Which leads me to a question. How was this movie written? Had the creators seen William Sadler's take on Death years before and incorporated it into the script, or was the script radically altered to suit Sadler's ideas and preconceived interpretation?
Coming Soon... The December Man
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7qj7fRpcXRI
Are you talking about his appearance on Tales From the Crypt? That episode aired in 1994, three years after this movie came out. Not sure why they chose to incorporate Sadler's Grim Reaper into that opening segment, except that Sadler already had a history with the show (starring in the pilot episode). So I guess, canonically, the Cryptkeeper inhabits the same fictional universe as Bill and Ted.
Anyway, the film's take on the Grim Reaper was obviously a reference to Bergman's The Seventh Seal, hence the Swedish(ish) accent. Nothing too radical there in terms of an interpretation.