The Devil's Rain (1975)

Director: Robert Fuest

Starring: William Shatner, Ernest Borgnine, Tom Skerritt, Eddie Albert, Ida Lupino, Keenan Wynn

More Info: IMDB

Tagline: Absolutely the most incredible ending of any motion picture

Plot: A bunch of Satanists in the American rural landscape have terrible powers which enable them to melt their victims. However one of the children of an earlier victim vows to destroy them.

My Rating: 5/10 (come on, it's got Ernest Borgnine with a goat head)

Would I watch it again? with a room full of people and mind-altering substances

#147 on Drive-In Delirium Volume 2 (part of the TRAILER TRASH PROJECT)

Where do you start with something like this? You've got your Satanists, an exploding car, burning at the stake, hours and hours of melting faces, a ghost town and Ernest Borgnine (when he's not working the ole knuckle rocket) in the best goat head mask this side of the Pecos. What's not to like?

"DAAAAAAAAAAAD!"

Well, it's got Shatner and despite his hammy acting THE DEVIL'S RAIN is kind of slow and that's really what hurts it most. The story's serviceable and it's got a great cast especially with Borgnine but he's only great half the time. When he's in "Satan worship" mode he's silly. Between those scenes and Shatner's hamming it up this could be described as "Bacon Fest '75"

Probably the coolest part of the film is the finale with the melting faces. It's so cool that it's too cool and it's too much - like an extended orgasm that just keeps going and going and going...AND IT'S NOT YOURS!

Brokeback Shanter..."I wish I knew how to quit you."

And in all the years that I'd heard that they used a Shatner mask for Michael Myers in HALLOWEEN (1978) I never could see it until now...

Now it makes sense.

This movie's got more melting faces than that time Courtney Love removed her underpants on stage and threw them out at the crowd.


That goat mask that Bornine wears is fantastic. He's really wearing the prosthetic. What a trooper. Any other big name actor would have insisted on a simple mask. This is yet another reason why Ernest Borgnine is a badass mutherfucker of an actor!


Outside of that, look fast for John Travolta in a bit part as a member of the Satanist cult (how fucking ironic). Even at 86 minutes it's not short enough. This was watched with a room full of friends in the middle of an all-night horror movie marathon on Halloween 2008. It was like Mystery Science Theater 3000 turned up to 11. THAT was fun and it's the only way to view this...uh...er...film.