Death (personification) - in Popular Culture

In Popular Culture

In Ingmar Bergman's film The Seventh Seal (1957), a knight returning from the Crusades during a time of plague plays chess with Death, ostensibly in a hopeless attempt to win his own life, but in fact to distract Death from other people for a time. This portrayal of Death has often been referenced or parodied, for example in The Dove (1968), Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey (1991) and Last Action Hero (1993).

Death is the main antagonist in the movie series Final Destination.

Death is a recurring (supporting) character in the Discworld novels, and the main focus of six novels, starting with Mort.

Homer became Death in an episode of The Simpsons

The Grim Reaper appears in a humorous context in the film Monty Python's The Meaning of Life (1983), when he appears at a dinner party.

The song "Death's Diary" from Marc Almond's album Enchanted features Death writing in his diary. On Monday he kills a flower, and then progresses until Sunday when he kills the entire world with a bomb. With each kill, he states that "there's room in my diary for you, my friend." He also states that he can be both terrible and gentle (after taking a suffering man). He also mentions Rape personified and a city addicted to heroin.

The Grim Reaper, Lord Death, is one of the main protagonists in the manga series Soul Eater.

The arcade game Gauntlet features Death as a powerful enemy character.

Death is the main protagonist in the video game Darksiders 2. He is depicted as one of the last of the Nephilim. He is voiced by Michael Wincott. Death appears in the sixteenth episode, season one of the Romanian show RObotzi when he wants to take MO and F.O.C.A. which can't die because they are robots.

Death appears in the television show Supernatural. He is one of the four horsemen of the apocalypse.

The Grim Reaper has appeared in the MMORPG RuneScape during the game's Halloween events.

In David Morgan-Mar's Irregular Webcomic!, each cause of death has its own reaper; these include Death of Insanely Overpowered Fireballs (who mostly collects fantasy adventurers) and Death of Being Sat On by a Giant Frog (who has relatively little work to do). They are overseen by a Head Death, who frequently rewards or punishes subordinate Deaths by reassigning them to more or less prestigious specialties.

Death has appeared in several TV adverts and public information films. In one, the Grim Reaper – depicted as a smoking, foulmouthed man in his twenties, wearing black clothing – follows a soldier who, soon after returning from Iraq, gets into an accident that costs him his life, with the advert warning that soldiers returning home from service are twice as likely to have a road accident compared to civilians.

One of the most notable public information films starring the Grim Reaper is The Spirit of Dark and Lonely Water, which warned children of the dangers of careless or foolhardy behaviour in the vicinity of water. In the advert, the Grim Reaper is depicted as a hooded figure in a brown (not black) cloak, voiced by Donald Pleasence. One of the most notable aspects of the advert is the famous echoing threat of the Grim Reaper: "I'll be back!"