The Devil's Rain

The Satanic Rites of Ernest Borgnine

A group of goat-sucking buffoons have set up shop in a desolate ghost town in the Southwest wherein the leader (Borgnine) is hell-bent on getting a book of blood contracts from the Preston family, who live nearby. William Shatner and Tom Skerritt play the Preston brothers while Eddie Albert is on hand as a psychic researcher.

"The Devils Rain" (1975) comes in the tradition of satanic-themed movies of the 60s and early 70s, such as The Devil Rides Out (1968), The Brotherhood of Satan (1971) and Race with the Devil (1975). The success of Rosemarys Baby (1968) and The Exorcist (1973) naturally attracted filmmakers to the topic. Rob Zombie's "The Lords of Salem" (2012) is a worthy modern example...

A cast of talent that includes Shatner, Borgnine, Lupino, with Keenan Wynn, Tom Skerritt and Eddie Albert ought to make for a decent horror film to watch. Well, I'm sorry to have to rain on their parade but it's definitely not the case here - this is a shocker. The thread is based on an old Satanic cult leader who is burned at the stake by the local townsfolk. He vows to return and avenge himself on their descendants - and with the assistance of the "Book of Blood Contracts" returns decades later to do exactly that - and his special quirk is that he can quite literally melt them... It's a make-up artist's wet dream; every colour, shade and hue of wax, glue and latex crops up as he wreaks devastation before, thankfully, Albert "Dr. Richards"...