animation director/ studio | Description |
---|---|---|---|
Hell's Bells | 1929 | Walt Disney Company | In this cartoon a demon named Hades gathers all devils to Hell for a wild party. His three-headed dog named Cerberus (a character from Greek mythology) also appears. |
Red Hot Mamma | 1934 | Fleischer Studios | In this Betty Boop cartoon Betty enters the underworld where she sings "Hell's Bells' for Satan and his minions and makes Hell literally freeze over. |
Pluto's Judgement Day | 1935 | Walt Disney Company | Pluto is send off to a Hell-like place where cats put him on trial and torture him for all the crimes he ever committed against cats. One cat wears a red robe and leads the proceedings, heavily implying that he is the Devil himself. At the end of the cartoon it turns out to have all been a dream. |
Sunday Go to Meetin' Time | 1936 | Warner Bros. cartoons | In this Merrie Melodies cartoon a black man, Nicodemus, dreams that he is sent off to Hell for stealing chickens. Once again Hell and the Devil are described as the "Hades Court of Justice". |
Donald's Better Self | 1938 | Walt Disney Company | Donald Duck is guided by his good and evil conscience on his way to school. Both characters are represented as an angel and a demon who share a physical resemblance to him. At first Donald listens to the demon, but in the end the angel triumphs again. |
Fantasia | 1940 | Walt Disney Company | In the segment Night on Bald Mountain set to the eponymous orchestral piece by Modest Mussorgsky a character intended to be Satan (and indeed introduced as Satan in the introduction to the segment by Deems Taylor) gathers all demons together for a Black Mass. To avoid offending Christian viewers the character was later officially named after Chernobog, from Slavic mythology. |
Donald's Decision | 1942 | Walt Disney Company | In this World War Two propaganda cartoon Donald Duck is guided by his good and evil conscience in his choice of buying war bonds. The cartoon re-uses footage in some scenes from the 1938 short Donald's Better Self. |
Heavenly Puss | 1949 | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer cartoon studio | In this Tom & Jerry short Tom will be sent to Hell if he does not manage to make Jerry sign a certificate of forgiveness. The Devil in this cartoon is depicted as Spike the Bulldog. In the end everything turns out to have been a dream. |
Satan's Waitin' | 1954 | Warner Bros. Cartoons | In this Tweety and Sylvester cartoon a Satanic bulldog, hoping to acquire the cat's nine lives, goads Sylvester the Cat into chasing his prey, Tweety, into a number of violent situations. |
The Hole Idea | 1955 | Warner Bros. Cartoons | In this Looney Tunes cartoon, Calvin Q. Calculus, a scientist with a nagging wife, invents portable holes. At the end of the cartoon he throws her into one of them, causing her to end up in Hell. Satan then throws her back and replies: "Isn't it bad enough down here without her?" |
Devil's Feud Cake | 1963 | Warner Bros. Cartoons | A Bugs Bunny and Yosemite Sam short in which Yosemite is sent off to Hell. There Satan gives Sam several opportunities to bring Bugs to Hell, in exchange for Sam's own soul. |
The Adventures of Mark Twain | 1985 | Will Vinton | One segment of the film, based on Mark Twain's short story "The Mysterious Stranger", has the protagonists meet an angel who introduces himself as Satan. He has the children create a little city with people from clay, which he then brings to life and eventually destroys again. |
Bart Gets Hit by a Car | 1991 | The Simpsons | At the start of the episode Bart falls into a coma and dreams he has died. As he goes up on the Heavenly escalator he spits over the side, despite being told not to do so and as a result is send off to Hell. There he is greeted by the Devil who eventually sends him back to Earth after a quick computer check which learns him that Bart has entered Hell too early in his life. This version of the Devil depicts him in the traditional way, as a goat-like character with a pitchfork. He would return in brief cameos in the episodes Homer vs. Lisa and the 8th Commandment (1991) and Rosebud (1993). |
Treehouse of Horror IV | 1993 | The Simpsons | In the first segment, The Devil and Homer Simpson, Homer sells his soul for a donut to the Devil, who is revealed to be his Christian neighbour Ned Flanders, since "it's always the one you least suspect." |
The Devil | 1993 | The Nightmare Before Christmas | The Devil is one of the residents of Halloween Town, unlike other demons, this version was depicted as a hero. |
The Red Guy | 1997-1999 | Cow and Chicken | The Red Guy is the recurring antagonist in the series. He is a red demon who often tries to trick the main protagonists. |
Satan | 1998 | South Park | Satan is a recurring character in the series and made his first appearance in the episode Damien. Several episodes and the 1999 film adaptation, South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut (1999), depict him as a sensitive and emotionally vulnerable person. |
The Robot Devil | 1999 | Futurama | In the episode Hell Is Other Robots (1999) it turns out there is a Robot Hell in New Jersey, where the Robot Devil resides. He would become a recurring character in several other episodes, playing major roles in the episodes The Devil's Hands Are Idle Playthings (2003) and Ghost in the Machines (2011). |
The Devil | 1999 | The God & Devil Show | The Devil was a recurring character in this Adobe Flash Internet cartoon series and was depicted as a promiscuous woman. |
The Devil | 2000 | God, the Devil and Bob | An animated sitcom which was prematurely cancelled after offending too many religious viewers. In the series God (depicted as a hippie) and the Devil make a bet over whether Earth is worth saving. The Devil is depicted as being jealous of God and often feels that He does not respect him enough. The Devil also has a small sidekick-demon named Smeck. |
Treehouse of Horror XI | 2000 | The Simpsons | In the first segment, G-G-Ghost D-D-Dad, Homer ends up in Hell where he is tortured by a muscular devil. |
Treehouse of Horror XXV | 2014 | The Simpsons | In the first segment, School Is Hell, Bart spents school in literal Hell, where the Devil also resides. |
Lucifer Magne,Satan,and Beazlebub | 2019 | Hazbin Hotel | Lucifer appears as the king of Hell and the husband of Lilith as well as the father of Charlie. Satan and Beezlebub appear as separate entites. |
Anime and manga
- The Devil Is a Part-Timer! (はたらく魔王さま!, Hataraku Maō-sama!); the main protagonist of anime and manga series is Satan Jacob ("Sadao Maou"). Lucifer also appears in the series as a separate character.
- Blue Exorcist Lucifer is one of the Eight Demon Kings and also the strongest among all of them in the story. He is also the leader of the group 'Illuminati', who researches immortality to find a way to create a strong host for Lucifer to possess.
- Demon Lord Dante (魔王ダンテ, Maō Dante), Demon Lord Satan helps Dante in his battle against God and his angels.
- Devilman, Satan, an angel who formerly served God, defects to the side of the demons and leads a war against his old master, but loses. As part of a plan to resume the war in the future, he has his memories suppressed and his army frozen in ice. After having his memories suppressed, he assumes the identity of a young man named Ryo Asuka, who leads Akira Fudo on the route to becoming a Devilman.
- Digimon, known as Lucemon and one of the franchise's Seven Great Demon Lords, is based upon Lucifer; this character's backstory is similar to Lucifer's fall from grace. Digimon possesses numerous forms of increasing power, including his Chaos/Falldown Mode, Shadow Lord/Satan mode, and Larva Mode.
- High School DxD, a teenage boy named Issei Hyodou is murdered by his girlfriend, a fallen angel, and reincarnated into a devil by Rias Gremory. Issei's archrival Vali is a cambion descended from the Devil King Lucifer.
- Metalocalypse episode "Dethreligion" has William Murderface joins the Church of Satan after nearly dying in a drunk driving accident. During a mass, one of the priests tries to summon Lucifer, along with Belial, Beelzebub, and Mephistophiles, by shouting out their names in an obnoxious, loud tone. He later appears along with the other three demon lords (with only his arm visible) to murder the church members and its inhabitants.
- Beelzebub (manga); The Devil King's child is watched over by the Tatsumi Oga until he is old enough to rule Hell.
- Mobile Fighter G Gundam The word, "Devil" was used on the Devil Gundam, which the name is changed to "Dark Gundam" in the English Dub, due to Sunrise's fears about Christian-related/Bible references, since the God Gundam was changed into "Burning Gundam".
- Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters Zorc Necrophades the Dark One, was resurrected by combining the Millennium Items back together, which even resembles a Demon of hell, (in the dub, he is the ruler of the Shadow Realm) and it had a Dragon Head on its crotch.
Radio
The BBC Radio 4 comedy show Old Harry's Game features Andy Hamilton in the leading role as Satan; in the first episode of Series Six, Satan states that he has gone by many names over the centuries including Beelzebub, Mephistopheles, Old Nick, Old Harry and Simon Cowell (one of his Satanic guises).
David Suchet played Satan in a radio adaptation of the play The Devil's Passion by Justin Butcher, broadcast on 3 December 2017.[37]
Literature
Many writers have incorporated the character of Satan into their works. Among them are, in chronological order:
- Dante Alighieri's Inferno (1321)
- Christopher Marlowe's Doctor Faustus (1604)
- Joost van den Vondel's Lucifer (1654)
- John Milton's Paradise Lost (1667)
- Alain-René Lesage's The Devil on Two Sticks (1707)[38]
- Jacques Cazotte's The Devil in Love (Le Diable amoureux) (1772)[38]
- William Beckford's Vathek[39]
- William Blake's The Marriage of Heaven and Hell (1790–1793)
- Matthew Lewis The Monk (1796)
- The Brothers Grimm's The Smith and the Devil (1812)[40]
- Johann Wolfgang Goethe's Faust (Part 1, 1808; Part 2, 1832)
- James Hogg's The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner (1824)
- Alexander Pushkin's A scene from Faust (1830)
- Edward Bulwer-Lytton's Asmodeus At Large (1833)[38]
- Nathaniel Hawthorne's Young Goodman Brown (1835)
- Mikhail Lermontov's The Devil (1842)
- Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter (1850)
- Charles Baudelaire's Litanies of Satan (1857)
- Imre Madách's The Tragedy of Man (1862)
- Jules Michelet's Satanism and Witchcraft (1862)
- Giosuè Carducci's Hymn to Satan (1865)
- Henrik Ibsen's Peer Gynt (1867)
- Gustave Flaubert's The Temptation of Saint Anthony (1874)
- Fyodor Dostoyevsky's The Brothers Karamazov (1880)
- Robert Louis Stevenson's Markheim (1885)
- Leo Tolstoy's How Much Land Does a Man Need? (1886)
- Mark Twain's A Pen Warmed Up in Hell (1889)
- Joris-Karl Huysmans's Là-bas (1891)
- Marie Corelli's The Sorrows of Satan (1896)
- Robert Buchanan's The Devil's Case (1896)
- George Bernard Shaw's The Devil's Disciple (1901)
- George Bernard Shaw's Man and Superman (1903)
- Ferenc Molnár's The Devil (play) (1907)[38]
- Mark Twain's Letters from the Earth (1909)
- Aleister Crowley's Hymn to Satan (1913)
- Anatole France's The Revolt of the Angels (1914)
- Mark Twain's The Mysterious Stranger (1916)
- James Branch Cabell's Jurgen, A Comedy of Justice (1919)[41]
- Aleister Crowley's Hymn to Lucifer (1919)
- Aleister Crowley's Liber Samekh
- E. Hoffmann Price's The Stranger From Kurdistan (1925)[41]
- Frederic Arnold Kummer's Ladies in Hades (1928)[41]
- Carl Heinrich's Orphan of Eternity (1929)[38]
- Theodora Du Bois' The Devil's Spoon (1930)[42]
- Sherard Vines' Return, Belphegor! (1932)[38]
- William Gerhardie's Memoirs of Satan (1932, reprint edition by Faber and Faber, 2011. ISBN 978-0-5712-4719-6)[38]
- John Collier's The Devil and All (1934)[41]
- "Murray Constantine's" (Katharine Burdekin) The Devil, Poor Devil! (1934)[38]
- Stephen Vincent Benét's The Devil and Daniel Webster (1937)
- C. S. Lewis's The Screwtape Letters (1942)
- Alfred Bester's Hell is Forever (1942)[43]
- Lord Dunsany's A Deal With the Devil (1946)[41]
- Thomas Mann's Doktor Faustus (1947)
- James Branch Cabell's The Devil's Own Dear Son (1949)[41]
- David H. Keller's The Devil and the Doctor (1949)[41]
- George Ivanovich Gurdjieff's An Objectively Impartial Criticism of the Life of Man or Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson: volume one of the All and Everything trilogy (1950)
- Robert Nathan's The Innocent Eve 1951[38]
- William Golding's Lord of the Flies (1954)
- Douglass Wallop's The Year the Yankees Lost the Pennant (1954) -- source of the musical and film Damn Yankees
- Alfred Noyes' The Devil Takes a Holiday (1955)
- Basil Davenport, Deals With the Devil (anthology) (1958)
- Robert Bloch's That Hell-Bound Train (1959)
- Arthur Calder-Marshall's The Fair to Middling (1959)[38]
- Mikhail Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita (1966)
- William Peter Blatty's The Exorcist (1971)
- Harlan Ellison's The Deathbird (1974)
- Natalie Babbitt's The Devil's Storybook (1974)[38]
- Michael Moorcock's The War Hound and the World's Pain (1981)
- Jeremy Leven's Satan (1982)[38]
- Margit Sandemo's The Legend of the Ice People series (1982-1989)
- Piers Anthony's Incarnations of Immortality series (1983–1990)
- Robert A. Heinlein's Job: A Comedy of Justice (1984)
- Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian (1985)
- Isaac Asimov's Magical Worlds of Fantasy #8: Devils, an anthology of 18 fantasy short stories edited by Isaac Asimov, Martin H. Greenburg, and Charles Waugh (1987)
- Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett's Good Omens (1990)
- Stephen King's "The Man in the Black Suit" (1994)
- Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials (1995)
- Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins's Left Behind series (1995–present)
- Anne Rice's Memnoch the Devil (1996)
- Michael Swanwick's Jack Faust (1997)[41]
- Andrew W. Marlowe's The End of Days (1999)
- Steven Brust's To Reign in Hell: A Novel (2000)
- Eoin Colfer's The Wish List (2000)
- Jeri Smith-Ready's Requiem for the Devil (2001)
- David Weber and John Ringo's Empire of Man (2001–2005)
- John A. De Vito's The Devil's Apocrypha (2002)
- Sherrilyn Kenyon's Dark-Hunter series (2002–present)
- Anne Bishop's The Black Jewels (2003)
- Glen Duncan's I, Lucifer (2003)
- Catherine Webb's Waywalkers (2003)[38]
- Thomas E. Sniegoski's The Fallen (2003-2004)
- Bryan Davis's Dragons In Our Midst (2004-2005)
- Bryan Davis's Oracles of Fire (2006-2009)
- Melissa De La Cruz's Blue Bloods series (2006-2013)
- Sean Vincent Lehosit's Lucifer and Lacious (2007)
- Jeff Rovin's Conversations with the Devil (2007)
- Robert Seger's The Father of All Lies (2009)
- Lauren Kate's Fallen series (2009-2012)
- Richard Kadrey's Sandman Slim (2009) and the sequel Kill the Dead (2010)
- Joe Hill's Horns (2010)
- Aiden Truss's Gape (2013)
- Kat Daemon's Taming Darkness (2014)
- Clive Barker's The Scarlet Gospels (2015)
- Tony Vilgotsky's Shepherd of the Dead (2018)
- Beyond13 Reaper's The Midnight Murder Series: Pieces (2018)
Comics
In DC and Vertigo comics, the Devil is represented by Lucifer "Samael" Morningstar, the Fallen Angel, former ruler of Hell, and leader of the Unholy Trinity - although other figures, such as Neron and the First of the Fallen, sometimes portray the devil. It is the same Lucifer Morningstar from the Netflix series Lucifer. In Underworld Unleashed, Neron gives enhanced powers to numerous supervillains. Darkseid is also associated with the Devil in the forms of Lucifer, Hades, the Greek God of the underworld, and the Hindu goddess Kali.
In some Marvel Comics publications, a "Lucifer" has been mentioned as being a Hell-lord with the same "fallen from Heaven" backstory. In the Ghost Rider series, Johnny Blaze faces a demon who claims to be Lucifer. In other Marvel plotlines, several high-level demons, such as Mephisto, Azazel, Marduk Kurios, and Satannish, have claimed to be the biblical Satan. In Marvel Comics, the Norse trickster-god Loki is shown as the main adversary of his adopted brother Thor and a common enemy of both Earth and Asgard. Although Loki has conjured up somewhat demonic magic, he is not a demon, but a misshapen frost giant. Among the characters related to Norse mythology, the fire giant Surtur is more reminiscent of a demon. The Egyptian demon-god Seth and the Japanese demon-god Amatsu-Mikaboshi have Satan-like roles in Marvel Comics.
Satan is a main character in the manga Devilman by Go Nagai.
Jio Freed, the main character from the manga, O-Parts Hunter, contains Satan,[44] the most powerful demon in the series.
In the manga series Bastard‼: Heavy Metal, Dark Fantasy by Kazushi Hagiwara, Satan appears as a large monster that has destroyed the Milky Way Galaxy by flying across it. Satan also helps Dark Schneider by telling him that he is a major part of the end times prophecy, who will lead demons and mankind to war against God and his army.
In the Image Comics comic book series Spawn, Satan is depicted as the twin brother of God. Both God and Satan are depicted as having squandered their powers as creator gods in endless fighting and were punished for it by the Mother of Creation. In the resurrection one shot and the later issues, God was now more benevolent and less hostile while Satan was still the Supreme ruler of Hell and the third primary antagonist of the series the first being Malebolgia and the second being Mammon.
The title character of Johnny the Homicidal Maniac is sent to Hell and has an extensive conversation with Señor Diablo (Spanish for Mr. Devil). In the spinoff series Squee!, the Devil is married to a Christian woman and has a son, Pepito the Antichrist, who befriends the unwilling Squee. Squee is invited to Satan's house for dinner, where Satan and Pepito both try to get Squee to join them, but he refuses and leaves after finishing dinner.
Satan is the main character in Normal Bob Smith's satirical Satan's Salvation.
In the manga series Blue Exorcist by Kazue Kato, the main character, Rin Okumura, is Satan's son and emits blue flames, a sign of Satan. His twin, Yukio, is also a son of Satan, but does not bear the flames.
Lucifer appears in the Saint Seiya anime and manga series.
Video games
- Satan, Lucifer and Beelzebub appear as characters in the otome game Obey Me.
- Satan also appears as the main antagonist in Night Schools side-scrolling adventure game Afterparty (video game), he is referred to by the names Lucifer, "Luc", Satan and Morning Star and is portrayed as a more laid-back, party enjoying entity.
- The Dark Prince (known as Satan in Japan) is a green-haired demon that serves as the comical villain in the Puyo Puyo series.
- Satan is the main antagonist and final boss in Castlevania: Lords of Shadow. He appears as a long-haired, nearly naked man.
- Satan returns as the main antagonist in the sequel Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2.
- Satan is the name of one of the Seven Sisters of Purgatory in the series Umineko: When They Cry.
- Satan is a bird-like creature that serves as an assist character for Pekomaru in Daemon Bride. Another version of this character, named Holy Demon Lucifer, serves as an assist character for Reizei's angel counterpart, Shining Rebellion.
- In the Megami Tensei series, Lucifer and Satan appear as separate entities.
- Lucifer first appeared in 1987's Digital Devil Story: Megami Tensei as the game's final boss. He appears throughout the series as a Chaos-aligned character. He also has a human avatar named Louis Cyphre that takes the form of either a child, a young man, an elderly man, or, in Louisa Ferre's case, a woman. He is shown as an enemy of Satan and YHVH. He also appears in the Devil Survivor spin-off, as one of the most powerful monsters in the game. In Shin Megami Tensei IV, Lucifer is the final boss of the Law and Neutral paths, opposing Merkabah.
- In Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Children Light & Dark Versions, there exists a parody of Lucifer named LuciFroz (also known as Lucifrost and Lucifer Frost). LuciFroz is a Jack Frost demon that impersonated Lucifer to gain power. Afterwards, he tried to join Lucifer's ranks but was unsuccessful due to Lucifer's absence from Hell.
- The Persona video game series depicts two separate versions of Lucifer. The seraphim version of Lucifer is known as Helel while the demonic version is known as Lucifer. Many players consider Helel to be one of the most powerful personae in the games due to his Armageddon fusion spell, which uses both Helel and Satan to deal 9999 damage, and his Morning Star skill, which deals massive Almighty damage to all foes.
- Satan first appeared in 1990's Digital Devil Story: Megami Tensei II as one of the game's final bosses. Often a law aligned character, Satan serves YHVH as the accuser. Serving an important role in Shin Megami Tensei II, Satan is tasked to bring judgement to those not worthy of the Millennium Kingdom. Shin Megami Tensei IV: Apocalypse based Satan off his appearance in the Book of Revelation while older entries used the Hebrew Bible's interpretation of Ha-Satan for his design.
- Satan frequently appears in the Persona video game series as a high-ranking member of the Judgement arcana.
- Lucifer first appeared in 1987's Digital Devil Story: Megami Tensei as the game's final boss. He appears throughout the series as a Chaos-aligned character. He also has a human avatar named Louis Cyphre that takes the form of either a child, a young man, an elderly man, or, in Louisa Ferre's case, a woman. He is shown as an enemy of Satan and YHVH. He also appears in the Devil Survivor spin-off, as one of the most powerful monsters in the game. In Shin Megami Tensei IV, Lucifer is the final boss of the Law and Neutral paths, opposing Merkabah.
- The Ghosts 'n Goblins series have a recurring motif thorough the series in which main characters in each game uses a name given to the biblical Satan, although they are all different characters. In Ghouls 'n Ghosts, the character is named Lucifer. The character was renamed Loki in the international versions of the Sega Genesis port and Rushifell (a misromanization of Lucifer) in Gargoyle's Quest.
- In El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron, Lucifer (referred to as Lucifel) assists Enoch in his battle against the fallen angels. Lucifel is portrayed as a wisecracking trickster like character who shares a comical, friendly relationship with God.
- In Dante's Inferno, Lucifer appears as a shadowy spirit at the start before Dante Allighieri faces him in his physical form, only to be revealed as a shell-like imprisonment that holds the real Lucifer: a malformed angel with his wings ripped off, having been banished from Paradise after his failed rebellion against the Creator. It is revealed that he needs Dante to free him so he can have his revenge on God, but ultimately fails, and is sealed back into his icy prison by the holy power of Dante's cross, combined with every single soul that Dante absolved in Hell.
- Devil May Cry 4 features a demonic weapon known as Lucifer that Dante obtains after he kills Berial. The weapon is depicted as a skull holding a rose in its mouth. The weapon is capable of firing infinite explosive mini-swords.
- In Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock, Lucifer (under the alias of Lou) is shown as a manager for the player's band. It is later revealed that the band inadvertently sold their souls to him.
- In Onimusha: Dawn of Dreams, the character Roberto Frois uses gauntlets featuring the names of several archangels of Abrahamic myth with the Lucifer Gauntlets being his strongest darkness based weapon.
- In Mega Man X8, the character Lumine is based on Lucifer, and includes a final attack called Paradise Lost.
- He makes an appearance as the King of Dem in the video game series Demikids.
- Lucifer appears in the Painkiller video game series, where he is shown as a classical red demon.
- Lucifer also appears as a secret boss in Final Fantasy II in the palace of Arubboth.
- The devil is the final boss in Tekken 2. In the following games of Tekken, the character of Jin Kazama has an alter ego and alternative playable character Devil Jin, who is an inheritor of his father Kazuya's Devil Gene. In the game series, the "Devil" is described as a curse, rather than a single evil entity.
- Lucifer is an assist character in Daemon Bride that serves as a partner to Reizei Abane.
- Lucifer, or alternatively, "Doom Bringer", is a playable character in Defense of the Ancients.
- In Monster Retsuden Oreca Battle, there is a card called Fallen Angel Lucifer, as well as her false form Lucif.
- Many forms of the Devil appear in the mobile game Puzzle & Dragons, as Satan,[45] who can be obtained only in its Descended-tier Dungeon "Lord of Hell - Mythical",[46] and can evolve into Satan, King of the Underworld,[47] and then "Ultimate Evolve" into King of Hell, Satan.[48] Lucifer is available in the Archangel and Fallen Angel flavors.[49][50] Also Mephistopheles has recently been added to the game.
- Satan, referred to as "The Devil" appears as the main antagonist in the game Cuphead, and as the final boss, as well as the owner of the Inkwell Hell casino. unlike other depictions, he has no wings, and is depicted as a large, imposing, furry demon, with horns, and a trident.
- Satan is the main antagonist of Broforce Campaign.
Role-playing games
- Lucifer appears in the White Wolf role-playing game Demon: The Fallen and less extensively in Vampire: The Masquerade. In it, he rebelled against God to save humans from Oblivion by enlightening them.
- Satan appears in the SJ Games role-playing game GURPS Casey and Andy. In it, she (in the form of Frances Cleveland) attempts to seduce her older self's early-2000s boyfriend after he travels back in time to the 1800s to meet her when she had taken the form of Cleveland, both unaware of the other's relationship to one another in different times, bringing her to the present, while her 1800s-era husband, Grover Cleveland, follows in pursuit with a time machine of his own, reclaiming the position of President of the United States in the present.
The Devil's Dictionary
Ambrose Bierce's The Devil's Dictionary gives a satirical view of Satan as "one of the Creator's lamentable mistakes". When expelled from Heaven, he asks that mankind be allowed to make its own laws, and the request is granted.
Legal matters
In 1971, Gerald Mayo brought a civil rights action in the United States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania against Satan and his servants, who allegedly placed deliberate obstacles in Mayo's path. In its written opinion, the Court did not deny Satan's existence, but asserted that it was unlikely that Satan was ever present in the Western District of Pennsylvania, stating, "We question whether plaintiff may obtain personal jurisdiction over the defendant in this judicial district."
In a jocular reference to The Devil and Daniel Webster, the court implied that Satan might live in New Hampshire, stating, "While the official reports disclose no case where this defendant has appeared as defendant there is an unofficial account of a trial in New Hampshire where this defendant filed an action of mortgage foreclosure as plaintiff." This appears to be the only published legal case in the U.S. concerning Satan, and the present U.S. official position seems to be that Satan may exist and, if so, might be found in New Hampshire.[51]
In Sweden, at least four people have had their application to use the name Lucifer rejected, either to change their legal name or to name their child, because the Swedish Tax Agency considered the name to be "strongly associated with the Devil or Satan and therefore capable of causing offence".[52] Names that, among other things, can cause offence, cannot be chosen according to naming law in Sweden.
See also
- I Am The Beast etc. v. Michigan State Police
- List of fictional demons
- Satan (disambiguation)
- Works based on Faust
References
- Kurtz, Lester R., 2007, Gods in the Global Village: The World's Religions in Sociological Perspective, Pine Forge Press, ISBN 1-4129-2715-3, p. 153.
- María Agui Carter; Calvin A. Lindsay, Jr. "Culture Shock: The TV Series & Beyond—The Devil's Music: 1920s Jazz". PBS. WGBH. Retrieved 6 August 2012.
- "Lucifer Discography".
- "Lewis "Cypher" Discography".
- "Symphony For The Devil Amazon".
- "Faust".
- "The Man Who Cheated Life".
- Dieterle, William (Director) (1941). The Devil and Daniel Webster (Motion picture). Retrieved 26 February 2014.
- "Heaven Can Wait".
- Mayo, Archie (Director) (1946). Angel on My Shoulder (Motion picture). Retrieved 26 February 2014.
- "Alias Nick Beal".
- Allen, Irwin (Director) (1957). The Story of Mankind (Motion picture). Retrieved 26 February 2014.
- "Up in Smoke".
- Abbott, George and Stanley Donen (Directors) (1958). Damn Yankees (Motion picture). Retrieved 26 February 2014.
- "The Devil's Messenger".
- "The Greatest Story Ever Told".
- Polanski, Roman (Director) (1968). Rosemary's Baby (Motion picture). Retrieved 26 February 2014.
- "Satan's Triangle".
- Donner, Richard (Director) (1976). The Omen (Motion picture). Retrieved 26 February 2014.
- Steven Hilliard Stern (Director) (1981). The Devil and Max Devlin (Motion picture). Retrieved 26 February 2014.
- Hill, Walter (Director) (1986). Crossroads (Motion picture). Retrieved 26 February 2014.
- Parker, Alan (Director) (1987). Angel Heart (Motion picture). Retrieved 26 February 2014.
- Carpenter, John (Director) (1987). Prince of Darkness (Motion picture).
- Willman, Chris (27 August 1993). "Von Sydow: Maxing at the Extremes : Movies: Swedish actor is the first on record to play both God and Satan in major studio films. His latest role is the Adversary in 'Needful Things.'". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 20 January 2015.
- Widen, Gregory (Director) (1995). The Prophecy (Motion picture). Retrieved 26 February 2014.
- Hackford, Taylor (Director) (1997). The Devil's Advocate (Motion picture). Retrieved 26 February 2014.
- Polanski, Roman (Director) (1999). The Ninth Gate (Motion picture). Retrieved 26 February 2014.
- Hyams, Peter (Director) (1999). End of Days (Motion picture). Retrieved 26 February 2014.
- Brill, Steven (Director) (2000). Little Nicky (Motion picture). Retrieved 26 February 2014.
- "Bedazzled".
- Mungia, Lance (Director) (2001). The Crow: Wicked Prayer (Motion picture). Retrieved 26 February 2014.
- Gibson, Mel (Director) (2004). The Passion of the Christ (Motion picture). Retrieved 26 February 2014.
- Lawrence, Francis (Director) (2005). Constantine (Motion picture). Retrieved 26 February 2014.
- Bousman, Darren Lynn (Director) (2012). The Devil's Carnival (Motion picture). Retrieved 26 February 2014.
- "IMDb".
- "IMDb".
- "BBC Radio 3 - Drama on 3, the Devil's Passion".
- Brian Stableford, The A to Z of Fantasy Literature, Scarecrow Press,Plymouth. 2005. ISBN 0-8108-6829-6 (109-110)
- Les Daniels (1975). Living in Fear: A History of Horror in the Mass Media. Da Capo Press, (P. 17). ISBN 0306801930 .
- The Original Folk and Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm: The Complete First Edition. Andrea Dezsö, illustrator. Princeton University Press. 2014 [1812]. p. 248. ISBN 978-0691160597. Retrieved February 2, 2016.CS1 maint: others (link)
- Darrell Schweitzer, "The Devil" in S. T. Joshi, ed., Icons of Horror and the Supernatural: an Encyclopedia of our Worst Nightmares (Greenwood, 2007), (p. 161-186) ISBN 0313337810
- Eric Leif Davin. Partners in Wonder: Women and the Birth of Science Fiction, 1926-1965. Lexington Books. ISBN 978-0-7391-1267-0. (p. 380)
- E. F. Bleiler, The Guide to Supernatural Fiction, Kent State University Press, 1983, ISBN 0-87338-228-9 (p.38).
- Kishimoto, Seishi (2001). "Chapter 1". 666 Satan, Volume 1. Square Enix. ISBN 4-7575-0597-3.
- "Satan stats, skills, evolution, location | Puzzle & Dragons Database".
- "Lord of Hell - Mythical | Puzzle & Dragons Database".
- "Satan, King of the Underworld stats, skills, evolution, location | Puzzle & Dragons Database".
- "King of Hell, Satan stats, skills, evolution, location | Puzzle & Dragons Database".
- "Archangel Lucifer stats, skills, evolution, location | Puzzle & Dragons Database".
- "Fallen Angel Lucifer stats, skills, evolution, location | Puzzle & Dragons Database".
- http://kevinunderhill.typepad.com/Documents/Mayo_v_Satan.pdf
- Amanda Gustafsson; Sophia Vestrin (2020-07-09). "Kevin från Sundsvall nekas namnet Lucifer". SVT Nyheter (in Swedish). Retrieved 2020-07-09.
Further reading
- The Comics Go to Hell: A Visual History of the Devil in Comics (by Fredrik Stromberg, 360 pages, Fantagraphics Books, 2005, ISBN 1-56097-616-0)
- The Lure of the Dark Side: Satan & Western Demonology in Popular Culture (by Eric S. Christianson and Christopher Patridge, 256 pages, Equinox Publishing Ltd, SW11, 2008, ISBN 1-84553-310-0)
- The Satanic Screen: An Illustrated Guide to the Devil in Cinema (by Nikolas Schreck, 256 pages, Creation Books, 2001, ISBN 1-84068-043-1)
External links
Look up Devil in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. |
Wikiquote has quotations related to: Devil |
- Lucifer character at IMDb
- Thirty-two years of Satan in popular culture, SF Weekly.