Claysaba
Excellent, Without a doubt!!
AnhartLinkin
This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.
Zandra
The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.
Stevieboy666
AKA Hell's Rain. I love this mid 1970'stale of Satanism in the American desert, so much so that I still have it on tape when I recorded it off TV in the 80's. I also have it as Hell Rain on VHS sell thru & low grade DVD, it really does deserves a decent re-issue here in the UK.
The opening credits feature the Hellish paintings of Hieronymus Bosch. Great cast. John Travolta makes an early but brief appearance and Anton LaVey, founder of the Church of Satan, acted as technical adviser plus he played the High Priest. The finale is a tremendous melt sequence, which out melts The Incredible Melting Man! This is one of those movies that I never tire of watching.
Scott LeBrun
In this memorably silly and incredibly entertaining rural horror flick, a family named the Prestons must do battle with a Satan-worshipping villain, Jonathan Corbis (Ernest Borgnine). Mark Preston (William Shatner) and his brother Tom (Tom Skerritt) are among those with the balls to face this minion of the Devil. What Corbis really wants is to lay his infernal hands on a very important book.Robert Fuest ("The Abominable Dr. Phibes", "The Final Programme") directs this insane, sometimes uproarious feature. The script, credited to Gabe Essoe, James Ashton, and Gerald Hopman, is pure nonsense. One truly must approach this after checking their brain at the door. The film has a very effective pace, as it hits the ground running and starts unleashing its horrors within the first few minutes.There is some excellent atmosphere to enjoy, and much striking desert imagery photographed in the 2.35:1 aspect ratio. The overcast skies in early scenes merely add to the mood. Al De Lory composed the suitable music score; Alex Phillips Jr. did the lighting. The action takes place in some very desolate environments.The acting is deliciously hammy from Borgnine and Shatner. Borgnine in particular has rarely been as much fun as he is here...especially when he's covered in goat's head makeup for much of the last half hour. The slumming big name cast also includes a typically amusing Keenan Wynn as a sheriff, Ida Lupino as the Preston matriarch, and Eddie Albert as Dr. Samuel Richards. Joan Prather plays Skerritts' wife, Claudio Brook appears in the stylish flashback sequence as a crusading priest, Lisa Todd is cast as a temptress, and that's none other than John Travolta making his film debut as one of Corbis's many disciples. (His dialogue basically consists of "Blasphemer!").The extremely protracted ending is the unqualified highlight. Most of the cast melts when the title element is unleashed. Apparently in this story selling your soul to the Devil turns your body into wax. Who knew?"The Devil's Rain" is trashy, and stupid, but for certain tastes, a Hell of a lot of fun.Eight out of 10.
preppy-3
Corbis (Ernest Borgnine), a servant of Satan, is seeking a book stolen from him by the Prescott family. It has a list of all the people who sold their souls to the Devil. Why he needs this book is never made clear. He finally tracks them down and sets out to destroy them to get the book.What a shambles! The plot makes little sense and the "twist" ending comes out of nowhere. We have a great cast here (William Shatner, Eddie Albert, Tom Skerritt, Ida Lupino and Keenan Wynn) giving their all time worst performances. Supposedly the book makes more sense but I don't think I should have to read a book to understand a movie. It starts off OK (on a dark and stormy night no less) but gets confusing and, by the end, I was totally lost. Lousy special effects too. This only gets two stars for a good performance by Borgnine and a cool finale where most of the cast melts away. This is also John Travolta's first film--whether that's a plus or minus is up to the viewer. All in all though this is a confusing mess of a movie.
fidelio74
Hollywood had a fascination with devil worship in the mid seventies which produced such films as 'The Devil's Rain' and 'Race With the Devil'. 'The Devil's Rain' stars Ernest Borgnine, Eddie Albert, Ida Lupino, William Shatner, Keenan Wynn, and Tom Skerritt. The film revolves around a book containing all the names of people who have sold their souls to Satan. Martin Fyffe (William Shatner) steals the book and hides it in order to save the souls of the people listed within. In doing so, he invokes the wrath of Jonathan Corbis (Ernest Borgnine), who vows to recover the book at any cost. Determined to retrieve the book, Corbis curses Fyffe and all his future generations.The film opens in a very ominous way, with images from the art of Hieronymus Bosch accompanied by the cries and wails of the damned. Then the action commences amidst a raging storm. Mark Preston's (William Shatner) - whose ancestor was Martin Fyffe - family is attacked, and Mark must take the book his family protects to Jonathan in the desert. When Preston confronts Corbis in the middle of nowhere, he finds a Satanic church where he pits his faith in God against Jonathan who is, it turns out, the Devil himself.'The Devil's Rain' marks the film debut of John Travolta, who plays Danny and who is barely recognisable beneath a big black hood. At the film's climax, Tom Preston (Tom Skerritt) smashes a vessel containing countless damned souls suffering beneath the unending 'Devil's rain' of the title. This frees the souls and causes a deadly rain to pour from the sky which melts Corbis and his army of Satanists. This protracted melting sequence is pretty memorable and features some very good Tom Burman makeups.The movie offers a very clever twist ending. Interesting that Satan is personified by Jonathan Corbis, whose initials are J.C; perhaps that was deliberate. 'The Devil's Rain' had as its technical consultant Anton LaVey, who was at that time High Priest of the Church of Satan. His input lends the film a verisimilitude it otherwise may not have had. 'The Devil's Rain' is quite a curiosity for William Shatner enthusiasts and a must see for John Travolta completists, even though he does not have any dialogue. Other viewers may well find themselves rather nonplussed by this unusual film.
