Rating: 2.5/5
Cult Movie Challenge 2017 | 18/52 | Splatter
Rain falls in the American Southwest. Mark Preston returns home. His mother, Emma, cites the same dream she has every night—it begins with a storm. But Mark doesn’t want to hear it. Dogs bark outside. They run out to find Mark’s father, Steve, his eyes gouged out, his face melting. Corbis. Book. The desert. Redstone. Give Corbis the book. Steve melts in the rain.
Emma runs to a hiding place and retrieves the book, telling Mark to bring it to Corbis, but Mark won’t give the devil what he wants. In the hiding spot is also a leather bag containing an amulet—if Mark wears it, Corbis can’t hurt him. Mark leaves her with family friend John. Before he reaches the car, he hears Emma scream. He runs inside to find John hanging from his feet, the house overturned, and Emma abducted. Quoting future movie star Arnold Schwarzenegger, Mark says, “I’ll be back,” and hits the road.
Mark arrives in a ghost town. Like a dork, he tries to pump water from a decrepit pump and gets a nice fist full of sand. A man approaches and makes the pump give water. Though bitter, Mark drinks it down. The man is Corbis. And he wants the book. Mark challenges Corbis to a battle of faith. If Mark wins, he gets his family back. If he loses, Corbis receives the book and Mark.
Will Mark’s devout Christianity stop Corbis’s devout Satanism? What is this book, and why should we care?
Boy, this movie is slow. I tried to watch the Job Bob version of this, but the interruptions killed any momentum the movie attempted to build up. The melting Steve makes a promise that the movie waits for AGES to follow through on. I didn’t hate the in-between, but it’s hard to discuss because not much happens. You can phase out until Ernest Borgnine turns into a devil/goat thing, which is the beginning of the third act.
This movie converted John Travolta to Scientology. Well, not the movie, but his co-star Joan Prather gave him a copy of Dianetics, and the rest is history.
Mr. Satanist Anton LaVey makes an appearance, along with his wife, Diane.
I really like Robert Fuest’s Dr. Phibes movies! I wanted to like this one more.
The last five minutes rule!