The Eternal Struggle: The Battle Between Good and Evil
Every culture has stories about good fighting evil. But the line between them keeps moving depending on who's telling the story. What counts as evil in one era becomes heroic in another.
I was seven or eight when I first watched The Omen. Cross-legged on the carpet, heart pounding, watching something wrong unfold on screen. That feeling hooked me. I've been drawn to films about good and evil ever since.
What draws me to these films
The films I keep returning to: Constantine, The Seventh Sign, The Serpent and the Rainbow, Prince of Darkness, Jacob's Ladder, Hellraiser, The Last Temptation of Christ. They're horror films, sure, but they're also wrestling with something. What would you do if evil was real and coming for you? What if you had to choose between saving yourself and saving everyone else?
Constantine
Constantine is about a guy who's been to Hell and back, chain-smoking his way through life, trying to earn his way into Heaven by fighting demons. The movie asks whether someone who's done terrible things can actually be redeemed. John Constantine isn't a good person. He's a pragmatic one. Can that be enough?
The Seventh Sign is harder to shake. Demi Moore plays a woman pregnant with what might be the savior of the world, or its destroyer. Biblical seals of the apocalypse, sacrifice, destiny you can see coming but can't stop. It messes with you.
The Serpent and the Rainbow, based loosely on true events, explores the line between life and death through Haitian voodoo. The scenes where Bill Pullman's character gets buried alive still haunt me.
Fear and doubt
Prince of Darkness should be watched late at night with the lights off. Secret church basement, mysterious green liquid that might be Satan's essence, scientists who get in over their heads. The movie suggests science and religion might be two sides of the same coin. The ending will stick with you.
Jacob's Ladder is more psychological. Tim Robbins plays a Vietnam vet haunted by visions that may or may not be real. It's about guilt, trauma, and how easily we can lose our grip on reality. One bad day.
Hell on earth
Hellraiser is the one I think about most. Clive Barker's Cenobites, with their leather and chains, are the embodiment of pain and pleasure intertwined. But are they evil, or just fulfilling their purpose? The movie doesn't give you an easy answer.
The Last Temptation of Christ is controversial, but it's not blasphemous. It's about Jesus wrestling with the temptation to choose an easier path. The desire to escape fate, the conflict between duty and desire. That's human.
The Omen
And then there's The Omen, where it all started for me. From the moment Damien's nanny hangs herself at his birthday party, you know something is deeply wrong. The question the movie poses: can evil be born, or is it made? If it can be born, what does that mean for the rest of us?
These films aren't just entertainment. They're about the darkness we recognize in ourselves and the world. They ask questions most movies are afraid to ask. That's why I keep watching them.
