Say whatever you want about "The Devil's Rain", but it undeniable has one of the coolest and absolute creepiest opening credit sequences in the history of horror cinema! Whilst the camera extendedly shows freaky images of Hieronymus Bosch's grim paintings, agonizing screams of people that are seemingly trapped somewhere can be heard. They're screaming: "Let me out of here" and those same voices play an important part later in the film as well. The eerie images, mixed with the even eerier screams, result in a truly scary intro and it sets a very promising & atmospheric tone. Too bad the film continues after the credits and the quality level immediately sinks and keeps on sinking until the end credits roll over the screen. "The Devil's Rain" probably has the most incoherent and muddled script any director ever had to work with. Poor Robert Fuest! None of the characters are properly introduced; we're literally dropped in the middle of satanic events and it's up to each viewer's personal intelligence to figure out the connection between the different players, their backgrounds and whether or not they're good or evil. For a good half hour, we're presented to a series of grotesque and cheesy events that don't make the slightest bit of sense, but hey, at least they're entertaining. Ernest Borgnine is the leader of a devil-worshiping coven and he's desperately trying to recover a book that is in the hands of the Preston family since more than 300 years. Mark Preston (William Shatner) refuses to hand over the mysterious book and thus evil Borgnine takes possession of his eyes and soul. Meanwhile, Mark's younger brother Tom (Tom Skerritt) comes to the rescue and he tries to defeat the forces of Satan by stealing the Devil's Rain; a glass urn containing the restless souls of all the people who joined the cult during the past 300 years. An overlong flashback taking us back to a genuine 17th Century witch burning - finally explains the motivations and fury of each and every character, but the plot only gets dumber and less menacing as it approaches the finale. The story soon plunges into ludicrous occult ceremonies where Borgnine transforms into a hideous goat (!) and particularly the infamous climax needs to be seen in order to be believed, as it's one gigantic slimy and gooey melting-orgy. The make-up effects are pretty damn amusing and over-the-top disgusting, especially when the eyeless faces start turning into sticky puddles of green hodgepodge. "The Devil's Rain" has an impressive cast and one can't help but wonder how all these stars ended up in a trash-masterwork like this. Their performances, however, range from uninterested (Eddie Albert) to downright hammy (Tom Skerritt) and Ernest Borgnine overacts like as if he's possessed by the devil for real. Apparently, Anton LaVey, the founder and high-priest of the actual Church of Satan, made some extra money as the 'technical adviser' of the film. What did he do? Give instructions on how to sacrifice virgins to Satan without spilling too much blood on your garment? Advise Borgnine how to comb over his hair in order to look more like a goat? Either way you look at it, "The Devil's Rain" is an incredibly strange and curious little film. Even in its decade of release, when horror was an experimental genre and boundaries kept on getting crossed, "The Devil's Rain" is somewhat of an outsider. I strongly suggest every open-minded horror fanatic to check it out, if only to experience suspense, laughter, disbelief and utter camp all in one film!
Review of The Devil's Rain
