Heaven vs. Hell

I'm quite curious...how come directors or screenwriters haven't brought us an ultimate battle in the sceneries of actual hell and heaven (of what "we" think it looks like") and have the devil vs. god? anyone else curios or would want to see that?


i mean all fantasy look angels, demons, fire, clouds you know....

I am sure the idea of the Apocalypse would scare most directors. I, for one, would love to see on film Antichrist astride Leviathan, described thus in the Apocalypse of Daniel. "His stature [the Antichrist] will be 9 cubits. He will have black hair pulled up like an iron chain. In his forehead, he will have one eye shining like the dawn. His lower lips will be large; he will have no upper lips. (Hmmm ... he's sorta beginning to look like Angelina Jolie, eh?)

On his hand, the little finger will be the longer; his left foot will be wider. He will be born of a harlot from the tribe of Dan (hey, I know a Dan in JoBlo!), he will have no knees with which to genueflect, but he will have wheels on the soles of his feet (HANNIBAL on a gurney!). He will come to the sea and say, "Dry up" and it will be dried. He will say to the moon, "Be dark" and it will be darkness. And the stars will fall from heaven."

And of course, there should be all the Archangels, Seraphim, Nepthalim, Cherubim, Beasts with Seven Heads and ten Horns, each marked with blashpemous titles, one of whom looks like Jennifer Love Hewitt.

However, until Robert Zemeckis is presented with a script in which Tom Hanks plays the Whore of Babylon, I think we will have to be content with THE SEVENTH SEAL (starring Demi Moore. This wasn't bad actually; I liked the rivers of blood and the idea of deathless cursed centurions) and THE RAPTURE. (Now, I Really liked this movie. I didn't need to see Mimi Rogers topless but the End of the World, although economically conceived (no skeletal Four Horsemen shrieking, "Plague! Death! Hoof & Mouth Disease!") was quite moving.)

Arf, long post. Great question, Derrick! You have made an ex-Jesuit very happy.

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There's this scene in The Prophecy (with Christopher Walken who plays the angel Gabriel) which looks like the aftermath of the War Between the Angels. I thought this short scene was horrific. And another scene where they show angels flying way up in the sky---the same way you might spot airplanes. In THE PROPHECY, you can't tell a good angel from a bad one--until they try to kill you, of course. It was really cool.

I think that a movie about Armageddon is more effective if you just get glimpses of that. It shouldn't be for humans to see. If we saw it all happening around us--we'd go insane. That's how I'd approach Armageddon, if I was a writer or a director. Because if you film an all out Armageddon, you probably wouldnt be able to tell it from SAVING PRIVATE RYAN or GODZILLA.

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I have not seen THE PROPHECY. Amazing is it not? I have seen an obscure documentary in which the Bashi-Bazouks sacked the Bulgarian town of Batak, and I have not seen THE PROPHECY. ARF !!!!

I will look for it in my local Blockbuster. It sounds like a great movie.

PS. Has anyone read the Millenial series by F. Paul Wilson which started with THE KEEP? In this first book, a great evil is accidentally released onto the world by a bunch of Nazis. Then, the next few books -- THE TOMB, THE TOUCH, REBORN, and REPRISAL -- detail the Rise of the Monster. The last book is the capper -- it is called NIGHTWORLD, and here is the ultimate battle between Good & Evil, with monstrous demon bugs and slithery somethings coming out of an evil bottomless hole in Central Park. What a terrific movie this would make !!!

And while I agree with you, Wart, that a somewhat peripheral approach to Armageddon would probably make a classier movie, I would still like to see something mythically awesome! (Cars crashing on a busy intersection which suddenly disappeared under the Big Toe of the Gog & the Magog !!)

Event Horizon does not show hell, the place, but it does show horrible horrible scenes of what happens when you go to hell. Anyone ever watch those flashing scenes in slow motion? It is pretty foul.

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I actually like EVENT HORIZON. The "hell" scenes were indeed pretty disgusting (was someone's tongue like 3 feet long?); still, I wish they could have shown more. Just a tiny bit. I do have one little quarrel with the movie: why do people in hell speak Latin? I think my beloved Latin has been much abused in Hollywood as the language spoken by Satans & such. Use some other tongue next time, like FRENCH !!!!

It wasn't Latin, he said it sounded like some kind of Latin, and when the bible was first written, it was written in the vernacular language of the time, and at the time it was a form of Latin, but not the Latin known today, so thats probably why.

As for the tounge thing, I thought it was someone reaching down their throat and pulling stuff out?

Yes, but what I heard in the movie (and I've seen EVENT HORIZON 5 times, wow!) sounds just like regular Church Latin. I know a lot of Latin because it was a requirement for us Jesuitical seminarians. If there hadn't been so much growling & foul squishing noises going on in the background, I would have translated what I heard much more easily.

Well I don't know Latin so I don't know what to tell you.

Best Latin in the Movies: THE EXORCIST. Accurate, down to the wording of the exorcism ritual. Made me all teary-eyed.

Oh hey, just thought of one. What Dreams May Come shows hell, although its not how I would of pictured it.

Hey, that was a great vision of hell in "Dreams" -- very Terry Gilliam imaginative, although the movie itself was depressing. Loved the idea of Heaven too: children floating about in filmy pink draperies, giant unicycles, an eternal circus -- the only other thing I would have wanted was an beautiful fountain of spicy fries and crispy fish sticks in tartar sauce. Also, didn't the "real world" in THE MATRIX look quite Hellish as well?

Aagghhh if you thought the Exorcist was scary, I think that a movie about the Apocalypse (if made right with the proper actors, not Leonardo DiCaprio as Satan himself ), would have the potential to be even scarier! I guarantee you, if the movie didn't go on sfx 100% but focused on the script as well, it could easily be the scariest movie ever made!!

Anyone agree??

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