The Devil’s Rain ★★½
DON’T be fooled by the star rating; The Devil’s Rain is possibly one of the worst horror films to get a cinema release.
But because it takes itself so seriously, this 1975 oddity is worth a one-time watch only.
The film starts well with a low ominous soundtrack of soft human moaning and screaming as the camera slowly pans across the Dante-esque paintings of Hieronymous Bosch during the opening titles.
That highlight lasts for about a minute but also includes the first big hint that things are amiss when we read that the technical advisor for the film was Anton Szandor Lavey, the founder and High Priest of the First Church of Satan.
This church was conveniently located in sunny San Francisco and Lavey was in fact an actual person, albeit an A-grade nut-job who died in the late ’90s.
Whether having him as technical adviser was a joke on the film-maker’s part or not, it’s hard to tell. It certainly doesn’t come across that way.
Lavey allegedly wrote a satanic bible which I would confidently predict displays the same standard of writing as this film’s script.
Consider these gems, seemingly uttered without tongue-in-cheek, by the vintage actor Ernest Borgnine:
“In the name of Satan, King of the Earth, Ruler of the World”; “Behold Lilith, Queen of Delights”; Hail, oh Prince of the Abyss”; “Hell holds no terrors for you?”; “Did’st one of thee fall from the grace of Satan?”; “Thy bitch has sold us to the heathens”; “A curse on thee and thine forever more”; “Now be sealed by the Holy Waters of Forgetfulness.”
Borgnine isn’t the only one guilty of crimes against acting. William Shatner turns in his usual effort, delivering every line like he’s projecting to the back stalls of a Shakesperean theatre, as opposed to the reality of being on a cheap film set in remote Mexico.
Keenan Wynn yells his lines at everyone, regardless whether they are standing right next to him or across the road, while Eddie Albert, Tom Skerritt and Ida Lupino just look bored or incredulous, depending on the scene and lines they are hearing.
At least they all got paid and that’s where the budget went along with the final special effects sequence that the film’s poster describes as “Absolutely the most incredible ending of any motion picture ever.”
It’s certainly not that; but it’s pretty good for its time. The problem is it continues for too long and the impact is considerably lessened.
It’s a damn sight better than the worst effect in the film when Borgnine is transformed into Satan as a ram that looks like a ridiculously cheap muppet.
The director, Englishman Robert Feust, was actually responsible for three films between 1970 and ’72 that are generally considered decent – And Soon the Darkness, The Abominable Dr Phibes and Dr Phibes Rises Again.
Something disastrous happened when he crossed the pond.