The Devil’s Rain

The cast includes Ida Lupino, John Travolta, William Shatner and Ernest Borgnine

Comments (0) By Olivia Flores Alvarez Thursday, Sep 30 2010

In his review of 1975’s The Devil’s Rain, Roger Ebert, the Chicago Sun-Times film critic, said, “All of this would be good silly fun if the movie weren’t so painfully dull.” (That quote alone launched the horror film into the “this is a cult classic because it’s so lame” stratosphere.) Australian author and film reviewer Michael Adams had a slightly different take. He called the flick “the ultimate cult movie.” He continued: “It’s about a cult, has a cult following, was devised with input from a cult leader, and saw a future superstar indoctrinated into a cult he’d help popularize.” The cult leader he mentions is Anton LaVey, founder of the Satanic Church, who plays the devil and is credited as a consultant on the film. The future superstar is John Travolta, who was just starting as Vinnie Barbarino in Welcome Back, Kotter.

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We admit the plot is a little incoherent (something about a Satanist and a family he’s out to destroy in order to get a book that will give him superpowers), but there’s no denying the casting was brilliant. Besides LeVey and Travolta, there’s Oscar-winner Ernest Borgnine as the Satanic priest, Eddie Albert as a psychic researcher and William Shatner as a member of the family who confronts the evil priest with disastrous results. Ida Lupino and Tom Skerritt are also in the mix. Stick around for the surprise ending (even for a horror film, a slew of people melting in the rain is out of the ordinary — oh, wait, did we say too much?). 8:30 p.m. Domy Books, 1709 Westheimer. For information, call 713-523-3669 or visit www.domystore.com. Free.
Mon., Oct. 4, 8:30 p.m., 2010