The Beast, The Devil, Lucifer, Satan - whatever people choose to call the phenomenon- has always wielded a paradoxical fascination over the human psyche.
Some view the Beast as an actual entity, a fallen angel or agent of evil.
Others see the Beast as the evil part of humanity that has been projected and externalised into the Ultimate Bogeyman.
Whichever way you choose to look at it, the Devil continues to cast its spectre over the popular imagination and appears wearing diverse guises and masks in literature, theatre and the movies.
Here are a few of the more recent and more (relatively) benign faces of the Beast:
As an angelic(ish) looking child in The Omen (1976):
"Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is six hundred and sixty-six."
As a lawyer in New York in The Devil's Advocate:
"Who can deny that the 20th century has been entirely mine?"
And as "just your average horny little devil" in The Witches of Eastwick:
"Who can deny that the 20th century has been entirely mine?"And as "just your average horny little devil" in The Witches of Eastwick:
An ambiguous figure, suggestive of the Devil, appears as a charming conman in the controversial Dennis Potter play Brimstone and Treacle which was originally banned by the BBC. The conman is played by Michael Kitchen in the banned television version and by Sting in the movie version.
These are some of the more accessible, less scary portraits of the Beast. But perhaps these more palatable portraits (the approachable New York lawyer, the blue-eyed child etc.) makes him/her/it all the more insidious.
Related Posts:
The Many Faces of Faust
Beauty and the Beast
These are some of the more accessible, less scary portraits of the Beast. But perhaps these more palatable portraits (the approachable New York lawyer, the blue-eyed child etc.) makes him/her/it all the more insidious.
Related Posts:
The Many Faces of Faust
Beauty and the Beast
