A
family called the Preston's are cursed by
a demonic cult as one of them named Mark
(William Shatner) has a sacred book that
the head cult leader named Jonathan
Corbis (Ernest Borgnine) wants over the
centuries which offers special powers as
they kidnap him and turn him into one of
his people in a ghost town where a
boarded up church in which they practice
Satan's power at.
Meanwhile another family member named Tom
(Tom Skerritt) and his wife Julie (Joan
Prather) tries to enter the ghost town
and try to destroy the souls of Satan in
which he was unleashed since Corbis
finally got a hold of the sacred book to
do his evil deeds as they find an object
that traps souls called the Devil's Rain
in which is the only way to destroy this
cult.
This film barely
carried a plot and the screen looked very
grainy with what they made out of it but
again it looks suitable for a typical
70's drive in type of flick. A movie
tries hard to be scary but sometimes was
a bit corny. Yet there are some
disturbing moments too. Also, a movie
that misinterpreted satanism which in
reality is self worshipping.
This movie can be fun to watch with a
group of friends who want to see a bad
film and make fun of it.
The flick itself was very stale and quite
bland but there are the odd neat moments
with the devil's rain and a battle
between good and evil. The zombie make up
on the demonic cult looked interesting
too.
We spot a nice ending with the devil's
rain attacking these cult members which
is what the film is mostly remembered
from but it was a bit overlylong. There
was a door left open to a sequel which
never arose probably due to bad ratings
at the box office.
The acting is a
bit rough due to the low budget of this
movie but they do the best they can with
it. Lead actor Ernest Borgnine
seemed to try his best playing a demonic
preacher in the flick but yet he seems a
bit comedic with it all when he is
supposed to be serious and evil. He does
show great aggressions the odd time when
he talks to his zombielike cult
followers.
Tom Skerritt pulls off alot of
energy in the film and tried his best but
this wasn't one of his most memorable
films to say the least and can easily be
forgotten since he moved on to do better
projects over the years to come.
Joan Prather was the best out of the
cast as she really knew how to scream in
terror and act incredibly internse as
well as getting excited easlily along
with acting calm in other situations too.
She showed a nice diversive character
acting with her performance in this one.
Eddie Albert drew good attention
with his role as a doctor in the film
showing good energy and nice seriousness
to his part in the flick. I always
enjoyed his performances in shows. Bless
his soul.
William Shatner however, was better
off in his work on Star Trek as
he seemed a bit rough with his
performance but yet really knew how to
act intense while being kidnapped by the
satanic cult members as well as being
reborn into the anti-christ and behaving
like he's hypnotised.
Ida Lupino stood out well as a
reborn antichrist zombie with the way she
spoke which leaves a good chill down your
spine. She can do well playing these
types of roles for other shows.
Some of you may want to see John
Travolta in his on screen debut
performance as he played one of the
anti-christ zombie's and is seen briefly
during a cult ceremony and well noticed
melting away in the devil's rain. He
thankfully moved on to do better things
with his acting career.
Although this
movie is rated PG we do spot many scene's
where the zombie demons are melting in
the devil's rain as well as being shot or
stabbed with good splurting out.
Robert Fuest was a
bit off with his direction in which is
looked a bit trashy and cheesy. But he
seemed to make it look like one of those
cult drive in flicks. He showed cheesy
dialogues between William Shatner,
Ida Lupino and Woody
Chambliss on a crisis that's
happening as well as a nice shot on them
outdoors in the rain staring at bit part
actor George Sawaya looking
zombielike in the rain with good shocked
expressions on the rest and a nice moment
with him melting which looked really
creepy.
There's good shots on Shatner
driving through a deserted area as well
as shots on the ghost town. We spot a
good approach by Ernest Borgnine
demanding something from him.
There's many good camera takes after Shatner
enters a boarded up church showing
satanic objects as well as a camera
looking down on an organ with Borgnine
speaking powerfully doing a ceremony and Shatner
trying to pray to God which looked
interesting.
There's a good chase with Shatner
running away while we spot featured
extra's as demonic zombie's chasing after
him as it looked creepylike and you
wonder if he will escape with the madness
surrounding him.
There's a good shot on Shatner
lying tied down on an upside down
crucifix with Borgnine's evil
words towards him and then a good close
up shot on Shatner screaming
with wide eyes and great frightened
expressions.
We spot a nice shot on Joan Prather in
a trance with good brief shots on a cult
ceremony and then hewr snapping out of it
screaming in rage which looked quite
tense.
There's some good shots on both Prather
and Tom Skerritt looking around
the ghost town and then a nice shot on
them looking in a church finding it
abandoned.
There's a good flashback sequence with Borgnine
getting demanding and aggressive towards
his people about finding the book and
telling them he can't save their souls
etc. as it looked quite gothic. There's
also good aggressive dialogues between
him and bit part actor Anton LeVay
as a high priest with his group of people
with torches along with a good shot on
Borgnine in a pit getting burned and him
yelling that he will strike vengeance. It
was cheesy but enjoyable on how it was
directed.
We spot a moment with Borgnine
trying to summon up the devil and then he
turns into the devil which looked a but
phony and silly since it was supposed to
look shocking and it fails due to the
direction on all of this.
There's many disturbing camera shots on Borgnine
doing his ceremony with Shatner
tied down and turning him into one of his
demons with him screaming and crying
which makes you cringe a little.
We spot a good close up shot on Shatner's
face after being reborn into an
antichrist with his black looking eyes.
We have some chasing scene's and
struggling moments with Skerritt
battling against the cast as the demonic
zombie's but it looked a little lacking
and amateurish.
There's a nice shot and good dialogue
between Skerritt and Eddie
Albert in an area discovering an
object that has the devils rain and the
souls inside it as the direction almost
gave this scene a magical and creepy feel
to it all.
We have a good moment with Keenan
Wynn approaching in the dark towards
Albert and Shatner
showing that he's one of the demon
zombie's and trying to attack them.
There's a great aggressive discussion
with Albert towards Shatner
on his faith in Christ and trying to
convince him to destroy the devil's rain
while Borgnine gets aggressive
with him trying to poison his mind about
having more power which the direction
looked good on a battle between good and
evil.
We spot many great close up shots on the
cast as the demon zombie's melting in the
rain such as Borgnine going wild while
melting as he is turned into Satan again
along with Shatner, Lupino
and bit part actor John Travolta.
All of this looked amazing but at the
same time a little overly long.
The music sounded very
toned out as you hear it cheesily
sounding like with adventerous tones
which even sounded slightly outdated for
even a 70's flick. We also hear some deep
drum rolling with the chasing scene's as
well as some organ playing too during the
cult ceremony's which wasn't too bad. All
of this came together by composer Al
De Lory whom was more famous as a
songwriter for country artists like Glen
Campbell than a music composer for
motion pictures.
Mark
Preston: CORBIS! God damn you!
Jonathan
Corbis: Who calls me from out of the
Pit?
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