Demons

31 Responses

1. Ace episode guys!

   I enjoyed some of THE KEEP, but once the demon turned up as a guy in a dodgy rubber suit, it got rather Meh.

   I think my favourite demon-related movie is PUMPKINHEAD, a 1989 horror flick directed by FX maestro Stan Winston (ALIENS, TERMINATOR, PREDATOR) that features Lance Henrikson as a father who loses his son in an accident and conjures up the titular demon, a personification of vengeance, to deal with the kids who killed him.

   Also love “I of Newton” a hilarious short Eighties TWILIGHT ZONE with Ron Glass (FIREFLY) as a hip demon out to steal the soul of a maths teacher. Glass’ t-shirt keeps changing slogans “Hell is a city much like Newark”)

2. btw- back in Catholic school, we were taught that “demon” meant “wise one” and that demons were created due to the rebel angels falling from Heaven with Lucifer after he became prideful and jealous when God created Humans and gave us free will. In most mythologies I’ve encountered, the demon summoned can immediately understand and converse fluently in whatever language the summoner is speaking…

3. Hello, it sounds like “Curse of the Demon” was inspired by the short story “Casting the Runes” by M.R. James. You can (and should) read it in part 2 of this http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/8486
   Or listen to an audio version here (3rd story) :
   http://librivox.org/short-ghost-and-horror-collection-001/

4. I like how “Little Nicky” doesn’t even deserve to be listed/rated under Movies on this page…
   Did I miss it or did you actually not mention The Exorcist? Or are you just keeping that for the “Exorcisms” episode?

   1. There will definitely be an EXORCISMS episode, so we had to keep it in the hopper for that one. Stay tuned, though, it’s on the list.

   2. I kind of forgot about Little Nicky when making the post. Rather than fix it, I’ll leave it as is because fuck that movie and fuck Adam Sandler.

      1. Joe, man… how can you be so totally wrong about Little Nicky? By all means, yes, fuck Adam Sandler, but Little Nicky is the only thing he’s made that’s actually more or less watchable. Yes, the product placement is ludicrous… that’s the joke. Somebody is paying them money to have the son of the devil say stuff about their products that they’ll never be able to use promotionally with a straight face. That’s flat-out magnificent, as is Henry Winkler’s absurd cameo. Sure, there’s also stuff that would have been unfunny even when you were 13, but there’s just enough good material that I’ve actually had days when I’ve thought “You know what I want to watch tonight? Adam Sandler throwing rainbows at people.”

         That said, I also think there’s enough good stuff in Dirty Work to make it almost salvageable.

         1. I can’t even think of one line that I laughed at or even appreciated. A friend insists “there are two laughter-worthy jokes in Little Nicky” but he hasn’t told me which it is.

            The product placement was not “the joke”. There was no making fun of it and it was presented as blatantly as possible. If you want product placement done tongue-in-cheek properly watch “Josie and the Pussycats”. That movie was funny, and engaging, and didn’t take itself too seriously. The opening scenes with “Du Jour” are funnier than anything in Little Nicky.

5. More talking about D&D! At least name drop Juiblex! Best demon lord ever!

   Just for clarification, D&D bowed to pressure from Christian Groups to remove devils and demons from the game. Devils became Baatezu and represented law. Demons became Tanar’ri and represented chaos.

6. I have to ask, what is Joe saying in the intro? Great episode guys!

   1. I had to press the mp3 onto vinyl and then manually rotate my turntable backwards to find out, but here it is:

      “You should be nice to everybody, and try to get about a half hour of exercise every day.”

      Also, though I personally find him to be insufferably smug (while being an atheist and skeptic myself), check out Michael Shermer’s TED talk “Why People Believe Weird Things”. In the bit from about 9:00 to 11:15 he gives a great demonstration of the secret messages in Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven”.

      1. Thank you so much!

7. There’s another movie with demons in it and a Tangerine Dream score, L’Inferno, a 1911 silent film by Giuseppe de Liguoro.

   Here, have some Etruscan fiends and bearded snakes:
   http://www.ancientsites.com/aw/Post/1237653

8. It’s gotta be said, Hellboy and B.P.R.D is (for me) one of the BEST ongoing comic series there is! Plus, the films were good fun, and just looked great :p

9. I suspect that Joe’s review of Little Nicky is 8 billion times funnier than the actual movie.

10. Also, I recall a low budget “horror” movie from the 80’s disguised as a cop film. There was a serial rapist/killer running around LA, who turned out to be an incubus. I recall a LOT of chit-chat about the quality and quantity of the rapist’s sperm.

    1. Could be this one? http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0084133/

       I just found an interesting new:
       http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2069143/Parents-forced-change-sons-Vampire-Diaries-supernatural.html

11. I thought one of you guys was a fan of the Hellblazer comic series? There’s interesting and new demons in almost every issue. (Yuppie demons, anyone?) Dangerous Habits is the most famous of the stories, but I found one called ‘All His Engines’ still more interesting.

    “Constantine unwittingly steps into a war between gods, most notably Mictlantecuhtli, the Aztec deity of death, who resents Constantine’s intrusion into his business, and Beroul, a demon who behaves as if he were a Hollywood movie executive, holds hostage the soul of Chas’ granddaughter Trish.”

    Also, you didn’t want to talk about the Balrog? He’s probably number two in a list of most influential demons. I remember finding it funny how D&D’s Balor are a straight up copy of the Balrog. I know most of D&D’s original content was just an adaption of Tolkein’s work, but it always struck me how blatant that specific bit was.

    Finally – I remember hearing about a potentially funny film titled “Rare Exports.” It’s set in Norway, where they unearth a buried and frozen Santa Claus. It turns out he’s a demon, or something comparable.

12. Great ep guys! Only listened to 20 mins so far but thought I would share that your comments about sacrificing human excrement filled my mind with a rather gory scene of Mr Hanky being dismembered. Oh, and the rest of the instructions sounded like they’d been lifted straight from Buffy and Charmed! Hmm, maybe those shows we’re just incredibly accurate.
    There was a great scene in Ghostbusters with a succubus too (in case that wasn’t mentioned).
    Well done!

13. Found it odd that the day I listen to the Demon podcast that “Golden Child” is on my T.V. I’ll skip watching it because as the boys said it’s a shitty film.

    1. it was a lame movie but for an Eddie Murphy movie it was great. At least i enjoyed it lol. You should check it out anyway.

14. This was a fantastic episode. Demons seem to appear in fiction and non-fiction in our cuture so much, it is quite startling, and it was great to learn about the mythology from a non-religious angle.
    By the way, there is another film (that slipped passed your gaze) with demons in it that was relatively recent, Denzel Washington’s 1998 film “Fallen.” The fallen angel Azazel jumps from person to person (pursued by a police officer) committing crimes and leaving the individual to face the punishment–a really great flick–although a bit too much like the Kyle MacLachlan film ‘The Hidden’ (1987).

    Finally, I’m really impressed with Caustic Soda and the way it is evolving, and can’t wait for more episodes!

15. Love this episode, and i have to really disagree with Joe about Little Nicky. its funny as hell!! It wasn’t the best movie ever but it was funny. Granted it was a big sell out movie, but i was entertained, it had a good soundtrack. And Kevin i gotta say HAHAHAHA because you were scared by Paranormal Activity. HOW were you scared?! i laughed my way through it. What’s you’re take on the scene in Evil Dead 2 where Bruce Campbell and all the animal heads started laughing maniacally, for me it was the best scene.

16. Pop culture (especially horror) contains a virtual infinitude of demon-related stories so I won’t fault you for any “omissions” in your podcast; but I will list a couple of my favourite ones.

    In the science fiction novel “Surface Detail” by Iain M. Banks, some of the alien civilizations have created virtual reality hells to torment the consciousnesses of those who are deemed deserving, just in case no afterlife of torment awaits them past death. The story arc of one character (Chay) is particularly compelling, as she becomes trapped in a hell and ultimately enters into a battle of wills with the head demon.

    The graphic novel “Leviathan” by Ian Edgington and D’Israeli starts out as a turn-of-the-century detective story with a sinister supernatural undertone that (spoiler alert) turns into a larger demon vs. man plot about half-way into the story.

    On a related note, and as something of a guilty pleasure, my favourite Chuck Norris film is 1994’s “Hellbound” which starts out as a buddy cop picture and then gradually morphs into supernatural horror as the duo investigate a series of murders with occult themes. By the end of the movie, Chucky-boy is kickboxing straight-facedly against the demon Prosatanos (but having already spoilered this much, I won’t tell you who wins).

    I remember also enjoying the Viggo Mortensen take on Lucifer at the end of the Christopher Walken movie “The Prophecy”, but I haven’t watched that in something like fifteen years, so I can’t say anything else about it. Oh look, there it is on Netflix.ca…

17. Might want to check out the movie “Lo” on Netflix. Not great, but its a good watch- no action, no budget, and lots of self-aware cheese- and all about a guy chasing after his girlfriend by summoning a demon named Lo, *minor spoiler* his girlfriend it turns out was a demon that tried to escape from hell. Oh yeah and check out the Necronomicon ex mortis (sp?) at the start when he summons Lo. PSA suggestion stay inside the circle of your pentagram.

18. Someone does get to play the demon in the Mayfair game “The Keep”. Its one of those games that require at least 3 people. 2 or more for the heroes and one for the demon.

    http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/975/the-keep

19. the demon from that RGB episode was called Hob Anagarak. when Venkman mentions the name to Egon, Egon exclaims ‘how do you know about ‘the Hob’?!’ it’s also in my youtube favorites list of the best of the RBG

    and speaking of Doom, there was an internet meme spawned from a ‘fan fiction’ called “Doom Reprecussions of Evil” that was highly nonsensical and apparently not proofread. it even had several musical covers such as ‘Be Killed By Demons!’
    

    …and then John was a zombie.

20. I’m surprised that you hadn’t mentioned the TV “Supernatural” since the majority of these episodes seem to involve demons, and after seeing Mark Sheppards portrayal of Crowley I can’t picture anyone else. I even reread “Good Omens” and he just works. I’m playing catch-up on your episodes so if you guys have decided that Supernatural is garbage then I apologize for bringing it up. You are doing a fantastic job with your podcasts and I am actively bringing more fans into the soda jerk ranks weekly.

    1. Nah, we like Supernatural just fine. We mentioned them a few times in our “Four Horsemen” series. None of us is a regular watcher is all, so we don’t know much about it.

       I watched the first season after hearing about several friends really loving the show but it didn’t get its hooks into me. It’s good, and I’d watch more but I didn’t love it so much that I put much effort into watching much more.

       1. I felt the same way about season one. Later seasons do improve (in my opinion) as the plot solidifies a bit more. I’d argue that it gets a little too heavy, so I took a break after season 5. I also think it gets a little cooky at times, and the character portrayed by DJ Qualls makes my skin crawl (as do all of his characters). They at times try to play the badassery of the show beyond its limits. Still, a pretty solid show worth the time to watch.

21. I know this is WAY after the fact, but I only recently started listening to your podcast. I listen to it on my daily commute and recently burned through most of season 2 on a 6000km roadtrip from my home town close to Cape Town to the Kruger National Park and back of which I had to do 3500km on my own (my wife and 1 year old son flew up while I had to drive up all the gear and baby stuff). It kept me awake and laughing all the way!

    An interesting movie that I can recommend on this topic is Frailty. It is the directorial debut by Bill Paxton, starring himself and Matthew McConaughey. The movie is about a father who believes that God has told him to kill demons, but the thing is that they look EXACTLY like normal people. The story focuses on the relationship between this father and his two young sons. It is a very well crafted, concise film with lots of interesting ideas in, that almost nobody has seen!