Loonatic's Favorite Angels and Demons Films

This could be venturing into a different genre, but to me urban fantasy is so diverse that you could break it into sub-categories. Different types of movies set in the modern time, like fairytales, vampires, werewolves, zombies, etc. Along with that is a populous sub-category I call "angels and demons" or modern-era fantasy films involving the angels and/or demons. Now some of these movies edge more into using these ideas to specifically praise and reinforce Christian teachings (there's a whole genre of Christian fiction), but the ones I think of in urban fantasy lean in another direction. These are the films that use these Judeo-Christian supernatural beings to explore good and evil, faith, the nature of existence, etc., but they don't hold one religion or way of existence above any other. In other words, the focus is on storytelling rather than religion. Anyway, here's a few favorites that fall into this weird category.

1. The Prophecy (1995)
Did you ever want to see an angel? Well if you watched this movie the answer would be answer would be a resounding no. Thomas Dagget has a pretty good idea of what angels really are: soldiers and psychopaths. Once a man of faith with ambitions for the priesthood, he fled before horrific visions and now works as a homicide detective. But when an angel ends up in dead in the streets, Dagget has to wonder what worse things are to follow. Sorting through ancient bibles and the day’s newspaper clippings, Dagget is led into the desert on the path of a murderer. They also reveal a remarkable prophecy, one that tells of a second war in heaven and the soul of a man. With the aid of a schoolteacher he faces down angels aplenty, each more terrible than the last, and must make a stand to save a child and possibly the world.

This thought-provoking film has a lot of depth in its story and its characters and performances truly make it singular. Although the humans are fairly ordinary, the depictions of the angels are each in their own way chilling and alien. Christopher Walken takes center stage as Gabriel, but equally fantastic performances of Eric Stoltz as Simon and Viggo Mortenson as Lucifer. As angels they have an aura of power, and from our human perspective it’s never quite clear where that power ends or what their rules are. In most films this vagueness ruins the premise, but here it just makes the angels that much scarier. You never know exactly who to trust, or exactly what they will do. Really all we can hope is that Dagget and the other humans survive their encounters with these grace-touched monsters.

2. Dogma (1999)
Bethany Sloan is a born Catholic soured on life’s sucker punches. But when a sarcastic Voice of God appears in a blaze of glory and asks her to go on a quest to save the world, she has to reconsider what she’s willing to believe. Two renegade angels are quite innocently trying to go home and send a few sinners out with a bang. But through a misplaced belief or two, their ambitions might lead to the negation of all existence. But since someone’s got to stop it, Bethany goes on a crazed road trip to the fabled land of New Jersey. Along the way she has to navigate a maze of Christian mythology, dodging stoner prophets, demon kids, sassy muses, and extra apostles. When she finally makes it, she has to sort between beliefs and ideas about herself and God, and figure out what it truly means to have faith.

Like the best comedies, Dogma is always ready to poke fun at the hypocrisies and reveal the truths of religion and faith. Sometimes crass and at all times completely irreverent, it’s not afraid to turn some of the most basic ideas of the Christian faith upside down. Great writing draws in great actors, and so it features witty performances from Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, Alan Rickman, Chris Rock, Jason Lee, Linda Fiorento, Salma Hayek, George Carlin, and a host of others. I’ll admit it’s a bit hokey to put the director and his friend as major roles in the story, but by and large it works out pretty well. It’s a fun ride, and well worth it. 

3. Constantine (2005)

In Los Angeles there's exactly one exorcist to call upon: John Constantine. A holy man he is not. This ill-tempered chain-smoker is counting the days until his own one-way trip to Hell, and spends his remaining time trying to send enough demons below to buy his way into Heaven. But if that wasn't enough to worry about, it seems that the end of the world is heading for the City of Angels. The discovery of an infamous artifact and the apparent suicide of a mental patient sets the dominoes falling, sending a troubled detective and a plague of demons to Constantine's door. Add to the mix a liberal helping of angels, psychics, and voodoo sorcerers and you've got an explosive recipe for turning the cold war of Heaven and Hell into a full-blown Armageddon. Good thing we've got the only soul Lucifer would personally drag into Perdition's flames on the case.

I think most people have forgotten that this movie is based on a comic book series. Constantine flopped on its own series for broadcast television and he pops up sometimes in the Arrowverse set of TV series, but this 2005 movie is usually thrown in with the action or urban fantasy genres. Keanu Reeves isn't exactly the best Constantine, but the rest of the cast is phenomenal. There's Rachel Weisz as the cop always in the wrong place at the wrong time, Tilda Swinton as the archangel Gabriel, Djimon Hounsou as neutral holy man Midnite, and Peter Stormare as a truly bone-chilling King of Hell. And I'm not a Shia LeBeouf fan, but even I have to admit he works in small doses as Constantine's taxi-driving sidekick. As a stand-alone movie it works pretty well and is definitely worth a viewing.

4. Legion (2010)
In the desert lies a dusty little diner at Paradise Falls, a place where people never really intend on going but end up getting stuck there anyway. But when the outside world goes silent this out-of-the-way waystation gets a lot more traffic then anyone ever expected. Killers with supernatural strength and agility show up, but so does the angel Michael. Acting against orders by refusing to participate in Judgement Day, Michael and the humans mount a defense against the soldiers of Heaven to enable the birth of a child that wasn't meant to be born. But can they truly defy the will of God and, more importantly, should they?

This film is not terribly deep, but it's a solid movie anyway. Paul Bettany steals the show as the angel Michael, conveying the otherworldly purpose and bearing of a terrifying soldier of God. Also a great performance from Dennis Quaid, and some surprisingly decent parts from Fast and Furious franchise regulars Lucas Black and Tyrese Gibson. And like Prophecy it has some interesting messages about the nature of angels. When demons possess humans and use them as puppets it's disturbing, but you wouldn't expect angels to do the same and somehow make it even more disturbing. And the traditional view of Christian Armageddon is an ending made possibly by Hell, but this version makes it chillingly clear that the image of the old-school wrathful deity would be just as likely to move up the timeline on a whim.