I got a text from someone close to me saying "I just found a movie about a Satanic cult from the 70's starring Shatner. So naturally, I had to get fucked up and check it out. Damn am I glad I did! This movie is fantastic! While this is definitely a movie that no doubt fed into the Satanic Panic of the 80's, this one is beautifully authentic in some ways. They actually not only consulted Anton LaVey, but him and his wife both had minor roles in the film. How cool is that? The star studded cast also was great, especially Ernest Borgnine. With all the big names in this, and my love for this kind of film, I'm shocked I'd never heard of it before. The ritual scenes and everything are very close to reality, apart from the implied rape and ritual sacrifice. They even used actual parts of Satanic incantations, which I thought was great! At first I was a little confused about what was going on in this film, but about halfway through we got an absolutely epic reveal. I won't give away exactly what happened, but it made everything make sense, and we got one of the best curses I've ever heard while someone was being burnt at the stake. The "Satanic Egg" as I have dubbed it was a really interesting prop, and no doubt was a disguised vhs player or something? This movie had just the right amount of cheesiness to it. The ending scene is nothing short of a total classic 70's grossout gore fest, and I'm allllll about it. I read up on how they did the fx, and I'm totally blown away by how good it looked, and how little that must have cost! If they did one thing well, it's definitely using a mixture clever editing and low budget fx in a way that still produced a very visually interesting and exciting film. I'd love to say more, but I don't want to give anything away! I enjoyed this immensely. I highly recommend checking it out. ~Gangis
Image credit: Movie poster for The Devil's Rain 1975