Summary
A demon can be a lot of different things depending on its backstory, but the consensus seems to be that it’s a malevolent entity serving or using an evil power. These creatures are often depicted with horns, a tail, claws, and fangs, but on the other hand, none of these features are mandatory and demons can appear in a variety of forms.
The mythology of demons often associates them with Hell and Satan, but stories often attach them to other types of ancient monsters, and there are the brave heroes who hunt and destroy these evil creatures. Movies about these exploits don’t have to be pure horror, but often range from the fantastic to the Biblical, and can also overlap with action or comedy.
This movie is an adaptation of the first novel in a series calledThe Mortal Instrumentsby Cassandra Clare and was intended to launch a franchise with a second installment based on the next book. Unfortunately,City Of Boneswas a box office failure and future plans fell apart, but it’s still a great example of urban fantasy, modern magic, and demon hunting.
The main character is New Yorker and schoolgoing teenager Clary Fray, who discovers through a series of mysterious events that she’s the heir to the Shadowhunter tradition of hunting and killing demons. In keeping with some traditional mythology, the demon hunters are either angels, half-angels, or descendants of angels.
Despite a poor remake in 2019, the originalHellboystill holds up, and it works on a few different levels. The main character, Hellboy, is literally a demon who walked through a portal from Hell, and he spends the movie being hunted by a variety of hostile characters while also hunting and killing monsters and demons on behalf of a secret government agency.
The portal from Hell didn’t just appear as an anomaly but was built and opened by a group of Nazi scientists as WW2 was coming to a close. Rasputin, one of the characters who was helping with the occult side of opening the portal, gets sucked in and seems to disappear, but Hellboy comes out of Hell as an adorable baby demon, and the Allied soldiers adopt and raise him.
One ofthe first comic book heroesto ever make it to the silver screen wasSpawn, a hero who was resurrected as a demon to command armies of demons. The movie was a box office and critical failure, but fans liked it, and today it’s a cult classic for those who enjoy vintage comic book movies.
The plot is an origin story about how Spawn defies the commands of Hell and decides to hunt and fight demons instead. It uses the existing mythology about a war between heaven and hell and makes the soldiers on either side angels, demons, and other kinds of immortal beings.
TheEvil Deadfranchise was a strong influence on the rise of horror comedy, and its success made Sam Raimi a hero among horror fans and Bruce Campell a bone-fide B-movie star. The protagonists always take on a variety of ghosts, monsters, and the undead, but it’sEvil Dead 2that focuses more on demons and includes the now iconicNecronomicon Ex-Mortis, or “Book of the Dead.”
The film takes on a few tropes, like the creepy old cabin in the woods andthe college kids experimentingwith the occult, but unlike the first movie, only two wayward young adults are involved, Ash and his girlfriend, Linda. Over the course of the adventure, Linda is killed and possessed, and Ash has to find a way to save her while fighting demon possession and malevolent spirits.
Pure, classic horror with all the gritty realism of a 1970s spy thriller,The Omenis about the hunt for one demon,and this one is a doozy. The story begins with a switch in a hospital, in which a fondling child is taken in under the premise of his mother dying in childbirth, only for it to be revealed that the lost child is the antichrist.
This is the movie that made the name Damien synonymous with a child of Satan, as it’s eventually revealed that the child is the son of the King of Hell himself. Despite the heroic efforts of the main characters to stop Damien, he survives his father’s madness, and in the last scene, he attends the funeral after the untimely death of his parents.
Chandler Jarrell is a private investigator who specializes in tracking down missing children using a combination of local media, street smarts, and a nasty chip on his shoulder. Kee Nag, a mysterious woman from Tibet, seeks him out to help her find a missing boy known as the Golden Child. Born with supernatural powers, this child is seen as the ultimate good in the world, which is why the forces of evil are trying to destroy him.
The Golden Child’smain antagonist is Sardo Numspa, a demon in the shape of a human who serves none other than Satan himself. He’s in contact with his devilish master in a few chilling scenes and takes on his true form in the end when Jarrell finally confronts him.
Another comic book superhero adaptation that was made before it was cool,Constantinehas also been adapted into several animated movies and shows,and there’s a sequelto the original coming out in 2025. It’s set in modern times as a dark fantasy movie as well as a horror, and uses a mix of occult themes and Biblical references that include demons, angels, and those who follow them.
John Constantine is an exorcist who is well aware of the existence of Heaven and Hell because he’s seen not only these places but the things that live there. He ends up hunting a demon who happens to be the son of Satan and is using an angel as a double agent to escape into the human plane of existence. John defeats him by making a literal deal with The Devil in one of Satan’s best appearances on film.
A whole catalog of spinoffs, sequels, remakes, and reboots still haven’t been ableto capture the horrorof the original demon-hunter movie,The Exorcist.The movie is an adaptation of the book of the same title by William Peter Blatty, who also produced the film.
Most people know the basic storyline of this famous tale of suburban horror, and the title gives it away. In this case, the demon hunters are nothing more than humble priests trying to drive a demon from Regan, a possessed child, and they have their own guilt and secrets bubbling in the background.
