25 Comments

Fun fact about this movie: John Travolta was converted to Scientology by one of the other cast members during filming. Wiki Sez: "While on the set of The Devil's Rain, [Julie] Prather told an "extremely unhappy" John Travolta that Scientology had helped her, inspiring him to get involved with the religion upon his later return to Los Angeles...In his 2010 book Showgirls, Teen Wolves, and Astro Zombies, Australian film reviewer Michael Adams called The Devil's Rain "the ultimate cult movie ... It's about a cult, has a cult following, was devised with input from a cult leader [Anton LaVey founder of the Church of Satan, who also had a small role in the movie], and saw a future superstar indoctrinated into a cult he'd help popularize." The last reference is to John Travolta, who made his film debut in Devil's Rain, and Scientology, to which Travolta was introduced by a crew member during filming."

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Fascinating!... and kind of hilarious. Thanks, Edward.

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This movie is amazing! The tone is so serious, like everyone involved thought they were working on the next Exorcist! Only Ernest seems aware of how camp it all is.

Thank you for reviewing this!

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My...uh..."pleasure" doesn't quite seem the right word but...thanks for reading it!

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It does add a certain je ne sais quo to the line you wrote:

"It seems they sold their souls to Satan (through his licensed representative, Ernest Borgnine) in exchange for acting careers."

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That is both fascinating and nauseating. Thanks.

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You're...welcome?

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Didn't Cole Porter write a song called "Fascinating Nausea"?

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If he didn’t, he should have.

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Fascinating nausea

You've got me on the throne

Fascinating nausea

I'm all a quiver (in my loins)

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It’s delightful, it’s delicious, it’s disgusting…

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So we can blame this for "Battlefield Earth," too.

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<<discovering a manhole that leads directly to Hell.>>

That's not Hell, that's just the LL train.

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Having ridden the LL from 1st Ave & 14th Street to 8th Ave in the morning, and then back again in the evening, I can say, without fear of contradiction, that your assertion is redundant.

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Why do you think it's now called the L?

It was too obvious a clue.

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I hsd no idea that it would be so easy for Good to triumph over Evil.

Can we try it now against MAGA?

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<<So, what did we learn from this movie?>>

Starring in popular 1960s TV shows does no one any good in the long run, not even the audience.

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Tax preparer/laundromat....hmmmmm...

"Well, no, I do not think your thong is deductible but we might be able to write it down as an asset."

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This is what happens when you write movie reviews in multiple posts. :)

https://debbimacktoo.wordpress.com/?s=devil%27s+rain

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Shatner stealing the snow globe aka the Corbusmite Maneuver

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That’s like a TriDimensional reference

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Wow. I always thought I was a normal person, but I not only have read "Showgirls, Teen Wolves, and Astro Zombies," I once watched "The Devil's Rain" all the way through. It is very bad. Very bad.

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This is kind of a missed opportunity ! The director, Robert Fuest, directed the Phibes movies( Good Stuff!) and a couple of years of The Avengers TV series. He didn't suck! This movie sure did though. I remember watching it on network TV. The promo commercials showed everybody melting. There's really not much more to it than that.

Fuest also did a version of Michael Moorcock's Jerry Cornelius stories released as The Final Programme or The Last Days of Man on Earth. (That's a weird movie! You should do that one!)

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Hmm! That’s an interesting suggestion…thanks!

Also, thanks for calling out Fuest’s “Phibes” connection. The unofficial motto around here is “We don’t believe the artists responsible for these movies should be defined by them. It’s just… that’s how *we’re* gonna remember them.”

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<<contains the signatures of those who sold their souls back in Salem>>

Soooooo, the William Morris client portfolio?

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