You Know What's Great? The Devil's Rain

As a lifelong horror and heavy metal fan, it's hard to not be at least tangentially reverential of Anton Lavey and his brilliantly constructed nonsense. I myself have the Goat of Mendes from the cover of The Satanic Bible tattooed on my right forearm and have read the tract multiple times. Every cinephile and genre fan is aware of Rosemary's Baby and the Lavey cameo and influence. I personally have the expected, albeit grudging respect for the film, but outside of the performances by Ralph Bellamy, Ruth Gordon and Sidney Blackmer, find it to be a dull exercise in Polanski's apartment building malaise bullshit. For me, the real deal as far as the Church of Satan presented on film is The Devil's Rain, a criminally overlooked little gem from 1975 that also features a Lavey cameo and his patented occult technical advisory.

I won't spoil the century spanning satanic melodrama that comprises its plot. I will however apprise those not in the know of its "are you fucking kidding me?" cast. No less than Ernest Borgnine, Eddie Albert, Tom Skerritt, Ida Lupino, William Shatner and John Travolta in his heavily made-up and overdubbed feature film debut show up to turn in performances ranging from knowingly over the top to woefully confused, Borgnine masterfully displaying the former and Shatner shamefully contributing the latter.

Seriously folks, Old Uncle Ernie is pure gold in this. That an Oscar winner of his caliber would deign to appear in such a bizarre, unwholesome piece of cinematic evil, let alone lay low the ramparts and turn it up to 11 is indicative of his dedication to craft and general awesomeness as a human being. He exudes such devilish charm and intimidating charisma as cult leader Corbis it makes one wonder how a late career turn as bogeyman and heavy could have benefited '70's and '80's cinema. He even works in some heavy make-up that could be outrageously silly, but through judicious use of his magnetic and expressive eyes becomes a natural extension of his character.

Speaking of the make-up effects, this film keeps the prosthetic stuff hot and cold flowing on tap. From the disconcerting, pasty eyeless devotees of Corbis to Borgnine's aforementioned man-goat state to some jaw droppingly awesome meltdown effects that take center stage for the films stunningly apocalyptic climax, this is exactly the sort of feature that the enemies of CGI clamor for, but mysteriously never reference.

If you're tired of the never ending influx of same old same old from modern Hollywood or have worn out your favorite films and want something new to enter into the rotation alongside the classics, I highly recommend this film and picking up the excellent release Dark Sky gave it. It's 86 minutes of campy, creepy fun that blows by without ever being boring or too full of itself. It's the film you've been looking for for the last decade and didn't know existed. Recognize!