And then you probable would do it anyway without Devil.

I actually didn't get the notion Devil was most evil person in the movie.Way Boris acted later on the movie when he address cultist, I think sort of crystallized what the movie was about.Devil can't make you do anything evil, if you don't want to. Most interesting question I find after watching movie was the idea of Devil in the movie. Devilish stuff - or just normal mysteries worldwide. Some patters lead to something, others to many things as they are vague or nowhere. What they mean to us actually, not necessarily what he meant, if he even meant anything at all with them. He creates patterns us to see in interpret, but actually leaves us to figure out on ourselves what they mean. What I do think is that Polankski made a movie, that actually imitated how mysteries work. But I'm not totally convinced about the accuracy of many interpretations what I've read. I admit also missing few things, but fortunately got most parts right in first try.Movie has good mix of ominous events and old mysteries hidden in books that leave you wonder for a while. Reading many comments here, I got bit better insight what movie was about. Why this movie is fabulous is because it ambiguous. Didn't see the move from beginning or whole, basically just stayed watching after wandering front of TV. I was fortunate enough to see without any kind of idea about movie beforehand.

The Smoking Gun by Malcolm Rose