Deals with the Devil in popular culture
The idea of making a deal with the Devil has appeared many times in works of popular culture.
In print
- In many variants of the Aarne-Thompson type 361, of which Bearskin is an instance, the hero escapes, but the devil still comes off the better: the heroine's sisters have killed themselves, and he has gained two souls instead of one.
- The story of Theophilus of Adana, a saint who made a deal with the devil, predates the Faust legend and is a likely partial inspiration.
- The compact between human hubris and diabolical intelligence raises the old tale to its cultural peak in Goethe's Faust.
Other works depicting deals with the Devil include:
- The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus, by Christopher Marlowe
- Faust, by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
- Faust, opera by Charles Gounod
FaustEric, by Terry Pratchett- The Bottle Imp, by Robert Louis Stevenson
- Mefistofele, opera by Arrigo Boito
- St. John's Eve (short story), by Nikolai Gogol
- Mephisto, novel by Klaus Mann
- The Master and Margarita, novel by Mikhail Bulgakov
- Melmoth the Wanderer, novel by Charles Maturin
- The Devil and Tom Walker, a short story by Washington Irving
- The Devil and Daniel Webster, short story based on the Washington Irving story; by Steven Vincent Benét
- The Devil to Pay in the Backlands, novel by Guimarães Rosa
- Pani Twardowska, poem by Adam Mickiewicz
- The Picture of Dorian Gray, novel by Oscar Wilde
- Gimmicks Three, by Isaac Asimov
- That Hell-Bound Train, by Robert Bloch
- Rosemary's Baby, novel by Ira Levin
- Jack Faust, novel by Michael Swanwick
- The Year the Yankees Lost the Pennant, a novel by Douglass Wallop, upon which Damn Yankees, the musical theatre production and film by George Abbott and Stanley Donen was based
- The Bet, by Anton Chekhov
- Memnoch the Devil, by Anne Rice
- Young Goodman Brown, by Nathaniel Hawthorne
- Kuroshitsuji or Black Butler, a manga by Yana Toboso
- The Spider-Man storyline One More Day.
- Peter Schlemiel by Adelbert von Chamisso
In film
- Faust (1926): Faust makes a pact with the devil to save the town from plague. Directed by F.W. Murnau, starring Gösta Ekman and Camilla Horn.
- The Devil and Daniel Webster (1941)
- Doctor Faustus (1967): a film based on Christopher Marlowe's The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus, starring Richard Burton, Elizabeth Taylor and Andreas Teuber.
- Bedazzled (1967) in this film, the main character exchanges his soul for seven wishes which all go wrong
- Rosemary's Baby (1968): Guy Woodhouse offers his son to the devil for wealth and success.
- The Mephisto Waltz (film), people transferring their personalities from one body to another with Satan's help, each such change "paid for" by committing a murder.
- Belladonna (1973), a film inspired by 19th century perceptions of medieval witchcraft, centres on a woman's pact with the Devil
- Phantom of the Paradise (1974)
- Oh, God! You Devil (1984): a struggling musician makes a deal with the devil and finds out that fame and groupies are not worth the consequences.
- Crossroads (1986)
- Angel Heart (1987): the devil tries to claim the soul he was promised by a man who doesn't remember it
- Faust (1994): Mixed live-action and animation, directed by Czech surrealist Jan Švankmajer.
- The Day of the Beast (1995)
- The Devil's Advocate (1997): A Florida attorney begins working for a law firm that is run by the Devil.
- H-E Double Hockey Sticks (1999): A devil-in-training convinces a rising hockey star to sell him his soul for the Stanley Cup.
- Bedazzled (2000) (remake of the 1967 original)
- O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000): a trio of chain gang escapees in Depression-era Mississippi encounter a black youth named Tommy Johnson, who claims to have sold his soul to the devil in exchange for being able to play the guitar.
- Faust: Love of the Damned (2000): A man sells his soul in order to get revenge on his girlfriend's killers.
- Pact with the Devil (2001)
- Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny (2006)
- Ghost Rider (2007): A young stunt rider sells his soul to the inter-dimensional demon Mephisto (a stand-in for Mephistopholes of Faustian legend) to cure his father's cancer. As with Faust, the demon takes liberties with his end of the bargain.
- The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (2009)
In music
In television
- The Collector, about a former monk who sold his soul to the Devil in the 14th century.
- Multiple episodes of The Twilight Zone involved sales of character's souls to the devil or to demons.
- In Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "Devil's Due", an alien planet's population had made an agreement of servitude with the devil in exchange for solving all the world's problems for one thousand years.
- In The Simpsons episode "Treehouse of Horror IV", Homer makes a pact with the devil (who turned out to be Ned Flanders' "true" form) for a donut. He ends up keeping his soul as he had already given it to Marge in a love letter.
- The TV series G vs E featured several people who made deals with the forces of evil. These people were known collectively as "Faustians".
- In Supernatural episode "All Hell Breaks Loose, Part 2", Dean makes a pact with the red-eyed Demon to resuscitate his brother.
- In Supernatural episode "In My Time of Dying", John Winchester makes a pact with the Yellow-Eyed Demon (Azazel) to bring his son, Dean out of a coma which he has no hope of recovering from.
- In Metalocalypse episode "Bluesklok", the band is told to make a deal with the devil to get blues-playing skill.
- In Reaper, about a young man, Sam Oliver, whose parents sold his soul to the Devil to save the father from a serious illness. He must work as Satan's bounty hunter, or his mother's soul is forfeit.
- In the third season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the primary villain was the mayor of Sunnydale, who had ascended to power as the mayor in preparation for either ascending to immortal demonic status himself or losing his power and soul, after founding the town 100 years previously as a place for demons to feed.
- In Charmed episode "Soul Survivor", Paige discovers a businessman who sells his soul to a demon in exchange for success, and tries to rescue him.
- In the Futurama episode "Hell is Other Robots", Bender is sent to Robot Hell for his sins. Fry and Leela enter Robot Hell to save him, where The Robot Devil tells them that the only way to win back Bender's soul is to beat him in a musical contest using a solid gold fiddle (in accordance to "The Fairness in Hell Act of 2275"). The terms of the pact were similar to the song The Devil Went Down to Georgia. In another Futurama episode "The Devil's Hands are Idle Playthings", Fry makes a deal with the Robot Devil so that Fry can play the holophonor and show his love for Leela. The Robot devil asks for nothing in return, apparently just hoping to use the deal as an excuse to torment an innocent robot. When his penchant for random torment (and, ironically, his penchant for irony) leads to his own hands being given to Fry, the Robot Devil makes a deal with Bender that causes him to deafen Leela, then a deal with Leela to give back her hearing in exchange for her hand in marriage as she wants to hear Fry's Opera about her, all in a ploy to get his own hands back as he threatens to take her to Hell. Bender remarks in this episode that "you may have to make a metaphorical deal with the devil, and by devil, I mean Robot Devil, and by metaphorical, I mean get your coat."
- In The Monkees episode, "The Devil and Peter Tork" Peter finds himself inadvertently trading his soul with a pawn shop proprietor, who's really Mr. S. Zero who has come to purchase another soul, for the ability to play the harp. The other Monkees had to engage in a court battle to save Peter's soul and convince Zero that Peter doesn't need Zero's magic to play the harp. To prove this, Zero took his magic away from Peter and made the harp appear. With the urging of his bandmates, Peter went to the harp and played "I Wanna Be Free" to save his soul and send Zero back to Hell empty-handed.
- In Derren Brown's TV show Trick or Treat, prior to choosing a card, the participants must sign a Faustian Contract, which lets Derren do anything he pleases.
- In the Yu-Gi-Oh! GX anime series, Professor Viper makes a deal with Yubel's severed arm to revive his deceased foster son.
- The Devil and Daniel Mouse, a Halloween special based on the Washington Irving short story.
- In the Tokusatsu series Kamen Rider Kiva, Otoya Kurenai was rumored to sold his soul to the devil in creating the Bloody Rose violin. At the start of the series' 17th episode, Niccolò Paganini is referenced in the opening scenes.
In games
- In Grim Grimoire, devil's contracts are a recurring theme in the game's story. It is first used when character Bartido Ballentyne sells his soul to the devil teacher Advocat in exchange for Lillet Blan's safety, however time reverts back five days and the contract no longer exists because the event has technically not taken place yet. The next time it is used by Lillet herself in exchange for use of the grimoire "Lemegaton", and while she keeps the Lemegaton going back in time, the event is removed from history. It is used one more time by Lillet in exchange for a single wish from Grimlet, a powerful devil, but Grimlet is forced back to hell after refusing to do what Lillet commands, worshiping god. The contract is destroyed, and she banishes Grimlet as she had intended.
- In the Tekken series, Kazuya Mishima makes a deal with the Devil in order to obtain enough power to defeat his ruthless father, Heihachi. This deal has dire consequences, as it strips Kazuya of all the good within him, gives him a Devil Gene, and passes a Devil Gene onto his son, Jin Kazama, whose influence with the Devil has made him into the main antagonist of Tekken 6.
- In Doom 3, Dr. Betruger made a deal with the forces of Hell for supernatural power and command of the demons in an attempt to conquer the world.
- In the Deception video games, Faustian bargains are a recurring theme. The character Allura inadvertently agrees to a deal with the demon Malphas by allowing her to create powerful traps to kill her enemies in exchange for devouring the victim's soul.
- In the Soul series, Siegfried Schtauffen made a deal with the demonic sword Soul Edge for power and the ability to avenge his father's death, resulting in Soul Edge possessing him and turning him into the dark knight Nightmare. One of Siegfried's weapons is named Faust in reference to this story element.
- A similar concept of a pact with the devil was featured in the game The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. The antagonist of the game, Zant, makes a pact with Ganon (the series' equivalent to Satan) for power and authority to conquer the Twilight Realm and Hyrule. This was mutually beneficial for both parties so that they both become rulers of said realms.
In comics and webcomics
- In the original English-language manga webcomic Demon Candy: Parallel, the main character, Jonathan, accidentally sells his soul to a succubus called Noelle for a Klondike bar. The main plot of the series sees him being taken to Hell and transformed into an incubus. He then makes another deal with the queen of the succubus, Victoria, in which Jonathan must resist her sexual and fetishistic advances for a year. If he does so, he will get his soul back. If he fails he remains in Hell forever as a slave to Victoria. Noelle herself sold her soul to Victora in exchange for a Kit Kat.