As a fan of Robert Fuest- Director of the greatest Film ever made-, I'd avoided this one. It's his last big, commercial Film. It's failure is attributed to him doing TV Movies and the like for the rest of his career- see my look at Revenge of the Stepford Wives.
Well, Svengoolie played it, so I watched it.
Made in 1975, The Devil's Rain is all about Satan, family and, well, rain. There's both more and less to it than that. You get an eclectic Cast that includes Ernest Borgnine, William Shatner, Tom Skeritt, Ida Lupino and more.
It's famously-bad, but also by a great Director. Can it be? Let's see...
He does, but as a mostly-melted figure in the rain.
He tells them to return the Book.
Shatner is lured outside, whereupon Mom is kidnapped (in like 20 seconds!).
He goes to a Ghost Town to confront the man behind it- Ernest Borgnine.
He 'bets' his faith (and a magical medallion) against Borgnine's.
He loses.
Ruh roh.
His Brother- Tom Skeritt- and his Girlfriend- who is Psychic- follow the Case, but the Sheriff (of the unseen nearby Town) won't help.
I mean, he's obviously in the Cult, right? Right.
Things go awry as the pair narrowly escape the Ghost Town, but Skeritt goes back.
Meanwhile, his Girlfriend is captured...when she crashes the Car due to being scared.
Tom here does the 'put on Robes to watch the Ceremony' bit, but is discovered by a Cult Member...played by John Travolta?!?
Yep, he's fully-masked and not famous...but would become famous before the Film came out, so he's Credited.
He's too late to stop the Ceremony- not that he tries too hard to do so- and Shatner is now part of the Cult.
We get a prolonged flashback to explain things involving the Psychic Girlfriend...
The short version- Puritan Shatner turned in Puritan Borgnine, who cursed his family in death and vowed to return. He needs the Book of Souls to fully gain his power.
That said, he can swap places with this Goat Man version of himself, so he does have SOME powers.
Only one thing can stop him...
Alongside Eddie Albert (!!!), Skeritt must destroy the titular Devil's Rain- a big orb thing that holds the souls of Borgnine's Cult Members.
To be clear, this is different than the Book containing them signing away their souls.
Shatner ends up smashing it, leading to a VERY LONG section of the Cult Members melting.
We also get the inexplicable Good Ending Fake-Out with Borgnine somehow stealing the Psychic Lady's soul...apparently and going to try again.
Gee- who would try to take away a Happy Ending like that.
Oh, right.
Yeah, it's not great. This point in the '70s was weird for Cinema as the newest Trend seemed to be, well, Satan Movies. Thanks alot, William Friedkin!
This is an odd example of a Film that both tries too hard, but also gets a bit lazy. Yes, you can do both in one Film.
They get really creative with the whole Cult transformation aspect and the look of alot of things, especially the titular prop. They do this prolonged flashback bit- which is oddly-timed- and try pretty hard. At the same time, they prolong the ending way too much. It's gotta be a good 5-10 minutes of just watching the bodies 'melt.' Thanks?
In spite of its many problems, the Film is quite historically-notable. It's the first Film for Travolta and, allegedly, where he was introduced to Scientology. I hope L. Ron gave Fuest a cut! There's also the fact that it was *allegedly* funded by the Mafia, which just doubles up with the whole Church of Satan involvement aspect. I just wish that the Film itself was actually better.
Maybe if you watch it with the companion album to see if they sync up...
Next up, I return to the surprisingly-alright-so-far 4-Film Set. Will it keep surprising me? Stay tuned...
It's a film whose high point is the opening credits. Which I know is harsh, but I also think it's not unfair. I gather most of the film's problems stem from the producer, who had this great vision of the film ending with the demon cultists melting, but no equivalent idea of how the film was supposed to reach that point except that it had to be no stronger than a PG rating would allow. And with fewer resources than it really needed.
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