David Seltzer wrote both the book and the screenplay for The Omen[Richard Donner, 1976], a film about the son of Satan. Gregory Peck brought gravitas to the project as the American Ambassador to the Court of St. James. Peck discovers that Damien, the little boy he and wife Lee Remick have taken in to raise is, in fact, the Antichrist! The Omenis a solid and well-made thriller that makes the supernatural seem real and present in our everyday world. The movie became another big hit at the box office for Satan.
A very funny retelling of Faust, Bedazzled[Stanley Donen, 1967] starred Dudley Moore as the hapless Stanley Moon, Peter Cook as George Spiggott, aka Lucifer, Lord of Darkness and, as two of the Seven Deadly Sins, Barry Humphries as Envy, and Raquel Welch as Lillian Lust— the Girl with the Bust!
Sam Raimi’s Drag Me to Hell[2009] is essentially a fun house variation on Night of the Demon[Jacques Tourneur, 1957], which was based on a story by M. R. James called “Casting the Runes.” In Raimi’s movie, Christine Brown (Alison Lohman) is cursed by witch Sylvia Ganush (Lorna Raver) for not approving a bank loan. The object that brings forth the demon is a coat button. In Night of the Demon, the fantastic Niall MacGinnis plays the leader of a satanic cult (and children’s party entertainer) who places the object, in this case a parchment with runic inscriptions, on the skeptical Dana Andrews. MacGinnis plays a character of equal parts charm and menace who asks Andrews’ professor: “How can we differentiate between the powers of darkness and the powers of the mind?” Exactly.
The Devil’s Work[ Book Contents]
Angel Heart [Alan Parker, 1987]
Robert De Niro’s character is called Louis Cyphre, but his claw-like fingernails and understated menace should have been a dead giveaway to private detective Mickey Rourke. Based on the novel Falling Angelby William Hjortsberg.
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The Witches of Eastwick [George Miller, 1987]
Michelle Pfeiffer, Susan Sarandon, and Cher in the title roles. From John Updike’s best-selling novel.
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The Devil’s Advocate [Taylor Hackford, 1997]
Al Pacino plays lawyer John Milton in a none-too-subtle reference to Paradise Lost. As the Devil, Pacino is given free rein in a ferocious, enjoyably mad performance. Poor Keanu Reeves is blown off the screen whenever Al is present.
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Damn Yankees [George Abbott, Stanley Donen, 1958]
Ray Walston as Applegate and the fabulous Gwen Verdon as Lola in the film of the hit Broadway musical, a Faust story set in the world of baseball. Ray Walston’s Devil sings “Those Were The Good Old Days,” recalling with relish various wars and disasters. Gwen Verdon performs her show-stopper “Whatever Lola Wants” to seduce Tab Hunter. A lovely movie.
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The Devil Rides Out [aka The Devil’s Bride, Terence Fisher, 1968]
Christopher Lee as the Duc de Richleau in the pentacle he has drawn to protect his friends from demons summoned by Mocata (Charles Gray), the leader of a cult of devil-worshippers in the English countryside. Based on Dennis Wheatley’s novel, with a screenplay by Richard Matheson. This movie would have benefited from a bigger special-FX budget.
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The Exorcist [William Friedkin, 1973]
Linda Blair as Regan in a make-up by Dick Smith. Friedkin’s film is considered one of the scariest movies of all time.
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The Omen [Richard Donner, 1976]
Harvey Stephens is truly creepy as Damien, the Antichrist in Richard Donner’s beautifully crafted film of David Seltzer’s screenplay (from his own novel). Composer Jerry Goldsmith contributes a brilliant and often-imitated score.
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Bedazzled [Stanley Donen, 1967]
Raquel Welch as one of the Seven Deadly Sins, “Lillian Lust—the girl with the bust,” in Peter Cook and Dudley Moore’s comic retelling of Faust. Barry Humphries makes a very funny appearance as Envy.
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Drag Me to Hell [Sam Raimi, 2009]
Lorna Raver as the gypsy witch Mrs. Ganush with the button, instrumental in the curse she puts on a young bank officer (Alison Lohman) who turns down her loan application.
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Night of the Demon [Jacques Tourneur, 1957]
Dana Andrews investigates a Satanic cult led by Dr. Julian Karswell (a terrific Niall MacGinnis). This demon was supposedly put into the film by the studio over the director’s objections, but I have to say that I agree with the studio!
“It’s in the trees! It’s coming!”
Professor Harrington (Maurice Denham), Night of the Demon
IN CONVERSATION
John Carpenter
“Monsters don’t scare me—people scare me!”
John Carpenter with The Fog[1980] cast members Adrienne Barbeau, Jamie Lee Curtis, and Janet Leigh.
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JL: You’ve created yourself as a brand, as a master of horror. How would you define a monster? What do you think a monster is?
JC: Primarily, it’s us. It’s parts of us, parts of the dark heart of humanity. But it’s also the other: the other tribe, the other people, the people that look different, the ferocious demons out there.
JL: By the other, do you mean the Unknown?
JC: Well, there are two basic horror stories. Where does the evil come from? It comes from out there, or it comes from in here. That’s it, there’s nothing else. So if you have an Outer Space invasion, the evil is out there and they’re coming to get us. That’s the evil outside of us. The harder story to tell is the evil in here, in our own hearts. Each of us is capable of evil, under certain circumstances.
JL: The John Carpenter quote that I quote all the time, is: “Monsters don’t scare me—people scare me.”
JC: A fear of monsters is part of the basic nature of humanity. When we came out of the trees and started walking upright, we still had these fears of predators. We see something coming at us and we respond to it. It’s self-preservation. All this stuff gets jumbled up in our myths, in our stories. And here it is: Here are monster movies.