Why I Chose the Devil as My Antagonist

By Damon Robert Graves

When you're writing horror, you have endless options for antagonists. Ghosts. Monsters. Serial killers. Cosmic entities. Vampires. The list goes on.

So why did I choose the Devil himself as the primary antagonist for The Devil and the Awesome Four trilogy?

Because nothing else felt big enough.

The Ultimate Evil Deserves the Ultimate Enemy

My story isn't about a haunted house or a rogue monster. It's about four ordinary people thrust into an apocalyptic battle between good and evil. It's about the literal end of days. Armageddon unleashed on the streets of Los Angeles.

When you're writing stakes that high—when you're defending gateways to the underworld and facing the forces of hell—you need an antagonist who embodies absolute evil. Not metaphorical evil. Not symbolic darkness.

The Devil. Satan himself.

No compromises. No diluted threat. The original adversary, leading his army of demons in a war for humanity's soul.

Why Satan Works for Horror

Here's what makes the Devil such a compelling antagonist for dark fiction:

He's Personal and Universal

Everyone knows who Satan is. Across cultures and religions, the concept of the Devil carries immediate weight. Readers don't need an origin story or lengthy exposition. The moment you say "Satan is hunting them," the threat is understood. The dread is instant.

But in The Devil and the Awesome Four, Satan isn't some distant cosmic force. He's actively hunting four specific people. He wants them dead. He's deployed his entire hellish arsenal—from chainsaw-wielding zombies to bloodthirsty vampires to things far worse—to stop them from defending one of the seven gateways to the underworld.

That combination of universal evil and personal vendetta creates horror that feels both epic and intimate.

He Represents Absolute Corruption

Satan doesn't just want to kill. He wants to corrupt. To break. To turn hope into despair and goodness into ash.

When Ben, Roger, Jackie, and Sarah are thrown into this nightmare, they're not just fighting for survival. They're fighting to remain human in the face of overwhelming darkness. To not become the monsters they're battling against.

The Devil as antagonist raises the question: What happens to ordinary people when they're forced to commit violence on an unimaginable scale? When the body count skyrockets and the bloodshed never stops? Can they win without losing themselves?

He Makes the Impossible Feel Real

There's something terrifyingly grounded about using the Devil in contemporary horror.

Los Angeles is real. The streets are real. The four protagonists are ordinary people living ordinary lives—until they're not. When Satan and his demons invade that reality, when hell literally breaks loose in a recognizable world, the horror hits differently.

It's not fantasy. It's not some distant realm. It's here. Now. In a city we know.

The Devil brings the apocalypse to your doorstep, and suddenly your dream life in a new country becomes your worst nightmare.

The Question That Drives Everything

But here's what makes the Devil truly terrifying in my trilogy: the question of why.

Why these four? What makes Ben, Roger, Jackie, and Sarah special enough to be chosen as defenders of a gateway to hell? Why would Satan himself personally hunt them?

That mystery—that unanswered question of fate versus chance, divine selection versus cosmic accident—creates a layer of existential dread that no other antagonist could provide.

The Devil doesn't just threaten their lives. He threatens their understanding of reality itself. He forces them to confront uncomfortable truths about destiny, purpose, and whether they have any control over their own existence.

No Punches Pulled

I write dark, gritty horror that doesn't look away from violence or suffering. Using Satan as the antagonist gave me permission to unleash hell—literally.

Chainsaw-wielding zombie lunatics. Bloodthirsty female vampires. Vicious aliens. An army of demons. Violence and bloodshed on a scale never seen before.

When your antagonist is the embodiment of evil itself, you can push horror to its absolute limits. You can make the nightmare as visceral and relentless as it needs to be. Because if the Devil is real, if hell is breaking loose, then nothing is off the table.

No creature is too terrifying. No violence too extreme. No nightmare too dark.

The Battle Between Good and Evil

Ultimately, I chose the Devil because The Devil and the Awesome Four is a story about the oldest conflict in existence: good versus evil.

Not moral ambiguity. Not shades of gray. Not "everyone's the villain in their own story."

Just pure, primal warfare between light and darkness. Between humanity's will to survive and hell's desire to consume. Between four ordinary people who refuse to break and the Devil who will stop at nothing to destroy them.

That's the kind of horror that keeps me up at night as a writer. The kind that demands everything from the characters and the readers.

And it requires an antagonist worthy of that battle.

The Devil himself.

The Devil and the Awesome Four trilogy by Damon Robert Graves. Book 1: Rise of the Four and Book 2: Resurrector available now on Amazon. Discover why these four were chosen—and whether they can survive what comes next.