Day 14 - Devil’s Rain (1975)
Platform:
Borrowed from OverDrive.
Quote:
“Think ye to destroy something stronger than life by ending life?”
Synopsis:
The Preston family has guarded a secret book of immense power for generations. Now Corbis, a priest of a satanic cult, has returned to claim the book as his own and unleash the Devil’s Rain. It’s up to Mark and his brother, Tom to keep the book from Corbis and prevent him from unleashing Hell on earth.
Review:
……..*long sigh*...... Ok. This movie, folks. This is a special one. Now, you would think with a premise like what I provided above: an ancient secret kept by a family to save the world from a satanic cult looking to unleash the Devil’s Rain, with a cast like this film has: John Travolta, Ernest Borgneine, Tom Skerrit, and WILLIAM SHATNER!!! You would think that at the very least, this film would be a ham fest that is campy and over-the-top melodrama. What you actually have is a film that is virtually unheard of, though today it is gaining a foothold as one that many cult-classic horror fans (defined in this instance as “those who have a special fondness for obscure films that didn’t get their due credit when first released”) have begun to recognize and spread around. Unfortunately, the movie is largely nonsensical and ridiculous.
I’ll start with the positives of this film, but there aren’t many. First, the effects are probably the best part of the film. The Devil’s Rain melts the people who are caught out in it, and the melting effect is pretty decent for the time period. It still holds up pretty well even in HD (which has been the death of many older special effects work). The same can’t really be said of the eyeless Satanists. When someone has fallen to the cult, they become these eyeless ghouls that follow Corbis’s bidding. This was a pretty cool concept and the look was actually fairly effective. However, HD rendering does make the prosthetics really stand out.
This leads me to a Moment in Horror History (imagine that was done with a cool reverb echo). Minor Spoilers here. William Shatner is one of the victims of Corbis and becomes a soulless, eyeless husk. The face mold they did to create his prosthetics is the same one used to create the infamous Captain Kirk mask that would become The Shape in John Carpenter’s Halloween! That’s right, the franchise that just won’t die (unlike Nightmare and Friday apparently), Halloween got its face, literally, thanks to this film! With Halloween Kills coming out tomorrow, it’s kinda serendipity that I would have this film cued up and see the origin of The Shape. And you can really see it here, too. When Shatner is revealed in his eyeless glory, it really did look like Michael Meyers up on the screen.
Other positives from this are the campy performances. Shatner is fantastic in his trademark deliveries. We even get a precursor to the infamous “Kaaaaaahhhhhhnnnn!!!” from Star Trek 2, as after finding out that his mother has been kidnapped, Mark Preston (Shatner) cries out “Cooooorbiiis!” It doesn’t echo through space, but you can feel that he’s warming up for it. Then, you also have Ernest Borgneine who is just chewing the scenery like nobody’s business. Even with the melodrama that Shatner brings, Borgneine seems like he’s in a completely different film from anyone else. When he emerges as the emissary of the devil in the 3rd act, it gets even better.
Unfortunately, the movie is largely incomprehensible. Nothing makes sense. We know that Corbis wants this book that has the names of all the people who signed their souls over to the devil. But then, he’s wanting this bottle of Devil’s Rain that he can unleash on the world. Supposedly the bottle is the souls of those that signed in the book. So, I’m assuming, Cobis wants the book so he can go and collect on the souls to make more Devil’s Rain? It’s not very clear. Then there’s the whole flashback to the puritan settlers who uncover Corbis as a satanist, and apparently, Shatner’s family was part of Corbis’s cult, but they were called Fine? And now their Preston? Which is never acknowledged or explained, other than leaving the audience to perhaps conclude that the family changed their name to hide from Corbis? But Corbis was burned at the stake? And to make it even more confusing, you have Corbis played in the past and the present by Ernest Borgneine, but then you have Shatner playing Mark Preston in the present, and Martin Fine in the past. So, are these the same people moving through time unaged? Or are these the descendants? They certainly seem to know who Corbis is, even recognizing him when they meet. Nothing ever gets explained. Ever.
I feel like this is one that is worth looking into if you’re a horror fan, and you really want to see some fun, over-the-top performances from some well-known stars, and see the origins of the Michael Meyers mask. But in the end, this one just isn’t fun enough to give a so-bad-it’s-good status. I have so, I don’t recommend this one. It’s just too disjointed to even follow for a good time. There’s a reason that despite having some big names, no one has heard of this.
Movie Count:
New = 9
Total = 14
OverDrive Breakdown: OverDrive is a digital platform that you can use to borrow ebooks, audiobooks, comics, graphic novels, and movies. Unlike Hoopla, you can't download videos. They must be streamed. Also, you don't have the casting option. But both Hoopla and OverDrive can be accessed via web browser so you can watch on your computers. Another drawback is that you don't have unlimited access to videos, so if someone else has it borrowed, you do have to place a hold and wait for them to either return the material or for their loan to time out. Plus sides are the ease of borrowing. You have a set number of titles of any format (book, audio, video, etc.) that you can borrow from at any point in time (my library is set at ten), but once you return a title, you get that borrow back. So, unlike Hoopla, you don't have to wait for the next month to start borrowing again. Also, even if you have to place a hold, the longest loan period on a video is seven days, and then most videos expire 48 hours after you start watching, so the turnaround time is very quick. OverDrive will also email you notifications when your hold is ready.
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