And while there have always been movie adaptations of these tales, cinema has created some of the most visceral and original stories on the matter. Whether it beAl Pacinochewing the scenery as John Milton inThe Devil’s AdvocateorOrson Welles’ final performance inThe Transformers: The Movie, these are the best movies that really teach us what’s at stake when we make deals with the devil.
Devil’s Advocate
Would you make a deal with the devil if he was also your lawyer? How about your dad? That’s essentially the premise of 1997’s supernatural courtroom thrillerThe Devil’s Advocate: Satan isAl Pacinogoing by John Milton, a partner of a top New York law firm in a movie that is just about as subtle as 90s-era Pacino himself. Or naming a character “John Milton.”
A young Florida defense attorney, Kevin Lomax (Keanu Reeves, committing to an accent and not much else) takes the Faustian job offer, moving his wife to New York and into Milton’s Manhattan high-rise. When he finds himself defending a whole slew of hell-bound humans, Kevin learns he himself is both the Antichristandfirst in line to take over the firm. Nepotism, huh?
Angel Heart
Any job involves a contract of some kind, so even in this gig economy, the devil can make you pay. In this 1987 supernatural neo-noir,Robert DeNiroand his pointy goatee are Louis Cyphre, a very normal human man with long fingernails and a gross egg fetish. Cyphre hires a private detective named Harry Angel (Mickey Rourke) to track down Johnny Favorite, a singer who skipped town.
Angel follows the trail down to New Orleans, where he learns the crooner’s deal with Cyphre was of the soul-selling variety. Clues the sleuth missed along the way? Satanic rituals, walls that bleed during lovemaking, death by gumbo and the fact that his employer is named “Louis Cypher.”
Needful Things
Sometimes deals with the devil are of the material variety. Out of all the Stephen King cinematic, Needful Thingsisn’t quiteThe Shawshank Redemption, but it’s got a catchy premise. The devil arrives in Castle Rock, Maine, in the form of Leland Gaunt (Max von Sydow), an old man with an antique store with strange stock.
Gaunt offers Castle Rock’s residents objects that correlate to some deeply personal, unfilled need: a rare baseball card, a first edition ofTreasure Island, averycool jacket, etc. Gaunt only asks his customers to play little pranks on their neighbors in exchange, which escalate quickly. It’s the Satanic version of “What would you do for a Klondike Bar?” where the answer is always “pet disembowelment and straight-up murder.”
Rosemary’s Baby
InRoman Polanski’s classic horror film,Mia Farrowplays Rosemary, a young mother-to-be who discovers what real New Yorkers already know: if you want a brownstone with Central Park views, it’ll cost you your first-born child. The “deal with the devil” here isn’t made by Rosemary, but her wannabe actor husband, Guy (John Cassavetes).
In exchange for rent-controlled views and a successful acting career, Guy allows his new occult neighbors full access to his wife’s womb. Rosemary soon figures out something is not all right, but gaslighting a hysterical pregnant woman who believes she’s carrying Satan’s spawn doesn’t exactly require supernatural interference.
What lengths would you go to keep something terrible happening from someone you love? While not the devil per say, Sheev Palpatine (IanMcDiarmid) is as close as you’re going to get in theStar Warscanon. FromA New HopetoReturn of the Jedi, he’s the embodiment of the darkness trying to seduce a fresh-faced Luke Skywalker (MarkHamill) into using the Force for evil, like his father, Darth Vader, before him.
But before he was emperor, Palpatine was just a middle-aged Galactic Senator who just happened to be really good at dealmaking, like Frank Underwood in outer space. In the prequels, he convinces a young Jedi-to-be to become a Sith Lord in order to prevent his wife’s death during childbirth. (She dies anyway.) That Sith Lord’s name? Anakin Skywalker, aka Darth Vader.
The Avengers
Many cultures and religions have a version of “the devil and the fool” story; the Marvel Cinematic Universe turned to Norse trickster god Loki (Tom Hiddleston) for both roles. After being defeated inThor, the peeved god makes a deal with an agent of Thanos’ to take over Earth. All Loki has to do is get the Tesseract, which is where the events of the firstAvengersmovie begin.
Over the course of the MCU films, Loki becomes less evil and more just a loveable scamp…who is then murdered by Thanos inInfinity War. But thankfully he’s also still alive, thanks to the time-traveling ret-con ofAvengers: Endgameand the necessity of Loki-centric programming to launch Disney+.
Phantom of the Paradise
“Would you sell your soul for rock and roll?” That is literally the tagline for Brian De Palma’s on-the-nose cult classicPhantom of the Paradise, which reimagines bothPhantom of the OperaandFaustas a 70s rock opera horror comedy. Record producer Swan (Paul Williams), sells his soul to Satan and Kanye-like status and eternal middle-age.
When singer/songwriter William Leach tries to show Swan his latest opus, he’s sent to prison and turned into a terrifying monster. Hiding in the producer’s new concert hall, Swan forces Leach to produce songs for a woman named Phoenix (Jessica Harper) and an androgynous, sparkle-goth rockstar named Beef. Leach acts out, murdering a bunch to the tune of his own hit songs.
Barton Fink
If you want to trade your creativity and talent for money and fame, there’s no better place than Hollywood. barton Fink (John Turturro)–the titular antihero of 1991sJoelandEthan Coen’s film set in the early 40s–is but a cynical New York playwright who takes up a producer’s offer to come write film scripts for $1,000 a week, and befriends a friendly devil of a neighbor along the way.
Fink finds himself stuck with a bad case of writers’ block, allowing another hotel resident, traveling salesman Charlie Meadows (John Goodman) into his life to listen to him kvetch. Hollywood does become very hellish for Fink, who is framed, fired and then on-fire, as Meadows turns out to be a serial killer and arsonist, as well as a very good listener.
Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus
While generally a bad idea, sometimes deals with the devil can work out in your favor, depending on which devil you get and what kind of mood he’s in that day.The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassusis best remembered as being the last performance ofHeath Ledger, probably because explaining the plot of aTerry Gilliammovie is a Sisyphean task.
The leader of traveling dance troupe, Doctor Parnassus (Christopher Plummer), made a deal with the devil (Tom Waits), promising his daughter’s hand in marriage in exchange for immortality and a magic mirror. The mirror transports people to a dream world wherein they choose between blissful ignorance or self-aware enlightenment. The devil eventually begs to renegotiate terms, as confused by all this as the rest of us.
Saving a loved one from eternal damnation is a noble and oft-used reason for invoking the devil. In this 1997 Disney adaptation of Greecian myth, a young Hercules (Tate Donovan) is just your average teenager who happens to have superhuman strength because, well, technically he’s a god. After falling in love with Hades’ double-agent Megara, Hercules willingly forgoes his powers in exchange for her safety.
This allows Hades to conquer the Old Gods by releasing the ancient Titans, but during the melee, Meg is crushed by a pillar. Powered-up, Hercules heads to the underworld to broker aseconddeal, trading his life for Meg’s. Instead of trying to find a loophole, Hercules just punches his uncle so hard he flies into the River Styx and drowns. Problem solved.
