Badmovies.org Forum

Cool site!  Never seen anything like it.  The Devil's Rain is truly a classic.  There were a lot of things pointed out that I never picked up on.  I think it deserved a better rating than what it got.  What other movie has there been that minor supernatural powers were visually displayed (illusion of the talisman turning into a snake, telepathy, holding someone spellbound just by a gaze...)?  Besides who said everything always ends in happiness.

Caught this flick the way it was meant to be seen--at five a.m. on the late late late movie on TV.  Truly spellbindingly bad.  The sight of Earnest Borgnine turning from his naturally frightening state into satan/goatboy/whatever complete with horns is not to be missed.  It undoubtedly must have made the Academy think of taking back his Oscar on principle.  I learned two other things about this movie that your site did not mention.  First, when satan worshipers with no eyes in black robes get shot, they bleed antifreeze, not frozen yogurt as the last scene of the movie would have you believe.  Second, Earnest Borgnine's eyebrows, even when not in satan costume, still make him look like the devil.  He really should have thought of an eyebrow trim for his "human" scenes.  I'm surprised this film is not considered more of a "bad" classic than it seemed to be at five a.m. this morning.  

  This is one of the greatest pictures ever made! If not for the numerous aforementioned reasons, because small parts are played by Doktor Anton Szandor LaVey and his then wife Diane. Doktor LaVey founded the Church of Satan in 1966 c.e. and served as High Priest for over 30 years until his death in '97. The Church of Satan continues proudly and Doktor LaVey's books such as the Satanic Bible have sold millions of copies!

Interestingly, lgworld@aol.com brought up Dr. Phibes, and as it turns out both Dr. Phibes and The Devil's Rain were directed by the same fellow (Anton Fuest). Obviously he had much better material to work with (and probably a higher budget) on the Phibes film...

Um, I'm sorry to say this, but I took Latin (Classic, not the processed Church bull), and Rege Satanas (pronounced ray-shay Sah-tah-nus is Latin for "Kingdom of Satan". Just had to clear that up.

A good film. Required viewing for those who need a good scare. The special effects involving people melting to wax is gross. And if some of you people are real film buffs that don't say every film is BAD, check this flick out on DVD or video and is presented in it's original 2.35:1 Todd-Ao widescreen. Avoid the bad panned and scanned version. Actor Ernest Borgnine is effective as the Devil in this A+++ film.

Saw this on TV at the age of six and it scared the s**t outa me!  Took me days before I could sleep.  It was the melting guy that did it.  Im eager to see it now that im at a mature age (24) and can fully enjoy it without p**sing in my pants.

I've seen this movie twice.  The first time it was on Monstervision with my hero, Joe Bob Briggs.  The second time was again just last night when one of my friends insisted on seeing it for one of our movie nights.  I just wanted to say that it was just as painful the second time around.  Even Skerritt, Shatner, and Borgnine couldn't save this movie.  Ouch.

I am the friend mentioned in ebolamonk's response and I disagree.  This movie was wonderful at 4:00 in the morning.  Come on now, this movie was quite amusing.  I say it was the best of the night, and one of the best movies of our movie nights.

This is late night classic! So bad it's terrible. The evil guy turning people into robed minions reminded me of both "The Omega Man" and "Phantasm". Gotta love William Shatner and Tom Skerrit's displays of stupidity. Dumb ending, what else would one expect? Worth seeing if you want to stay up late, can't sleep, or what something to watch while getting wasted.

For all the bad acting and dialogue, this movie isn't that bad! I just saw it again on TBS right after a showing of my favorite horror movie of all time: THE EXORCIST. So you can say the Devil was out tonight! Yes its true Anton Szandor LaVey actually played a small part in the film (along with his first wife Diane) and he even provided the costumes and Satanic imagery, and also the demonic diatribes to give the movie an air of authenticity. This movie, along with other so-called "devil films" like The Brotherhood of Satan among others, is probably the best of its kind. By that I mean, for its outstanding special make-up effects! You just can't beat seeing a bunch of devil worshippers melting like they were ice cream in the sun! That one scene alone is worth seeing this movie, along with the wonderful preformance of the goatlord, Ernest Borgnine! One last little-known fact-- it was rumoured that LaVey had actually bought several members of the cast into the Church of Satan, most notably Keenan Wynn and Tom Skerrit! Don't know if this was true, but I do remember seeing old pictures of LaVey hanging out with some of these folks. It does make you wonder tho, doesn't it?

In response to Foy (foy_67@yahoo.com), I'm going to have to disagree!!  I am also part of our movie night crew (I promise you all, I'm the last one... mostly) and I have to say that I LOVE movies like this simply because it's great to laugh at the celebrities and how terrible they were at this point...  Tom Skerrit was actually young too, that impressed me with the muchness.  It seems you've....... eaten....... my........ ketchup, you........ bastard, my......... ketchup!!  Ol' Billy Shatner is my hero, you can't beat that (hahahahahahaha, yes you can {just messin with j'all}).  Anyway, I'm going to have to say this is about 3 or 4 oot of 5 because of the lame celebrity cast.  It was wonderful.

~Hungy

I also attend the movie nights with my good friends ebolamonk and lordofheck and I must say, this movie completely sucks.  I made the awful mistake of renting this on my own just recently, and it hurt a lot.  Even the great cast couldn't save it.  On the upside, Borgnine as satan preacher/goat monster was funny at 4:00 in the morning, and the movie did have an authentic feel to it, probably due to LaVey's direct involvment.
   Bottom line, with a group or by yourself, you're in for 90 minutes of misery and suffering if you sit down with this clunker.

IMO, this movie benefits quite a bit from both the pan-n-scan and the bad cable-TV editing; the more left to the imagination the better, at least 'til the last 10 minutes.  And the opening credits are phenomenal, too -- it's the most suspenseful 5min in the movie.

Is it scary, though?  Dunno....not in the traditional "horror" way at least, unless Satanic stuff is a personal phobia for you. For a better example of the type of "scary" this movie is, check out some Kenneth Anger flicks.

All right, so it's not the greatest horror flick ever made, that goes without saying. It's a bit slow-moving at times and not particularly interesting, but I've seen considerably worse films in my time. The movie's director, Robert Fuest(of THE ABOMINABLE DR. PHIBES fame) does what he can with the threadbare material, the atmosphere is fairly creepy, and any flick that unites such talents as Ernest Borgnine, Ida Lupino, William Shatner, Tom Skerritt, Keenan Wynn and serves as the debut of John Travolta definitely has something going for it!

Actually saw this movie when it was first released at the drive in when I was a kid.  Scared me stupid.  I always remembered the melting faces.  Of course when I saw it later as an adult I was horrified for other reasons.  That's a damn crappy movie!!!

This movie freaked me out tremendously when I was a kid.  Now it's funny, although Ernest Borgnine is scary-looking even without demon makeup.

This movie is funny sometimes but I agree it's really just a novelty picture. Don't look for Travolta's big debut. It's a 30 second non-speaking part with tons of make-up hiding his eyes. The best part is the faith showdown between Borgnine and Shatner. That's classic. Is Borgnine really supposed to be frightening? I kept waiting for his kids to show up to take him back to the home. 'Don't mind Grampa, he always thinks he's the devil if doesn't get his pills.'

Ouch! This film hurts. John Travolta isn't recognizable. I looked for him and couldn't find him then found out that he was one of the satanists. He melts I think. It is worth seeing for the ending alone. I give it 2.5/5.

I love "The Devil's Rain", what a cast! This was actually Travolta's first film, don't blink you may just miss him!

This movie is pure evil! How can anyone say that this movie is stupid and that Borgnine does a bad performance. He was awesome and he was the perfect man for this role. He looked very sinister! This is one of the best satanic films of all time. The other actors and actresses are good too. I definately would have given this film a perfect 5. It's even good if you watch the pan and scan version and I would say that Corbis was an awesome character. The makeup was superb. I would highly recommend this film to anyone.

I think there are some scenes missing in the video or DVD. I saw the film at a drive in , in the Seventies. I remember a scene where you saw how William Shatner got those nice satanic symbol scars on his chest. Ernest shot flames at him to make the marks. What else is mising?

First saw this film in the fall of 1979, late night on CBS (naturally following their Late-Late Friday night rerun of The Night Stalker).
Creeped me out - this is one strange film, to say the least.
Years later, after seeing it again, I realize how amazing it was that they got such a cast in a movie like this!
Since a lot of it was shot in the desert, I halfway expected Airwolf to show up in the scene where Earnest Borgnine confronted Bill Shatner at the water-pump (and what the heck is this line supposed to mean - <Shatner, drinking water from a hand-pump well>"It's BITTER!" <Borgnine>"SWEET way to end a thirst, though!").
Shatner sure was desperate for work in the early/mid Seventies - he was also in another TV-movie where he played an ex-preist flying from London to New York on a 747 where this Druid sarcoughagus or something starts taking over the plane with evil....his career seems to have been saved by the Star Trek movies and T.J. Hooker - but I recently saw some film where he actually played himself (although his was not the main character)and ended up singing a rap song to Shakepeare's Julius Ceasar - the film was called Free Enterprise.
As for the Devil's Rain - it definately belongs on this site, as it is a truly bad movie.
Wonder if Tom Skerrit's role helped him get his roles in Alien and Picket Fences?

When Satan saw that William Shatner was involved with this "movie" even he gave it a thumbs down(or claw down... whatever)!!!!

Saw this movie when it came out on ABC on network TV in the mid 70's, I had to watch it cause I love horror movies.  Other then that I totally forgot about this bomb of a movie.

Cool movie, to have the High Priest and High Priestess of the Church of Satan in it.   Too bad they didn't have a bigger part in it.  

I also took Latin.  it varied a lot over time, and Satanas is foreign word brought into Latin.

Rege Satanas! I take to be the Imperative: "Rule, Satan!"

It could also be an objective form of "King Satan", as in
[long live] King Satan!

This makes as much sense as Japanese Banzai! ("ten thousand years"), meaning
[may the Empereor reign] ten thousand years!  

Rege is classical Latin would be pronounced "Ray-Gay", not the soft slurred later forms that as it turned into Italian and Latin as pronounced by the catholic church.

A lot more images here, including Diane LaVey, a Priscilla Corbis : http://www.angelfire.com/movies/satanickeys/

Saw this years ago on a B&W tv; did'nt know it was in color !!! Ernest Borgnine is scarier than hell; I'm so glad he was'nt my Dad. Great flick, a must-have. Travolta's first movie supposedly - for the few minutes you see the goo melt on him. Ernest is in a butt-load of vicious flicks so find them & watch them. Vengeance is Mine would make a nice part of a McHale's Navy marathon.

To clear that up: "kingdom of satanas" would mean "regnum satanatis" (in case the latter  is the right genitive case of "satanas") the verb-form "rege" in "rege satanas" derives from  rego 3, to rule or to reign and is the imperative I, so that "rege satanas" in correct latin means: "let satan rule", or "satan shall rule!"

For those who have the DVD, please put it in and FF to the first scene inside the church.  They show a symbol of Satan which looks sort of like intertwining triangles--only they aren't triangles but thingies that look awfully similar to the logo on the shirts that the actors on Star Trek wore!  Was this an inside joke (since Shatner is in the movie), or is this really the symbol for Satan?  Maybe the logo was an inside joke on Star Trek?

The chase scene on foot, with Shatner running from the minions, looked like he was playing football going for a lomg touchdoen run.  It was hilarious.

I taped this off of one of the Turner channels the other night.  I too saw this originally on the late night movie of the week as a child in the later 70s.  Scared the crappola out of me as well.  Tonight I shared the viewing legacy with my 10 year old son.  The cast was superb for the time as were the effects.  The story by today's standards is a bit cheezy but it still stands up quite well against movies that cost a ton more to make, ie I Know what you did last summer or Scream etc....Producers of the horror genre have gotten away from what really scares people.  I thoroughly enjoyed The Devil's Rain in the 70s and love it as much today.  Very little cursing for the most part and pretty tame by what are standards of viewing today have become.  For it's time it was cutting edge work imho..Though I am a CGI artist you can't get away from the classic way of doing things if you really want to capture your audience.  I would love to see this film remade though.  I think that more gore could be inserted and a bit better storyline could be implemented.  And definitely let Ernest relive his role.  The man is very underrated for sure.  I give this oldy but goody an 8 out of 10 vote.  Make a movie of this quality today for the budget they worked with then....and you might end up with 3 minute claymation project...if yer lucky...Kudos to TDR.

Poor john travolta imagine being in a movie this bad? i guess after being a hunk he thought that he could do it sorry

I just saw this movie after watching a genuinly creepy and moderately scary movie: The Amityville Horror. Devil's Rain was pretty hokey and the goat demon looked like a Troll Doll gone bad.


John Rinck,

Those symbols aren't triangles or Star Trek like symbols. That's supposed to represent the head of the Judas Goat. I think it's also supposed to be like an inverted Star of David.

THIS MOVIE RULES!!!  it does need to be at it's designated time, such as anytime after 1am. A true 70's classic how could you beat the casting? it has everything you would want from a super 70's movie bad sound,bad makeup and effects and best of all bad acting! at least the casting was great! at the top of my all time list. what other movie has what we all would like to do , tie william shatner to a upside down cross and offer him to satan.(but would he want him?) any movie that has anton lavey himself and ernest borgnine as a satanic high priest/goat gets my vote. a true materpiece.

Saw this way back in '76.  Scared the bejesus outta this 7 year old !!!  As a kid I remember being completely transfixed by this movie.  I, too, found the melting wax man at the beginning fricken scary !!!  Satan's minions jumping from the back seat of the car driven by a woman made me s**t my pants.  And the snake transformation around the guy's neck shocked me too.  Oddly enough, I don't remember the cool finale.  Must of been dragged off home before the end.  Damn !!

Saw this movie a few years back and it blew me away.  The best part would have to have been watching the opening credits and seeing travolta's name there, like he was a big time player in the film, and then watching the entire movie waiting for him to appear.  I guess his melting abilities far exceeded the other cast's, for i could come to no other conclusion as to why his name was added to the credits with such reverence.  All in all a good flick.  Stands up well against other such classics as "I Spit on Your Grave" and "Seven Doors of Death".  I only wish it were aired sometime before four in the morning.  

Hehe, ya know whats kinda funny? That guy's name is SHATner. Hheheh, get it? SHAT-ner!! HAHA!

Saw this at the movies when it came out,in the 70's Hollywood had a fascination with the Devil all because of Rosemary's baby's success,and I forgive the stupid scenes because if they were smart enough to jump in a car and keep going,we wouldn't have had a movie to begin with..lol

I think this movie could be re-made and be a hit at the Box Office,after all it's not a bad movie,it's just not "It's A Wonderful Life" that you can watch every freaking year.

Ernest Borgnine was great,but he was better as Dirty Lyle in Convoy a a year or two later.

Captain Kirk being killed off and not being one of the main Devils A** Kickers at the end was a shock to me in 75,and just who the heck was this guy Tom Skerritt? "Top Gun" was almost a decade later and before that he was just a crazed War Vet in Cheech and Chong.

All in all,you can probably catch the movie on TV somewhere at least once a year,and you should see it once,but only twice if you take your medication.

Always hope that the guys that made Mystery Science Theater 3000 would just tear this movie apart with a million Ernest Borgnine jokes and William Shatner mimics. Sadly not.