The Devil's Rain
Encyclopedia
The Devil's Rain is a 1975 low-budget horror film
, directed by Robert Fuest
. The film is remembered primarily for its ending, in which most of the cast melts. It was one of several B-films
in which William Shatner
starred in the hiatus between the original Star Trek
television series and Star Trek: The Motion Picture
. Other familiar names in the cast included Tom Skerritt
, Ernest Borgnine
, Eddie Albert
, Ida Lupino
, and Keenan Wynn
. John Travolta
at the time was also beginning his role as Vinnie Barbarino in the sitcom Welcome Back, Kotter
. Satanist
Anton LaVey
is credited as the movie's technical advisor.
hovers over the Preston family, caused by their betrayal of the Satanic priest John Corbis (Ernest Borgnine). Corbis has followed the Preston family for generations, in pursuit of a Satanic book through which he obtains great power. Corbis first captures the father, Steve Preston, who is allowed to escape home to warn his wife and younger son about Corbis's wrath, and to give the book to Corbis; this is done, at which point Steve Preston then melts into a waxy substance, apparently melting in the rain.
Mark Preston (Shatner) takes the book, hoping to meet with Corbis and defeat him. The two eventually meet in a ghost town
in the desert, where Corbis gives Preston a drink of water from an old hand-pumped well; Shatner's character drinks and then spits it out, proclaiming the water to be bitter. Borgnine smiles and replies, "Sweet way to end a thirst, though." Following that, Preston challenges Corbis to a battle of faith, which ends with Preston pulling a 1911 .45 pistol
on Corbis.
Corbis asks, "Is THAT your faith?" at which point Preston tries to escape. Surrounded by satanists, Preston pulls out his cross, which then appears to transform into a snake, and is discarded by Preston. He is promptly captured by the Satanic followers of Corbis. Corbis later begins a ceremony which wipes Mark's memory clean with the "water of forgetfulness" in preparation for a ceremony later that evening with the Devil himself. Preston's older brother, Tom (Tom Skerritt), and his wife Julie, have gone to look for younger brother Mark; they are accompanied by Dr. Sam Richards (Albert), a psychic researcher.
Tom witnesses his brother's total conversion to a Satanic puppet in a ceremony in which Corbis is so completely taken over by the devil that he transforms into a goat-like being. Tom is discovered but escapes the Satanists, and later meets up with Richards at the Satanic church, where they discover the source of Corbis's power—a porcelain container known as The Devil's Rain, which contains the souls of Corbis's converts.
Corbis and the Satanists then arrive at the church, and Richards threatens to destroy the Devil's Rain, which he then does, and makes good his escape.
The Satanists melt in the rain as a storm rages as Tom and his wife make a hasty exit. As Tom holds his wife, the audience discovers that it is actually Corbis he is embracing and his wife's soul has become trapped within a new Devil's Rain.
in the New York Times noted that "The Devil's Rain is ostensibly a horror film, but it barely manages to be a horror...It is as horrible as watching an egg fry." Roger Ebert
in the Chicago Sun-Times
said "All of this would be good silly fun if the movie weren't so painfully dull. The problem is that the material's stretched too thin. There's not enough here to fill a feature-length film." He gave the film 1½ stars out of four.
The movie's disastrous reception arguably killed off director Fuest's career. Fuest had previously directed The Abominable Dr. Phibes
(1971), Dr. Phibes Rises Again
(1972), and The Final Programme (1973). The Devil's Rain suffered such a critical drubbing that Fuest immediately was forced to retreat to television
, directing several nondescript TV-movies
and series episodes over the years. He has made only one additional theatrical feature, Aphrodite
(1982), a softcore sex romp shot in Greece
.
In his 2010 book Showgirls, Teen Wolves, and Astro Zombies, Australian film reviewer Michael Adams called The Devil's Rain "the ultimate cult movie
": "It's about a cult, has a cult following, was devised with input from a cult leader, and saw a future superstar
indoctrinated into a cult he'd help popularize
."
Horror film
Horror films seek to elicit a negative emotional reaction from viewers by playing on the audience's most primal fears. They often feature scenes that startle the viewer through the means of macabre and the supernatural, thus frequently overlapping with the fantasy and science fiction genres...
, directed by Robert Fuest
Robert Fuest
Robert Fuest is an English film director, screenwriter, and production designer who has worked mostly in the horror, fantasy and suspense genres....
. The film is remembered primarily for its ending, in which most of the cast melts. It was one of several B-films
B-movie
A B movie is a low-budget commercial motion picture that is not definitively an arthouse or pornographic film. In its original usage, during the Golden Age of Hollywood, the term more precisely identified a film intended for distribution as the less-publicized, bottom half of a double feature....
in which William Shatner
William Shatner
William Alan Shatner is a Canadian actor, musician, recording artist, and author. He gained worldwide fame and became a cultural icon for his portrayal of James T...
starred in the hiatus between the original Star Trek
Star Trek: The Original Series
Star Trek is an American science fiction television series created by Gene Roddenberry, produced by Desilu Productions . Star Trek was telecast on NBC from September 8, 1966, through June 3, 1969...
television series and Star Trek: The Motion Picture
Star Trek: The Motion Picture
Star Trek: The Motion Picture is a 1979 American science fiction film released by Paramount Pictures. It is the first film based on the Star Trek television series. The film is set in the twenty-third century, when a mysterious and immensely powerful alien cloud called V'Ger approaches the Earth,...
. Other familiar names in the cast included Tom Skerritt
Tom Skerritt
Thomas Roy "Tom" Skerritt is an American actor who has appeared in over 40 films and more than 200 television episodes since 1962.-Early life:...
, Ernest Borgnine
Ernest Borgnine
Ernest Borgnine is an American actor of television and film. His career has spanned more than six decades. He was an unconventional lead in many films of the 1950s, including his Academy Award-winning turn in the 1955 film Marty...
, Eddie Albert
Eddie Albert
Edward Albert Heimberger , known professionally as Eddie Albert, was an American actor and activist. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in 1954 for his performance in Roman Holiday, and in 1973 for The Heartbreak Kid.Other well-known screen roles of his include Bing...
, Ida Lupino
Ida Lupino
Ida Lupino was an English-born film actress and director, and a pioneer among women filmmakers. In her 48-year career, she appeared in 59 films and directed seven others, mostly in the United States. She appeared in serial television programmes 58 times and directed 50 other episodes...
, and Keenan Wynn
Keenan Wynn
Keenan Wynn was an American character actor. His bristling mustache and expressive face were his stock in trade, and though he rarely had a lead role, he got prominent billing in most of his film and TV parts....
. John Travolta
John Travolta
John Joseph Travolta is an American actor, dancer and singer. Travolta first became known in the 1970s, after appearing on the television series Welcome Back, Kotter and starring in the box office successes Saturday Night Fever and Grease...
at the time was also beginning his role as Vinnie Barbarino in the sitcom Welcome Back, Kotter
Welcome Back, Kotter
Welcome Back, Kotter was an American television sitcom starring Gabe Kaplan and featuring a young John Travolta.It originally aired on the ABC network from September 9, 1975 to June 8, 1979.-Premise:...
. Satanist
Satanism
Satanism is a group of religions that is composed of a diverse number of ideological and philosophical beliefs and social phenomena. Their shared feature include symbolic association with, admiration for the character of, and even veneration of Satan or similar rebellious, promethean, and...
Anton LaVey
Anton LaVey
Anton Szandor LaVey , born Howard Stanton Levey, was the founder of the Church of Satan as well as a writer, occultist, and musician...
is credited as the movie's technical advisor.
Plot summary
A curseCurse
A curse is any expressed wish that some form of adversity or misfortune will befall or attach to some other entity—one or more persons, a place, or an object...
hovers over the Preston family, caused by their betrayal of the Satanic priest John Corbis (Ernest Borgnine). Corbis has followed the Preston family for generations, in pursuit of a Satanic book through which he obtains great power. Corbis first captures the father, Steve Preston, who is allowed to escape home to warn his wife and younger son about Corbis's wrath, and to give the book to Corbis; this is done, at which point Steve Preston then melts into a waxy substance, apparently melting in the rain.
Mark Preston (Shatner) takes the book, hoping to meet with Corbis and defeat him. The two eventually meet in a ghost town
Ghost town
A ghost town is an abandoned town or city. A town often becomes a ghost town because the economic activity that supported it has failed, or due to natural or human-caused disasters such as floods, government actions, uncontrolled lawlessness, war, or nuclear disasters...
in the desert, where Corbis gives Preston a drink of water from an old hand-pumped well; Shatner's character drinks and then spits it out, proclaiming the water to be bitter. Borgnine smiles and replies, "Sweet way to end a thirst, though." Following that, Preston challenges Corbis to a battle of faith, which ends with Preston pulling a 1911 .45 pistol
M1911
The M1911 is a single-action, semi-automatic, magazine-fed, and recoil-operated handgun chambered for the .45 ACP cartridge. John M. Browning designed the firearm which was the standard-issue side arm for the United States armed forces from 1911 to 1985. The M1911 is still carried by some U.S....
on Corbis.
Corbis asks, "Is THAT your faith?" at which point Preston tries to escape. Surrounded by satanists, Preston pulls out his cross, which then appears to transform into a snake, and is discarded by Preston. He is promptly captured by the Satanic followers of Corbis. Corbis later begins a ceremony which wipes Mark's memory clean with the "water of forgetfulness" in preparation for a ceremony later that evening with the Devil himself. Preston's older brother, Tom (Tom Skerritt), and his wife Julie, have gone to look for younger brother Mark; they are accompanied by Dr. Sam Richards (Albert), a psychic researcher.
Tom witnesses his brother's total conversion to a Satanic puppet in a ceremony in which Corbis is so completely taken over by the devil that he transforms into a goat-like being. Tom is discovered but escapes the Satanists, and later meets up with Richards at the Satanic church, where they discover the source of Corbis's power—a porcelain container known as The Devil's Rain, which contains the souls of Corbis's converts.
Corbis and the Satanists then arrive at the church, and Richards threatens to destroy the Devil's Rain, which he then does, and makes good his escape.
The Satanists melt in the rain as a storm rages as Tom and his wife make a hasty exit. As Tom holds his wife, the audience discovers that it is actually Corbis he is embracing and his wife's soul has become trapped within a new Devil's Rain.
Cast
- Ernest BorgnineErnest BorgnineErnest Borgnine is an American actor of television and film. His career has spanned more than six decades. He was an unconventional lead in many films of the 1950s, including his Academy Award-winning turn in the 1955 film Marty...
as Jonathan Corbis - Eddie AlbertEddie AlbertEdward Albert Heimberger , known professionally as Eddie Albert, was an American actor and activist. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in 1954 for his performance in Roman Holiday, and in 1973 for The Heartbreak Kid.Other well-known screen roles of his include Bing...
as Dr. Sam Richards - William ShatnerWilliam ShatnerWilliam Alan Shatner is a Canadian actor, musician, recording artist, and author. He gained worldwide fame and became a cultural icon for his portrayal of James T...
as Mark Preston - Ida LupinoIda LupinoIda Lupino was an English-born film actress and director, and a pioneer among women filmmakers. In her 48-year career, she appeared in 59 films and directed seven others, mostly in the United States. She appeared in serial television programmes 58 times and directed 50 other episodes...
as Emma Preston - Tom SkerrittTom SkerrittThomas Roy "Tom" Skerritt is an American actor who has appeared in over 40 films and more than 200 television episodes since 1962.-Early life:...
as Tom Preston - Joan Prather as Julie Preston
- Keenan WynnKeenan WynnKeenan Wynn was an American character actor. His bristling mustache and expressive face were his stock in trade, and though he rarely had a lead role, he got prominent billing in most of his film and TV parts....
as Sheriff Owens - John TravoltaJohn TravoltaJohn Joseph Travolta is an American actor, dancer and singer. Travolta first became known in the 1970s, after appearing on the television series Welcome Back, Kotter and starring in the box office successes Saturday Night Fever and Grease...
as Danny - George SawayaGeorge SawayaGeorge Sawaya was an American stuntman and actor. He acted in almost one hundred different films and television episodes, but always as minor characters...
as Steve Preston - Anton LaVeyAnton LaVeyAnton Szandor LaVey , born Howard Stanton Levey, was the founder of the Church of Satan as well as a writer, occultist, and musician...
as the High Priest
Response
The Devil's Rain received a uniformly negative critical response, with the chief complaint being the incoherent storyline. The film's refusal to provide adequate scares was also widely criticized. Vincent CanbyVincent Canby
Vincent Canby was an American film critic who became the chief film critic for The New York Times in 1969 and reviewed more than 1000 films during his tenure there.-Life and career:...
in the New York Times noted that "The Devil's Rain is ostensibly a horror film, but it barely manages to be a horror...It is as horrible as watching an egg fry." Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Ebert is known for his film review column and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The...
in the Chicago Sun-Times
Chicago Sun-Times
The Chicago Sun-Times is an American daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois. It is the flagship paper of the Sun-Times Media Group.-History:The Chicago Sun-Times is the oldest continuously published daily newspaper in the city...
said "All of this would be good silly fun if the movie weren't so painfully dull. The problem is that the material's stretched too thin. There's not enough here to fill a feature-length film." He gave the film 1½ stars out of four.
The movie's disastrous reception arguably killed off director Fuest's career. Fuest had previously directed The Abominable Dr. Phibes
The Abominable Dr. Phibes
The Abominable Dr. Phibes is a 1971 horror film starring Vincent Price. Its art deco sets, dark humor and performance by Price has made the film and its sequel Dr. Phibes Rises Again classics.-Plot:...
(1971), Dr. Phibes Rises Again
Dr. Phibes Rises Again
Dr. Phibes Rises Again! is a sequel to The Abominable Dr. Phibes. It was directed by Robert Fuest, and stars Vincent Price as Dr. Anton Phibes.-Plot:...
(1972), and The Final Programme (1973). The Devil's Rain suffered such a critical drubbing that Fuest immediately was forced to retreat to television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
, directing several nondescript TV-movies
Television movie
A television film is a feature film that is a television program produced for and originally distributed by a television network, in contrast to...
and series episodes over the years. He has made only one additional theatrical feature, Aphrodite
Aphrodite (film)
Aphrodite is a 1982 French soft-core exploitation film inspired by a novel by Pierre Louÿs, directed by Robert Fuest with Valérie Kaprisky and Horst Buchholz.- Principal cast :* Horst Buchholz as Harry Laird* Valérie Kaprisky as Pauline...
(1982), a softcore sex romp shot in Greece
Greece
Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....
.
In his 2010 book Showgirls, Teen Wolves, and Astro Zombies, Australian film reviewer Michael Adams called The Devil's Rain "the ultimate cult movie
Cult film
A cult film, also commonly referred to as a cult classic, is a film that has acquired a highly devoted but specific group of fans. Often, cult movies have failed to achieve fame outside the small fanbases; however, there have been exceptions that have managed to gain fame among mainstream audiences...
": "It's about a cult, has a cult following, was devised with input from a cult leader, and saw a future superstar
John Travolta
John Joseph Travolta is an American actor, dancer and singer. Travolta first became known in the 1970s, after appearing on the television series Welcome Back, Kotter and starring in the box office successes Saturday Night Fever and Grease...
indoctrinated into a cult he'd help popularize
Scientology
Scientology is a body of beliefs and related practices created by science fiction and fantasy author L. Ron Hubbard , starting in 1952, as a successor to his earlier self-help system, Dianetics...
."