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.

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

peteranderson975 Here's a mouldy oldie from deep in the cheese vault. I haven't seen this for many years since I saw it on TV sometime in the 80s (I remember a time when old horror films were regularly shown on TV). This review will have spoilersMrs Preston (Ida Lupino) is worried that her husband is missing and so her son Mark Preston (William Shatner) goes to confront the Satanist sorcerer Corbis (Ernest Borgnine) who has kidnapped his father in an attempt force the Preston family to return a book to him stolen from him by one of their ancestors who betrayed Corbis. This book has the signatures of all those whose souls he has captured but he can't return to Hell with the souls until he has the book. Preston challenges Corbis to battle of faith which he loses and so he too is captured by Corbis.It is now up to a team made up psychic investigator Tom Preston (Tom Skerrit), his wife Julie (Joan Prather) and Dr Sam Richard (Eddie Albert) to confront Corbis and try to rescue Tom's family from Corbis's clutches. Their first attempt fails and Julie is captured to used in their next ceremony. Tom and Dr Richard discover a jar full souls in torment, The Devil's Rain. Just as Corbis's ceremony reaches its peak Dr Richard confronts Corbis and smashes the jar, unleashing the Devil's Rain on the cultists. There is then a long drawn out scene where the whole cult melts.This is not very entertaining film. It is quite amusing to see Shatner earnestly hamming his way through the opening scenes in the film and I was giggling quite a lot at Shatner's rewrite of the Lord's prayer as he battled for his faith. But then the film switches to an unfamiliar group of characters who are now the main protagonists and the early part of the film seems to have been demoted to an extended prologue. I don't know if this why the film just fails to build up any sense of tension but certainly didn't help. The big melt scene at the end is not only long and unpleasant to look at, it is a major anti-climax.Rating 4/10

likeing77 Anton LaVey knows how to bring the horror to the religious. If anyone knows anything about satanism it is LaVey and he portrayed what he would call the false view of satanism in order to bring about thinking.This is worth a watch not because of the story, or the truth behind myths. It exists as a horror movie, and to scare people. Do not NOT watch this because of its darkness, that is why you SHOULD watch it.Real satanism is not about anything portrayed in this movie, and LaVey aided to make it seem real. He did a great job.If you are interested in the occult, and Satanism, read the Satanic bible, and take what is shown here as comedy for the satanist.It is a great movie, with renowned actors, and if it is so psychologically hurtful, as another reviewer states, then why did nearly every actor go on to have an extensive career?Stars: John Travolta, William Shatner, and the feel was caused by LaVey. What more could someone ask for in a movie?