By the end of the ‘60s, what had been a sunshiny decade had turned darker and a new dread was slowly creeping in. Starting with the Charles Manson Family murders, the Age of Aquarius went from hippie paradise to paranoid hellscape.
Hell is the operative concept because this was the beginning of “Satanic Panic,” a middle-class fear that Christian America of the heartland was unsafe because of lurking evil. Friends and neighbors could no longer be trusted as people didn’t know what was behind the curtains. Devil worship could be happening in an exclusive apartment building in New York (1968’s Rosemary’s Baby) or even the Pittsburgh suburbs (1972’s Season of the Witch), but the idea of The Other is out there and it’s evil permeated the underground of New Hollywood.
The Devil’s Rain (1975) is a lesser-known entry into the Satanic movie boom which lasted from the mid-‘60s to the ‘90s with some random entries in modern times. What separates this film from the usual cheapie horror set is the cast of TV stars exploring themes they’d never even visualized in their antenna careers.
Reading the cast while summarizing the film, it’s hard not to drop into The Simpsons’ Comic Book Guy voice. William Shatner (in between Star Trek: The Animated Series and Star Trek: The Motion Picture) stars as a small-town sheriff in an unnamed desert city whose father has disappeared. His mother (noir movie queen and director Ida Lupino) knows it’s over a family heirloom, an ancient book of unknown origin. The leader of a Satanic cult, played by Ernest Borgnine, draws Shatner and the book to his abandoned town where he will use the book for nefarious purposes and torture Shatner’s character who he calls by a different name. Once Shatner is kidnapped, his brother, played by Tom Skerrit (Alien), must try and save him.
Other famous faces include Keenan Wynn as the sheriff, Eddie Arnold (Green Acres) as a supernatural researcher, and a young John Travolta as one of Borgnine’s helpers, although the future superstar (this is his Hollywood debut) is little more than a glorified extra. But the real kicker is the technical advisor and bit player, Anton Lavey himself, the founder of the Church of Satan.
This being the mid ‘70s, the movie is tinged with psychedelic effects. As the Satan worshippers get converted, they turn into lumpy, waxy figures whose eyes have disappeared, leaving only black holes. Ironically, Shatner’s face looks a lot the mask Michael Myers would wear in Halloween.
On top of that, the color scheme for the film leans heavily into reds, especially during a flashback scene where we learn the New England roots of the church and just how long Borgnine’s character has been working his plot.
The team behind the camera is also as interesting as the collection of thespians. Executive producer Sandy Howard, who started his career directing Howdy Doody and Captain Kangaroo, was still riding his biggest success A Man Called Horse and its two sequels. After this movie, he would work in exploitation films, including the very popular Angel films of the 1980s.
But the story here is director Robert Fuest. He started with the original The Avengers TV show, one of the most original dramas ever seen. He then made the cult classics The Abominable Dr. Phibes and Dr. Phibes Rises Again, revenge vehicles for Vincent Price that were the same kind of formula as Devil's Rain: weird colors and scenarios, famous but forgotten actors, and atmosphere to burn.
But The Devil’s Rain for all its creepiness falls short of those films. Being more action oriented, this film’s fight scenes are clunky and the pace is sludgy. It’s fun to wallow in the camp of the hammy performances and weird design, but it never quite reaches the heights that all these major parts promise.
Wikipedia actually says this movie destroyed Fuest’s career and it’s easy to see why. He moved back to TV, but never any major shows. Too bad, because Fuest does know how to create atmosphere and to use the camera for great effectiveness. He just couldn’t make the actors move as well.
Still, as an artifact of a time and place, The Devil’s Rain reminds us of just how much the end of the ‘60s made the ‘70s weird. The viewer feels the distrust seeping through society as the main pillars of society crumble. It’s just too bad the puzzle never quite fits the picture.