The 10 Best Depictions Of Hell In Entertainment

To believers, Hell is a place of unimaginable suffering, where blasphemous and unholy tortures are dispensed like unwanted gumballs and mortals face their greatest fears over and over until their bodies, minds, and souls are irreparably broken. For everyone else, though, it’s an imaginary place full of awesome demons that’s fun to visit now and again in movies, books, and video games.

The Diablo series always portrays an epic struggle between the heavens and the realm known as the Burnings Hells, with angels and demons locked in endless conflict. And with Diablo III coming to consoles today, we wanted to put together a list of the 10 best depictions of Hell in entertainment.

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comics / 1988-2013

Hell plays an integral role in Hellblazer, the DC/Vertigo comics on which the 2005 film Constantine was based. The series concluded this year with its 300th issue.

Its depiction of Hell is both traditional and dynamic; Hell in Hellblazer is the habitat of unspeakable demons, yes, and it's where humans are punished for their sins. But each regretful soul is tormented with tortures malevolently designed to cause the most suffering to that particular individual.

Each person gets their own special room in Hellblazer's Hell—and a further twist of the knife is that individuals find themselves there not because of any god's judgment, but because they themselves believe it's where they belong.

In Constantine, Hell appears as a gale-swept and desolate metropolis where bodies are tortured and devoured just under the surface.

amusement park ride / 1955-present

Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride is a kids ride at the Disneyland theme park in Anaheim, Calif., but don’t let that fool you into thinking it’s harmless. If you don’t know what to expect you might be in for a nasty surprise when the quaint little car you're riding in plummets straight into the depths of Hell itself.

It’s more an academic scare than a physical one, as the ride goes about 5 mph throughout, but you’ve got to pay attention to the context. After stopping in the local pub and having some pints to go, you’re sentenced to prison (for DUI presumably) by an overbearing judge. You escape from your cell only to crash headlong into a speeding train, and sinner that you are, it’s straight to Hell you go.

It’s uncomfortably hot down there, and you’re always glad when the ride is over.

film / 2000

We don’t front when it comes to Adam Sandler. The dude made some hilarious films in his heyday. Granted, Little Nicky was not his best, but its portrayal of Hell was spot-on. For one thing, every day at 4 p.m. the Prince of Darkness shoves a pineapple up Hitler’s ass. And Hitler has to choose the pineapple. And he’s dressed like a sexy maid. Also, Lucifer is played by Rodney Dangerfield. Genius!

comic strip / 1989-present

Dilbert is under-appreciated these days. Throughout the structured corporate office life of the ’90s, its often macabre and always dry humor was the perfect balm for the 9-to-5 blues. It even featured its own version of Hell: the watered down, office-friendly “Heck.”

Heck in Dilbert is a bearably unpleasant place ruled over not by Satan or Lucifer, but by a mildly malevolent man named Phil, the Prince of Insufficient Light. He wields a slightly menacing spoon instead of a pitchfork, and his judgments are more often dispensed in the form of an enthusiastic “darning” than endless torture. His lone dark servant, Ed from Accounting, is more irritating than evil.

video game / 2004

Once the main campaign is completed (when did Tony Hawk games get campaigns, anyway?) you’re thrust into the belly of an alien space ship to grind on otherworldly technology and knock over little green men. But the weirdness doesn’t stop there.

If you sticker-slap two buttons on the space ship, you find yourself back on earth, in some sort of native temple; tag five pagan idols here, and a portal to infernal Hell opens, beckoning you with its cleansing fires.

Hell in THUG 2 at first appears pretty straightforward; there's lava, giant bones, and half-pipes. But if you grind the right spots a demon's enormous mouth falls open, and inside you can dance with the devil himself. Apparently Satan is into lounge singers.

television / 1989-present

Given how long The Simpsons has aired and the frequency with which it explores Christian themes it’s not surprising that Hell has appeared in more than one episode. Often the devil is portrayed by Ned Flanders, the Simpson family’s annoyingly pious neighbor, cloven hooves and all. In Season 5, Episode 5, “Treehouse of Horror IV,” for example, devil-Ned tempts Homer with a delicious donut and wins his immortal soul in the bargaining.

In the show’s version of Hell demons slave away in “Ironic Punishment Division” labs in efforts to invent elaborate and exquisite tortures for their human victims. Homer’s chopped into slices by a demon chef, then force-fed an uncountable number of donuts, which somehow fails to satiate his hunger. It takes a visit to a poorly managed BBQ restaurant before the horror of his situation finally sinks in. And that's why we love The Simpsons.

epic poem / 14th century

In Dante Alighieri’s epic poem, he braves demonic Hell before traveling through Purgatory and eventually reaching Heaven. And trust us, that is a simplified explanation.

Hell itself is divided into nine circles, seven of which represent the Catholic faith’s seven deadly sins. These are further divided into categories based on love: excessive love (Lust, Gluttony, Greed), deficient love (Sloth), and malicious love (Wrath, Envy, Pride).

The other two circles contain virtuous pagans ignorant of Christianity and heretics who confused Christ’s message. Because, you know, those are totally the same thing.

Punishments in this Hell, as in many others, are based on poetic justice—i.e., a fortune teller who tried to look ahead in life has his head put on backward, so he can only see behind him.

We have to mention the Visceral and EA game Dante's Inferno because—let’s face it—it was awesome. It was based on the poem, only instead of striving to find salvation Dante journeys through Hell messing stuff up to rescue his girlfriend. Practically the same thing.

video game / 1993

Hell is not just a destination in the universe of Doom. It’s a source—the source of all the demons that pour forth and torment the world of men. Unlike in most works, Hell in Doom can’t wait for humans to die and take the plunge. It’s the headquarters of a full-on invasion.

Luckily, the charismatic and talkative Doomguy is always there to set things right. He does this with a variety of ballistic weaponry, because it turns out demons are mortal after all.

One of the most interesting things about the Hell portrayed in these classic games is that its demons appear to have developed (or stolen from humans) advanced weapons technology, often fusing massive guns with their own bodies. In Doom 2, the final boss is an enormous demon/robot hybrid referred to as the Icon of Sin.

film / 1991

Bill and Ted’s Bogus Journey is the direct sequel to the more fondly remembered Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure. But where the latter was a whimsical and lighthearted romp through history, the sequel opened with its eponymous protagonists being murdered and plummeting to Hell. The film was originally called Bill and Ted Go to Hell, which may have better prepared audiences for its more macabre content.

In Hades, they’re made to perform manual labor and the devil torments them by making them face their fears, including the Easter bunny and an elderly woman. The duo then meets Death, whom they best in various contests—you know, Battleship, Twister, Clue; the usual.

Later, Bill and Ted meet God, who introduces them to an alien, who helps them defeat their evil robot doppelgangers. Yeah, it’s a messed up movie.

film / 1999

The South Park movie was a chance for Trey Parker and Matt Stone to finally stretch their glorious wings and do whatever they wanted without worrying about stuffy TV censors looking over their shoulders. They took the opportunity to set much of the film in Hell, where poor Kenny is trapped after a tragic attempt to light a fart on fire.

Similarly, a traditional-looking Satan is trapped in an abusive relationship with Saddam Hussein, who in the real world was not even dead yet at the time the South Park movie was created. One has to surmise that he was simply there on holiday.

Hell in South Park is full of horrors, but even after Saddam and Satan take advantage of an American-Canadian war on earth to invade the surface with their forces of darkness this version of Satan is still a sympathetic character. You genuinely feel bad for him. And that’s a singular feat.