oscar-35 *Spoiler/plot- The Devil's Rain, 1975. A group of Satanists in the American rural town are visited by outsiders. The outsiders are descendants of people that persecuted the Satanists in 1600s New England at witch trails. The Satanists wish to get revenge. But one of the children of an earlier victim vows to destroy the Satan worshipping town folk. *Special Stars- William Shatner, Ernest Borgnine, Isa Lupino, Tom Skeritt, Eddie Albert, Keenan Wynn. *Theme- Devil worship is an old religion.*Trivia/location/goofs- Universal. John Travota's first film role. Anton Lavey, California's most famous legal devil worshiper based in San Francisco was in this film. The shooting of the film was plagued by eerie events and accidents. Because of this Ernest Borgnine vowed to never work on a project with this subject matter again.*Emotion- A hugely un-intentional comedic bad film plot that is even more watchable with the large amount of big movie & TV stars that perform in it. Shatner was post Star Trek TV show cancellation. Travolta was just starting out from New York. Ernest Borgine's horned devil scene in full face make-up is a creepy must-see experience for any audience. Top notch film to see. *Based on- Devil worship and hippie cults in the SoCal area. Charles Manson murder matters had just be exposed at devil worship related by LOs Angeles district attorney.

Roman James Hoffman The cinema and Satan have always been good bedfellows: ever since cinematic pioneer Georges Melies made Satan's head detach itself and float around in 'The Laboratory of Mephistopheles' (1897), the century or so of cinema's evolution has produced scores of depictions of Satanism of varying quality littered around such classics like 'The Black Cat' (1934), 'The Devil Rides Out' (1968), 'Rosemary's Baby' (1968), and 'The Omen' (1976). Indeed, both occult film-maker Kenneth Anger and noted occultist Nikolas Schreck even go so far as to say that in his guise as Lucifer ('The Light Bringer') there is something inherently diabolical about movies in essentially being light projected through photographic film. So, roping in the assistance of Anton LaVey, the founder of the Church of Satan, was sure to raise the chill factor of this movie no end and hurtle it into the esteemed company of the above listed films. Problem: the film, aside from a couple of creepy moments at the start, is at its most dynamic little more than bland and in several instances inadvertently funny. Amusing if stoned: maybe…a classic, or even a film worthy of sobriety, it most certainly is not.Right, let's start with the positives: the film starts of promising with a haunting title sequence sound-tracked by tormented screams. Following this we are thrown into a disorienting opening sequence on a stormy night with Mark Preston (William Shatner) and his mother defending themselves from creepy ghouls with no eyes as they do the bidding of arch-satanist Corbis (Ernest Borgnine) who wants to get his hands on a book they are guarding. In addition, the first satanic ritual scene, set in a weird church in a ghost-town, has a genuine creepiness to it and it seems that the input of Anton LaVey is bearing some fruit. And…that's about it. The film then treads water in a shallow plot for another hour, firstly filling us in on the whole deal with the book thanks to a woman with ESP (after which her ESP serves absolutely no function) who is involved with Tom Skerritt (whose name you may not know but who is one of those "ahhh, him!" faces) who is William Shater's brother. He then battles the Satanists to save his family…a dramatic climax is attempted but the total absence of suspense from poor characterization and a poorer script (not to mention the derisive snort-inducing "transformation" Borgnine undergoes) renders this impossible. The film then reveals the meaning of the "Devil's Rain" (yawn) and then ends with a predictable twist. All in all, a total let-down.Ironically, 'Rosemary's Baby' is one of my favourite films and Anton LaVey is said to have cut his teeth in the Hollywood as an adviser on it as well as playing Satan himself in the dream scene; however, according to former high-ranking Church of Satan Member Michael Aquino in his book 'The Church of Satan', this is not true and merely a (characteristic) self-serving piece of mis-information on LaVey's part. Now, I'm not saying I sat down expecting another 'Rosemary's Baby' quality film, but I was intrigued by LaVey's indisputable role as a technical adviser in this movie (the film proudly boasts his help in the title sequence and he has a cameo in the ritual sequences) but I was also not expecting this totally forgettable waste of film.So, it would seem that while the Devil may have all the best tunes, he has a thing or two to learn about films.

Theo Robertson I'm somewhat surprised by the relatively low average score for THE DEVIL'S RAIN . It's one of those films that was broadcast late one night on ITV in the early 1980s and would sometimes be referred to months afterwards as a scary movie . I suppose for its full benefits to be appreciated you'd have to be a teenager in the early 1980s when we only had three network TV stations ? From a storytelling point of view it's a confused film . A mother and son discuss a sacred book during a thunderstorm only for what they think is the patriarch to appear before them but he's not then the son travelling to a remote ghost town in search of a man called Corbus . Any reference to the son's father is quickly forgotten about you'll soon be left confused as to what's going or indeed why What stops this from totally destroying the film is that director Robert Fuest manages to carve out a grotesque imagery to a number of scenes . They don't always work and the ones that don't let the film down but at least the director shows some imagination and it's this that stops the film being a total debacle

BA_Harrison Two of the most acclaimed occult horror films of the 1970s—William Friedkin's notorious shocker The Exorcist and Richard Donner's biblical prophecy classic The Omen—succeeded in terrifying audiences by treating their supernatural subject matter with absolute realism. For his 1975 Satanic horror The Devil's Rain, Robert Fuest (director of the absurdly enjoyable Dr. Phibes movies) employed Anton LaVey, founder of the Church of Satan, as technical adviser, presumably to lend his film a similar sense of credibility and level of authenticity.Despite this, however, Fuest still managed to turn out one hell of a cheesy film, one rife with trite occult stereotypes and embarrassingly creaky old-school horror trappings. Hooded eyeless acolytes, a raging thunder storm, an ancient tome written in blood, a centuries old curse, a deserted church in a ghost town decorated with Satanic symbology: it's all there, along with tinted flashbacks to 'ye olde days' and a demon with curly horns and a goat-like face.For audiences still reeling from Linda Blair's rotating head, this approach proved less than thrilling, but for today's cult movie fans, for whom a high level of kitsch can only be considered a bonus, Fuest's seriously daft slice of diabolical horror should still prove a reasonably entertaining oddity. The Devil's Rain is by no means a good film, but it conjures up a strange hallucinatory atmosphere (largely due to the sheer incoherence of the script), offers some impressively gloopy special effects during the film's melt-tastic finalé, and delivers plenty of unintentional hilarity at the expense of its usually reliable cast (any film that features John Travolta in a blink-and-you'll-miss-it role as a blind devil worshipper, sees Ernest Borgnine sporting hilarious demonic makeup, and has William Shatner reciting the Lord's prayer in his trademark staccato style has surely got to be worth a look for curiosity's sake).