Small Town Secrets Month Quick Picks and Pans

Kyrsyä -Tuftland (2017) After a devastating breakup with her boyfriend, textile manufacturing student Irina (Veera W. Vilo) looks for summer work to pay her bills and clear her head. She answers an ad to work in the backwoods Finnish village of Kyrsyä, where she’ll gain experience making hand-woven items. She arrives at a cult-like community seemingly frozen in time, where men and women live separately. Director/writer Roope Olenius’ slow-burn folk horror film (based on a play by Neea Viitamäki) takes its time building suspense, until things get truly disturbing by the final third.   

Rating: ***½. Available on DVD 

 

The Endless (2017) Aaron Moorhead and Justin Benson’s (who also appear as the lead characters) semi-sequel to their 2012 film, Resolution,* takes a lo-fi approach to science fiction, with a focus on characters, rather than flashy special effects. Two brothers, Aaron and Justin, who escaped a doomsday cult as teens, decide to revisit the secluded cult compound as adults to arrive at some closure in their fractured lives. They’re faced with a mystery when they discover the same people, seemingly unchanged after 20 years. While they piece together their hazy memories of growing up in the compound, they begin to question their grip on reality. While it may not be everyone’s cup of tea, I was entranced by its deliberate pace and challenging story. 

* Note: You may want to watch their earlier film first, for reference. 

Rating: ***½. Available on Blu-ray and DVD 

 

The People (1972) A young teacher (Kim Darby) moves to an isolated Amish-like desert community led by the staunch Sol Diemus (Dan O’Herlihy). She takes it upon herself to discover why the children seem so joyless and repressed, while uncovering their town’s tightly held secret. William Shater plays a local doctor who holds a strange fascination and reverence for the townspeople and their unusual ways. The People plays a bit like an overlong Twilight Zone episode, albeit with an ending that just fizzles out. One of the highlights in this otherwise serious movie is one of the goofiest scenes in recent memory involving a trunkload of floating kazoos. 

Rating: ***. Available on DVD (Out of Print) and Prime Video 

Invitation to Hell (1984) In this loopy TV movie by director Wes Craven, Matt and Patricia Winslow (Robert Urich and Joanna Cassidy) relocate to a new neighborhood in the suburbs where all may not be as innocuous and idyllic as it seems. Matt and his family are encouraged to join an exclusive country club, run by Jessica Jones (Susan Lucci), the Mephistophelean director. While the rest of his family succumb to the club and its apparent charms, Matt can’t shake the feeling that there’s a sinister agenda at work. Despite pressure from his boss Mr. Thompson (Kevin McCarthy), he’s resolved to learn the club’s secret, and why everyone at his job seems to be getting ahead. The surprises are obvious, and it’s undeniably silly and heavy-handed, but an oddly entertaining experience. 

Rating: ***. Available on DVD, Tubi and Prime Video

 

Population 436 (2006) Census-taker Steve Kady (Jeremy Sisto) travels to the tiny backwoods town of Rockwell Falls to solve a century-long mystery – somehow, the population has consistently remained at 436. He’s greeted by locals who seem a little too friendly, but once he’s learned their sinister secret, it’s too late. He gets cozy with the dim deputy sheriff’s (Fred Durst) fiancée Courtney (Charlotte Sullivan), who’s eager to leave the town behind, if she can only find a way out. The film raises many answers, but answers little, leaving you to reach your own conclusions. 

Rating: ***. Available on DVD

They’re Watching (2016) The crew of a home improvement show travel to rural Moldova (it was actually filmed in Romania) to feature an American expatriate (Brigid Brannah) and the old cottage that she restored. The film crew gain the attention and ire of the superstitious townsfolk after one faux pas follows another. An intriguing premise is mostly squandered because of the mostly unsympathetic leads (SPOILER ALERT: one of the most obnoxious characters survives), and the plot falling into the trap of most found footage movies (specifically, someone is there to film every awkward moment). It’s a comedy/horror that’s not funny enough to be a comedy, nor scary enough to be a proper horror film, leading to an overblown, unsatisfying climax. 

Rating: **½. Available on DVD and Tubi

The Bubble (1966) Writer/director Arch Oboler, who co-created the pioneering 3D movie Bwana Devil (1952), made this oddity (also originally shown in 3D). A young married couple, Mark and Catherine (Michael Cole and Deborah Walley), force their charter plane pilot to land after choppy weather causes Catherine to go into labor. They land on the outskirts of a strange town that resembles a movie set (obviously a cost-conscious choice on the part of the filmmakers). The residents speak in loops, as if they’re pre-programmed, wandering about in a daze. They soon learn that they’re trapped like zoo animals by an invisible bubble which surrounds the town. It’s an interesting premise that sadly goes nowhere (just like the town’s inhabitants), slowly crawling to a tepid ending. Skip it. 

Rating: **. Available on Blu-ray and DVD

The Devil’s Rain

(1975) Directed by Robert Fuest; Written by Gabe Essoe, James Ashton, and Gerald Hopman; Starring: Ernest Borgnine, Eddie Albert, Ida Lupino, William Shatner, Keenan Wynn, Tom Skerritt, Joan Prather and John Travolta; Available on Blu-ray and DVD 

Rating: **½  

“This book was owned by Corbis about 300 years ago. It’s a written history of the people – the names of the people he converted to Satan. These are written in blood, these signatures. These are people who believe that they sold their souls to the devil…” – Dr. Sam Richards (Eddie Albert) 

“It needed something. It was taking itself far too seriously, I thought.” – Tom Skerritt (from 2017 interview, “Confessions of Tom”)

Prior to the so-called “Satanic Panic” of the ‘80s, the box office was flooded with a glut of Satanic conspiracy movies. After the success of genre high-points Rosemary’s Baby (1968) and The Exorcist (1974), it seemed as if everyone with a motion picture camera scrambled to duplicate the themes from these films, with varying degrees of quality.   Somewhere in between lies The Devil’s Rain. Filmed in Durango, Mexico (and allegedly funded by mafia money), The Devil’s Rain boasted an impressive cast of veteran and up-and-coming actors, including Ernest Borgnine, Ida Lupino, Keenan Wynn, William Shatner, and John Travolta (in one of his earliest roles). Its biggest claim to fame, however, was listing Church of Satan founder Anton LaVey (who also appears in a cameo as a high priest) as a “technical advisor,” supposedly to oversee the authenticity of the rituals depicted in the film. Although I can’t attest to the veracity of the rituals on display, his involvement was a hell of a marketing gimmick (pardon the pun).

The opening title sequence sets the tone (or at least raises our expectations), with a montage of Hieronymus Bosch paintings. It’s too bad Bosch’s fanciful representations of the torments of hell are nowhere to be seen in the rest of the movie. The opening scene begins, fittingly enough, on a stormy night. Mark Preston (William Shatner) returns home to find his mother (Ida Lupino) cowering from unseen forces, while his father melts in a puddle on their doorstep. At that moment, he decides to take matters into his own hands by confronting Corbis and his minions on their home turf – a ghost town, somewhere in the Southwest. The movie’s MacGuffin is Corbis’ much-sought-after book, chronicling a list of captured souls, which the Preston family has kept hidden away in the floorboards. As we soon learn in a flashback sequence, Mark’s ancestor once betrayed cult leader Jonathan Corbis (Ernest Borgnine), who was burned at the stake. 300 years later, he’s back for revenge against Preston’s present-day descendants, and desperate to retrieve his book. When Mark suddenly disappears, it’s up to his brother, Dr. Tom Preston (Tom Skerritt) to bring Corbis down. Conveniently for us, Tom’s wife Julie (Joan Prather)* possesses ESP ability, enabling her to see 300 years into the past, when Corbis was persecuted for his beliefs and practices. Now the stage is set for the ultimate showdown between good and evil (or as much as the budget would allow). 

* Fun Fact #1: Shatner, Skerritt and Prather all starred in the Roger Corman production, Big Bad Mama (1974), the previous year.

One of the film’s greatest strengths (lauded by some critics at the time) is Ernest Borgnine’s deranged performance as Jonathan Corbis. Being a cult leader requires a big personality, and Borgnine fits the bill, being warm and congenial one moment, maniacal the next. Borgnine looks especially imposing, when Corbis transforms into a goat demon (“Who calls me from out of the pit?”). In contrast to some of the actors, who appeared to be playing their roles under duress, he seemed to be having a good time. Keenan Wynn, as a local sheriff, is underutilized, but makes the most of his brief appearance. Lupino, on the other hand, is wasted in her thankless role. The much-touted presence of John Travolta does little to enhance one’s viewing experience, as he barely appears in the movie, and is basically unrecognizable under makeup.

(SPOILER ALERT) It’s hard to top the movie poster’s hyperbolic tagline: “Absolutely the most incredible ending of any motion picture ever!” While nothing could possibly live up to that kind of ballyhoo, it’s fun to watch the Satanic congregation melt into red and green globs of goo in the rain (it probably earned the “PG” rating instead of an “R,” due to the unnatural-looking orangey-reds and greens of the effluences).* Unfortunately, the producers never heard the expression, a little goes a long way. Too much of a good thing becomes tedious. Fuest confided that the final scene** goes on too long, with more footage shot by one of the assistant directors at the behest of the producers. 

* Fun Fact #2: According to makeup effects master Tom Burman, the shoestring production couldn’t afford full-body makeup. For the scenes where bodies seem to be withering away, Burman’s crew used inflatable dummies from a sex shop.

** Fun Fact #3: To create the visual effect of wailing souls trapped in a Satanic vessel, the crew fabricated a container around a portable television.

The Devil’s Rain carries on the dubious horror movie tradition of smart people doing dumb things. Both Mark and his brother Tom choose to take on Corbis’ cult while greatly outnumbered (they apparently never learned from the adage, there’s safety in numbers). If nothing else, Tom and his wife didn’t pay attention to the fact that Corbis was defeated 300 years ago by an angry mob of torch-bearing villagers.

It’s difficult to separate the hype from reality when considering the stories swirling around about the film’s production. Rumors of a “cursed” production seem to have no basis in fact, as well as reports of director Robert Fuest’s nervous breakdown (which he flatly denied in his DVD commentary). Whether or not the film was troubled behind the scenes, The Devil’s Rain is a mess. Sadly, the all-star cast doesn’t make up for the weak story, thin characterizations and murky motivations. There’s a kernel of an intriguing story, but the end results are half-baked. Even the director’s commentary (moderated by Marcus Hearn) is lackluster. Fuest (who seemed to have a hazy memory of the production in the first place) frequently veers off-topic, discussing many of his other films (such as The Abominable Dr. Phibes and Wuthering Heights). The Devil’s Rain is probably best remembered for Borgnine’s exuberant performance and the aforementioned ending. It might be worth a look for the curious, but prepare to be underwhelmed.

 

Sources for this article: 2005 commentary by Robert Fuest (moderated by Marcus Hearn), “Confessions of Tom” (2017 interview with Tom Skerritt), “The Devil’s Makeup) (2017 interview with Tom Burman)