The Devil's Rain (film)

1975 film by Robert Fuest

The Devil's Rain is a 1975 supernatural horror film directed by Robert Fuest. The ensemble cast includes William Shatner, Tom Skerritt, Ernest Borgnine, Eddie Albert, Ida Lupino and Keenan Wynn. John Travolta made his film debut in a minor role. During filming, Travolta converted to the Scientology religion after co star Joan Prather gave him a copy of the book Dianetics written by Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard. Satanist Anton LaVey is credited as the film's technical advisor and appeared in the film playing a minor role. Although it takes place in an unspecified part of the American Southwest, the movie was shot in Durango, Mexico.

The Devil's Rain received a uniformly negative critical response, with the chief complaint being the incoherent storyline. The film's lack of adequate scares was also widely criticized. Vincent Canby in The New York Times opined that "The Devil's Rain is ostensibly a horror film, but it barely manages to be a horror It is as horrible as watching an egg fry." Roger Ebert in the Chicago Sun Times said "All of this would be good silly fun if the movie weren't so painfully dull. The problem is that the material's stretched too thin. There's not enough here to fill a feature length film." He particularly derided the exhaustive melting of the Satanists at the finale. He gave the film 1½ stars out of four, and eventually added it to his "Most Hated" movies list. 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, 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.