5 Nerve-Tickling 'Deal With the Devil' Movies While You Wait For Constantine 2

5. Faust (1926)

The most classic tale about a deal with the devil, Faust follows an elderly alchemist who takes a “trial period” of Hell’s overlord’s powers to save his hometown from the plague. Despite his miraculous feat, the townsfolk shun Faust for turning his back on God; deserted and hated, the alchemist finalizes his deal with the devil.

He becomes young again and finds true love, but the devil doesn’t allow happiness for his subjects. Set up by his new master, Faust is accused of murder, and so is his lover. Their child dies, and the young woman is sentenced to be burned alive. In the last moment, Faust defies the devil and joins her at the fire to burn together.

4. The Phantom of the Opera (1989)

What’s the dream of any artist? For their art to keep living and inspiring others, of course. A talented composer Erik Destler makes a deal with the devil wishing for people to love him for his music, and he gets what he asked for. His magnum opus, Don Juan Triumphant, becomes an immensely popular and beloved opera piece.

But the devil turns the composer’s wish against him: he terribly disfigures the man’s face claiming that now, people will love him only for his music. Immortal, hideous, and desperate, Destler spends centuries trying to find true love, devolving deeper into madness, turning into a monster, and killing everyone who stands in his way.

3. Needful Things (1993)

A mysterious man arrives in a small town and opens a rather peculiar shop. There, the town’s residents always find what their hearts desire the most, including some blatantly supernatural things like a toy predicting each horse race’s results. But Mr. Gaunt, the shop owner, doesn’t accept cash for payment — or rather, not just cash.

Each purchase in the enigmatic shop is paid for with a little prank on a neighbor. Soon, the scale of these “jokes” grows from innocent to straight-up disastrous as the needs of the clients become more desperate. The town’s residents hate each other and violence enters its streets, and Mr. Gaunt simply watches everything go to hell.

2. Ghost Rider (2007)

A young motorbike stuntman Johnny took after his father and for a time, the two lived peacefully — until the latter fell victim to cancer. Desperate and unable to watch his father suffer, Johnny reaches out to the devil and offers his soul as payment for ridding the old man of cancer. The devil agrees, and the next day, the man is cured.

But after fulfilling his end of the bargain, the devil makes it so that same evening, Johnny’s father dies after a stunt gone wrong. Since technically, the devil didn’t go against the contract, the young man is now forced to forever serve his new master in the form of the Ghost Rider — the spirit of vengeance tormenting the wicked.

1. The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (2009)

Many decades ago, Doctor Parnassus, the owner of the magical Imaginarium, made a deal with the devil that made him immortal so that he and his troupe could forever entertain people. In his Imaginarium, Doctor Parnassus lets every guest see the perfect world of their dreams and then has them make a choice: truth or ignorance.

Everything goes well until Parnassus’s second deal with the devil is revealed: to return his youth, the Doctor promised his child’s soul to the devil as soon as they turned 16. His daughter is just about to cross the bridge and become the devil’s plaything, and Parnassus makes a new wager with the devil to save her and loses it.