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Researchers
Professors
Birack
Professor Howard Birack
Played By: Victor Wong
A well-known quantum physicist contacted by the priest to investigate Satan and expose its existence to the world.
- Agent Scully: Somewhat. He's a bit more open-minded than most examples of this trope, and eventually comes around to believe the priest.
Leahy
Professor Leahy
Played By: Peter Jason
Another professor, who brings his students to help research at Birack’s request.
- And I Must Scream: After being possessed, he’s left in a state of constant pain.
Students
Brian
Catherine
Catherine Danforth
Played By: Lisa Blount
Walter
Walter
Played By: Dennis Dun
- Ambiguously Gay: According to his doctor, he suffered from "homosexual panic" as a preteen, but nothing more is made of it.
- Idiot Ball: While hiding in a closet, he idly sits around snarking for hours while his friends try to bust down the wall and free him, instead of using his large, heavy flashlight to help by knocking the wall out from his end (the Mag Lite flashlight he's using is shock-resistant and can even function as a billy club, so it could handle the abuse). By the time it does occur to him to try it, his possessed cohorts are within moments of breaking into the closet and grabbing him.
- Plucky Comic Relief: In an otherwise grim movie, he provides the majority of the humor.
Kelly
Kelly
Played By: Susan Blanchard
- Body Horror: After becoming the vessel for Satan, she appears more and more rotten and decayed as time goes by.
- The Chosen One: A very dark example. She is chosen by Satan to become his primary vessel after being freed, allowing him to free the Anti-God.
Calder
Calder
Played By: Jessie Lawrence Ferguson
- And I Must Scream: He attempts to kill himself when he sees what he's become. It doesn't stick.
- Gentle Giant: He's the largest and most muscular of the students, and is a friendly, earnest guy before being possessed.
- Laughing Mad: His unnerving laughter after being possessed veers between maniacal giggles and piteous sobbing.
- Nice Guy: He's the friendliest of the students, making his fate all the more horrific and tragic.
- Scary Black Man: After being possessed, he has a very unnerving evil giggle.
Susan
Susan
Played By: Ann Howard
- Happily Married: Seems to be this; one of her fellow students refers to her as being "very" married.
- Nerds Are Sexy: Etchinson apparently thinks she is, but he's dissuaded by Wyndham.
- Running Gag: No one seems to know who she is without being prompted "Radiologist, Glasses".
Lisa
Lisa
Played By: Ann Yen
Lomax
Lomax
Played By: Ken Wright
Mullins
Mullins
Played By: Dirk Blocker
Wyndham
Frank Wyndham
Played By: Robert Grasmere
- Agent Scully: He clearly doesn’t believe any of what he hears about Satan and the Anti-God.
- Came Back Wrong: After dying, he is revived as a Mouth of Sauron simultaneously being controlled and devoured by a swarm of black bugs.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: He decides the whole operation is bullshit and walks out. It gets him killed by one of the bums.
Etchinson
Etchinson
Played By: Thom Bray
Others
The Priest
The Priest
Played By: Donald Pleasence
A priest who contacts Birack after discovering the true nature of Satan, seeking to expose Satan’s existence to the outside world as he fears Satan will soon break free.
- Badass Preacher: Downplayed. For most of the movie, he's just scared out of his mind and doesn't do a whole lot except try to warn everyone about Satan's plan. Towards the end, he comes face to face with Kelly, who has become the vessel for Satan, and chops off her head, though it doesn't last since she just puts it back on.
- No Name Given: Officially. Fans of the film give him the moniker "Father Loomis."
Satan
In General
Satan
Satan
The Prince of Darkness. Here, Satan is not a Big Red Devil, but is instead a swirling mass of green liquid sealed in a canister that seeks to release his father the Anti-God from his prison.
- The Antichrist: Described as such, though he doesn't operate like most examples.
- Demonic Possession: Sort of. If anyone ingests the liquid he sprays out, they're taken over by a particle of him, becoming little more than zombies. It takes having the whole canister full dumped on someone chosen by him to become his vessel in order to get out himself.
- Eldritch Abomination: He's about as incomprehensible as they get, assuming the form of a green liquid and "possessing" anyone who comes close to his prison with particles of himself.
- No-Sell: Reacts to a decapitation by just putting his host's head back on.
- Sealed Evil in a Can: Probably the most literal example of this trope ever. And he's leaking out.
The Anti-God
The Anti-God
The opposite of God, the Anti-God was somehow sealed off into another dimension consisting of anti-matter, only accessible through mirrors.
- The Anti-God: It's Exactly What It Says on the Tin. As Birack puts it, he creates darkness instead of light.
- Eldritch Abomination: Even more than Satan. He is anti-matter, existing in the corruption and decay of life, and resides in a dimension parallel to ours that's only accessible through mirrors by his son.
- Names to Run Away from Really Fast: What about being "anti-god" didn't tip you off?
- Unseen Evil: Nothing is seen except the tip of its clawed hand in a watery void.
