Satan, anti-christ, false prophet

[Cyberman]

The Antichrist is still a staple of horror fiction. Kudos to John of Patmos for giving us centuries of thrillers and scary movies. I think we can get some more mileage out of Satan. Good Old Scratch! Keep up the spooky stuff!

I've written before about the little horror film script bouncing around Hollywood in the seventies, before landing on the desk of Alan Ladd jr, then head of 20th Century Fox. Fox was floundering financially at the time, but the success of films such as The Exorcist gave Ladd the encouragement to take a gamble. Some scenes were set in a hospital and filmed on location, with notices explaining why sections of the building were sealed off. Several expectant mothers objected to the filming, deciding that the working title of The Birthmark was too much of an omen. The title was changed, the film was a hit, and the resulting financial boost allowed Ladd to greenlight another screenplay doing the rounds of Hollywood; a little sci-fi romp called The Star Wars.

So to sum up: without the devil, or at least superstition, cinema as we know it today might never have happened. Whether that's a good thing or not is up for debate.