And End of Days , dramatically speaking, fell short of apocalyptic. The next few months will see the release of no fewer than five movies featuring Old Nick. And the granddaddy of them all, The Exorcist , will be rereleased next month with additional material never shown before - perhaps scenes where the poor girl stops spewing pea soup and moves on to beef, barley and chicken with stars. While this does seem to be an especially verdant crop full of stellar performers, devil movies have always been with us. Although we missed these films, we've seen plenty of others.
Some general themes emerge.
Hollywood can't agree on what the devil can do. Moviemakers are pretty consistent about the devil's being the source of all evil in the world, but there's a range of opinion on other matters, beginning with whether he's the devil at all. Other questions remain. Sometimes the devil can be thwarted by faith - rediscovering faith helps Schwarzenegger thwart the devil in End of Days. But they're stars.