MovieChat Forums > Dark Shadows (2012) Discussion > Mephistolpheles was not Satan...

Mephistolpheles was not Satan...

posted 11 years ago by CountVladDracula
20 replies | jump to latest

I know they get a lot wrong. Hell, the official website even claimed Barnabas was Victorian... But something bugs me. Barnabas repeatedly refers to Mephistopheles as Satan / The Devil as a lead up to the gag about the McDonalds sign.

But here's the thing. Mephistopheles / Mephisto is not The Devil himself. He was a demon in a German folktale about Dr. Faustus AKA Faust. It wasn't until modern fiction such as movies that Satan and Mephistopheles started to marge together. The version Barnabas would have known in 1750 would have been the one from German Folklore or the Christopher Marlowe Dr. Faustus play. No one thought he was Satan himself at that point.

[–] zaphod08 11 years ago

It doesn't matter what the origins of the names, most people equate, Mephistopheles, Lucifer and Satan as one being.

In the kingdom of the blind, you're the village idiot.

[–] CountVladDracula 11 years ago

But the thing is they had Barnabas make the mistake in 1750. The connection of the two did not exist at that point. In fact up to 1831 (When Goethe's Faust Part 2 was published) Mephisto hated being compared to Satan. It wasn't until the twentieth century that the connection was made.

[–] jdude35 11 years ago

CountVladDracula, It's called sloppy, inept writing. What else would you expect from a script penned by the same hand that wrote "Sense and Sensibility and Zombies" and "Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter." Seth Grahame Smith has made a career of creating cow patty pies and calling them "art." He takes a character from literature or history and throws in a monster of some kind. That would be a humorous idea if this was some kind of comedy sketch....only he is gravely serious about his "work." Smith doesn't even care to indulge in any attempt at historical accuracy in his [ahem] books. This is whom Tim Burton decided to hire as a writer for Dark Shadows? Smith had never even seen any of the original series, let alone have an inkling of how to provide characterization for someone from the 18th century. He further demonstrates his paper thin historical knowledge by making vapid jokes. If you watched Burton's Dark Shadows with any expectation of literary, historical, or philosophical depth or accuracy, then your time would be better served learning from a Monty Python sketch. Saying that Seth Grahame Smith's writing and Johnny Depp's treatment of the material is "cartoonish" is an insult to cartoons.

[–] CountVladDracula 11 years ago

Sadly you may be right... I wish John August had done the script.

[–] firechicken 11 years ago

more like, most regular people don't give a sh.t about such trivial nitpicking.

[–] CountVladDracula 11 years ago

Yes, because who wants to address actual folklore in a movie based on a TV show where most characters are from folklore and literature.

[–] firechicken 11 years ago

once again, not many non-geeky people cares.

[–] CountVladDracula 11 years ago

And message boards on the Internet Movie data base totally aren't havens for Geeks...

[–] firechicken 11 years ago

but in this case, you are a geek though.

[–] Loincloth 10 years ago

Having seen this and the Abe Lincoln film and thought they were both quite useless and bittily written, have to agree. What an f'in dreadful writer!

[–] rrandcoyote 10 years ago

Thanks, that provides context for why this flick was such a "cow patty".

Such a shame...

And a waste of Eva Green, who was incredible in Camelot.

----------------- Church ||||||||||||| State .

[–] fluffchop 11 years ago

He sees the M for McDoggles and says Metho-stop-me-please, he never said Sat-nav at the time.

[–] dralla-1 11 years ago

If you want to be correct: This is not a mistake.
Satan (or as you say the devil) in the old jewish books is god's attorny. He does cause problems to people, but only because God wants him to. Satan is an angel that can be an enemy, obstacle, he can be a bad influence, but only to test your faith. Therefore Satan was merely like a job title. Anyone who tests your faith can be called Satan and thusly so can Mephistopheles.
Later in need for good stories, or because of misunderstandings, people refered to Satan as an autonomous being. Also Lucifer means "the one who brings or carries the light" so originally it was a name for Jesus. In this tradtion of bringing a new interpretation to names it is ok to call Mephistopheles Satan too.

[–] Dream_Demon 10 years ago

Actually, "Morningstar" is Lucifer's true name. "Lucifer" is just the Latinized spelling of Morningstar, which does indeed refer to the "Bringer of Light".

Welcome to my Nightmare- Freddy Krueger

[–] CountVladDracula 10 years ago

If you want to be correct: This is not a mistake.
Satan (or as you say the devil) in the old jewish books is god's attorny. He does cause problems to people, but only because God wants him to. Satan is an angel that can be an enemy, obstacle, he can be a bad influence, but only to test your faith. Therefore Satan was merely like a job title. Anyone who tests your faith can be called Satan and thusly so can Mephistopheles.
Later in need for good stories, or because of misunderstandings, people refered to Satan as an autonomous being. Also Lucifer means "the one who brings or carries the light" so originally it was a name for Jesus. In this tradtion of bringing a new interpretation to names it is ok to call Mephistopheles Satan too.

Absolutely not. Mephistopheles was a name invented for the German legend of Faust. And Satan himself was a separate character in that legend. That is literally the first time the name appears, in the German legend of Faust.

[–] userrrrr 10 years ago

mephistopheles was in cats.

[–] Wombstar 10 years ago

LOL. He also had stint in the hit video game series Diablo.

His been quite busy all these years.

[–] darthleather2011 9 years ago

He's also a Marvel Comics villain.

Usually referred to as Mephisto.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z55W6ihUY-c
Moderators are terrorists.

[–] johnf_sf 8 years ago

Wait...so you're saying all fiction must be externally cohesive with all other fiction, and all characters in a fictional story must be perfectly knowledgeable?

Who made this rule?

[–] CountVladDracula 8 years ago

Well, I had assumed this particular fiction was set in a universe that at least somewhat matches our reality based on the pop culture, so by that reasoning I'd figure that the German legend of Faust would also exist. This isn't set in Narnia, it's set in Maine.