The Devil’s Rain Review

Review of The Devil's Rain (1975) by screenqueeen: 👍 4/5

HE HAS RISEN: CARPEASTER 1.0 DAY 11 OF 13

Starts out like any other 70s cult fare but with one notable difference: MELTING TOM SKERRIT which of course instantly hooked me. Second point of interest? Tom's name is Tom and Tom is the brother of Mark , played by a pre-MOTION PICTURE, yet post-IMPULSE Shatner who is sometimes called Martin. He actually plays a pretty straightforward role here and the film works better in favor of it and gives Borgnine even more room to ham it up and really put those waxed eyebrows to work.

It's still a relatively derivative "Satanic cult" movie that tries out a couple new things that turn out to create its own thing within the genre niche but this kept making me think about MESSIAH OF EVIL (quite a few movies make me think about it honestly), but not in a way that makes me want to revisit that instead. I celebrate the film's use of its influences and think it makes a more enjoyable experience because of it.

The finale and the final moment of this is something that makes me want to come back to it soon. There's a lot of moving parts in DEVIL'S RAIN that seem like they should all be getting in each other's way but they somehow manage to support each other leading into an ultimately coherent manner, accentuating the dread that comes with the credit roll.