Vampires, Assassins, and Romantic Angst by the Seaside: Takoma Reviews

The Devil’s Rain, 1975

Jonathan Corbis (Ernest Borgnine) is the leader of a satanic cult who is burned at the stake along with several of his followers. Centuries later, Corbis comes after a powerful book that is being kept by the descendents of some of his followers. Emma Preston (Ida Lupino) and her son Mark (William Shatner) are captured by the cult. Investigating their disappearance is Mark’s brother, Tom (Tom Skerritt) and his wife, Julie (Joan Prather). Can the Preston family save the souls captured by Corbis, and can they save their own lives?

A mix of absurd plot and visuals intersect with some genuinely spooky moments in a pleasing way.

With a lot of horror movies, it’s very easy to hold the film at arm’s length and just laugh at it, but there’s something really fun about just taking somewhat seriously all of the ideas being thrown at you. In the case of this movie, I found that a very rewarding approach.

The litmus test of how you will come at this one as an audience member arrives in basically the first three minutes. Mark, Emma, and a family friend are at home in the middle of a dramatic thunderstorm. Mark’s father, Steve (George Sawaya) stumbles home, appearing at the front door with only dark pits for eyes. He gasps that the family must give Corbis back the book of souls and then MELTS INTO THE GROUND.

The whole film then becomes a tightrope to walk between taking things seriously and very much not taking them seriously. Mark travels to an abandoned desert town to confront Corbis, and then we are treated to Captain Kirk engaging in a battle of faith with glowering and smug Ernest Borgnine. Again, this is a time to choose!

But I stuck with it, and I’m glad I did. There’s a lot that’s absurd, but the film is blessed with a talented cast who lend a degree of seriousness and professionalism to this movie that keep it from sliding into camp territory. In this lens, the visuals are also really winning. Again: this could be looked at as just camp and laughed at, but I was really charmed by the imagery, including the prop/effect that shows us the meaning of “The Devil’s Rain.”

There is a limit to the charms, however, and that’s in the pacing and storytelling that feels a bit too loose and sloppy at times. Julie is a psychic of some sort, and her visions clearly pertain to what is happening with her husband’s family. But aside from some neat visuals/foreshadowing, this subplot is not well explored. The film also doesn’t do a great job of building relationships between its characters. There’s a lot of characters just scurrying from place to place, witnessing things, then scurrying somewhere else.

I did quite enjoy watching this movie, and I think that whether you’re watching it as camp or taking it seriously, it does stick the ending. I think that this would make for a great movie to watch with a group of friends, especially in the Halloween season.

Phantom of the Paradise, 1974

Winslow Leach (William Finley) is a mild-mannered, overly-trusting composer who makes the mistake of showing his compositions to devious music producer Swan (Paul Williams), owner of the Paradise. Just when Leach has met the lovely Phoenix (Jessica Harper) and imagined his career coming together, Swan has him framed for a crime and sent away to jail. Leach escapes, but is irreversibly mutilated. Returning to the Paradise, attempts to reclaim the music as his own, but Swan may be more nefarious than Leach could ever imagine.

Wildly imaginative and stuffed full of musical numbers and references to books, movies, and music, this is a joyful ride.

Sometimes you watch a film and, even if you don’t exactly love it, you totally get why others do. I think it might take a rewatch or two for me to feel out if this is a favorite for me, its charms are totally apparent even on a first viewing. This is a film where everything works, because it all exists in the same strange universe. It’s a film that asks you to expect the unexpected, and then consistently delivers.

The main strength of this movie is the world it builds, which is at time realistic, at times hyperbolic, and at times outright supernatural. And yet it all blends together so that we don’t blink when a problem is crooked police officers, and we don’t blink when it turns out that maybe someone is actually Satan. The world in this movie is a cynical one, to be sure. People in power only use that power to take advantage or and/or harm others. Beauty is only appreciated for how it can be exploited for profit and power. We don’t just need our main characters to overcome the antagonists, we need them to overcome the cruelty of the universe.

And while I think that the world building is the best part of this movie, the pitch-perfect cast of characters that populates that world runs an easy second place. Finley’s Leach is obviously too nice, something that can be a bit frustrating at the beginning. Even when he seemingly snaps and becomes the Phantom, he’s still somehow too trusting. Williams is really the star of the show as Swan, a man who craves money and power at any cost, and is willing to chew up and spit out anyone who gets in the way. Something that adds dimension to Swan’s character is the fact that he is genuinely talented, both at recognizing talent and using technology to turn Leach’s work into smash hits.

Harper is likable enough as Phoenix, a character who is very much like Leach, right down to just wanting to be allowed to share her talents. When she first shows up to audition, the “audition” is a leering group of men sexually assaulting or coercing the women on a couch in a seedy backroom, and Phoenix runs away in disgust. I honestly didn’t really buy her return to the Paradise, and it feels very much like something that’s a bit artificially put into the script in order to drive the conflict between Swan and Leach. But Harper is talented enough and likable enough that she mostly (mostly) escapes feeling like just a trophy for the two male leads to fight over.

Rounding out the lead cast is a truly entertaining performance from Gerrit Graham as Beef, a singer who is brought in to sing Leach’s music. Beef is a totally over-the-top personality, and Graham’s performance is at turns hilarious and demented. Every minute that Beef is on screen is incredibly engaging.

The set design and costuming deserve special mention, because the movie is absolutely bursting with details both large and small. Obviously there’s the infamous image of Leach’s bird-like face mask. But every set and every costume has a special touch to it.

There wasn’t much here that I disliked. I thought that Phoenix was underdeveloped as a character. She’s nice and dumb, and she’s the character whose actions seem most dictated by what the script needs her to do in order to motivate Leach or Swan to a certain course of action. I wish just one scene or two had been used to deepen the relationship between Leach and Phoenix to ground his fixation on her a bit more. Like I wrote before, Harper is too good to be reduced to a mere trophy, but she’s really the only female character and it’s frustrating that someone named Beef feels more fully formed than her. (Look, Leach is also nice and dumb, but he’s proactive whereas she is merely reactive and almost entirely passive).

Oodles of fun, and probably a perfect midnight movie.

One of De Palma's best and one of the best musicals of all time.

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Phantom of Paradise is a great film, and one of DePalma's best, which is saying a lot since (as everyone knows) he only makes masterpieces.

I find most of De Palma's stuff pretty soulless, but this one actually had spirit. Easily my favorite of his films, with only Carrie coming close.

If souless you mean treats his characters like cogs to move the machinery of his films along...ya...sometimes


But if images and camera movement and editing can have a soul, nah, he's blowing the rivets out with feeling.


Carrie and Phantom are arguably two of his best though (the only other competition being Body Double and Blow Out)

I believe it, but sadly I often don't feel it. Felt it in Phantom, though!

Phantom and Carrie both have a sensitivity in dealing with their primary characters which make them considerably more likeable DePalma movies.


Sometimes this isn't evident in his movies at all. Like Scarface, which is super hard to penetrate if we are looking for a human that isn't a symbol for something else. And it's also possible my favorite Body Double would fall under this 'shortcoming' as well.


But I think John Travoltas performance in Blow Out, or Angie Dickenson in Dressed to Kill, or maybe even Michael J Fox in Casualties of War, do some heavy lifting in regards to how much De Palma leans into the idea of 'pure cinema'

I haven't seen Scarface (not De Palma's fault, but decades of terrible people having the poster in their room or wearing the t-shirt has built a strong, negative association!), and it's been much too long for me to comment on Dressed to Kill. But I agree that Fox brings a humanity to Casualties of War that significantly increases the tension.

I would recommend Carlito's Way as an alternative to Scarface. I saw it fairly recently and was blown away. If you're looking for soul, it may be up your alley.

I would rank Scarface at the bottom of what I've seen from De Palma since it suffers from too much bloat.

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American movies about mobsters are one of my least-liked subgenres. I'll watch them, but I'm in no hurry.

To be fair, the emotional core of the film is Pacino's attempts to end his unlawful activities and retire, so I don't know if this raises your interest in the film or not.

Is this more Dog Day Afternoon/Godfather Pacino, or more Heat Pacino?

I would agree with Popcorn in his recommendation, in that Carlito's Way is one of the more clearly human DePalma films.


So...Dog Day Afternoon Pacino?

If you're referring to the morality of his character, definitely more Heat Pacino. It's more the case that the people around him are more committed to their criminal lives and attempt to get Pacino involved.

I must have missed the scene of him yelling "Attica". I guess I got to rewatch it.

I'm asking about how much demented screaming there is.*

*If he screams "Attica! Attica!" I will allow it.

I think you're probably fine without it, but I also think you might like it.


Carrie is definitely better.

Much like Titanic, I concede that my vaguely negative sentiments toward it are just a result of the pop culture/fans around it, and not the film itself.

Though drug lords/drug trade stuff tends to make me kind of depressed, even if the film is well-written/acted/directed.

I'm watching Django the Bastard and I feel like High Plains Drifter has some things to answer for.