When your horror flick needs an undisputably evil force to counteract the good guys, you can’t go wrong with the devil. Humanity’s ultimate enemy makes for the perfect foil to any story, but few movies actually get the entity “right.” Against all odds, a 1999 Arnold Schwarzenegger flick perfectly nails the devil’s wanton evil. These are just some of the reasons why End of Days is a definite must-watch!
Schwarzenegger has a knack for starring in films that blend genres perfectly. Just as Predator rocked that sci-fi and macho action flick energy, End of Days translates that into the supernatural realm. Preventing the apocalypse in this flick is as simple (and awesome) as shooting it until it’s dead.
The devil might be the main antagonist in this film, but End of Days also focuses on a very “real” enemy that took 1999 by storm: Y2K. Hearing the characters discuss the imminent end of the world due to malfunctioning computers certainly dates this movie, but it also perfectly encapsulates the audience’s fears at the turn of the millennium.
Instead of getting Commando or The Terminator, what we get in End of Days is a more vulnerable, less superhuman version of Arnold Schwarzenegger. The first time we even see him, he’s about to take his own life. Jericho Cane (awesome name, by the way) is no T-800, far from it. This is a broken man who finds himself involved in something far bigger than he could ever imagine.
There’s something undeniably poetic about seeing Jericho Cane fighting the devil with pure firepower. While even the most pragmatic movies about the devil or demons feature theological warfare of some sort, End of Days presents an even more “interesting” take on humanity’s fight against evil, one that fits adequately with pre9/11’s New York.
Don’t let all the action deceive you: End of Days is a surprisingly solid horror flick as well. Peter Hyams treats the devil much like Jason Voorhees in Friday the 13th: an invincible villain that can be slowed down, but never killed. Hyams was on a roll, having directed undisputed spooky classics like The Relic and the iconic action/sci-fi hybrid, Timecop.
Hyams worked a double role in End of Days, also serving as the movie’s cinematographer. The movie has an impeccable horror ambiance that almost feels like a continuation of Se7en. From dark alleys and metro tunnels to orange-tinted hellish landscapes, some of the best scenes in End of Days don’t even feature anything paranormal at all.
Instead of being an operatic villain like Al Pacino in The Devil’s Advocate, Gabriel Byrne plays a much more over-the-top Satan that fits better with End of Days’s action-heavy narrative. Byrne plays the devil as a slick, corporate predator who doesn’t need a giant pitchfork or inverted pentagrams to be scary—and that’s arguably the most threatening part about his performance.
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