Jeff Ford, Look What You’ve Done.

You know, things are so easy in this Internet age that it sometimes only takes a tiny impetus to start things rolling down the hill.

For example, brilliant author Jeff Ford might make a slightly nostalgic post about the terrible 1975 movie The Devil’s Rain.

One of the unintentionally funniest flicks ever. If I’m not mistaken, the last scene is Shatner kissing what appears to be a woman, but the camera tracks around the couple, and you see it’s Borgnine slipping him the tongue. These were the good old days — a couple of blasts on the power hitter, a six pack, and off to see The Devil’s Rain.

And then he links to the trailer on YouTube. See how the Internet age makes this trouble so much easier to start? I mean, the description intrigued me, but when I can just click a link and see this:

Well, how can I resist that? “With the special participation of Anton LaVey“? In a Magneto helmet?

At this point I’m pretty sure that I’d like to see a copy of this, maybe have the boys over for a few beverages and a sort of MST3K session.

So, naturally I click over to IMDBRemember life before IMDB? Me neither. where I see that Travolta is in this. This raises the possibility that there might already be an answer to the much-argued question: “What could he possibly do that would be worse than Battlefield Earth?”Of course without seeing The Devil’s Rain it’s had to know if its director had the same um… dedication to the split-wipe as Christian.. Imdb also reveals that the movie includes such mind-shatteringly subtle lines as “Who calls me from out of the Pit?”. Admit it, after seeing that trailer, you want to see Borgnine deliver that line.

All of which would have been moot in the pre-Internet age. It’s not like my local movie rental place, or DVD shop, is going to have a copy of the flick. And my vague interest in a mocking movie night doesn’t extend to getting off my ass and doing any hard work to find a copy.

But now, it’s the Age of Information!

One click and I see I could buy one of thirty or so copies (today) on eBay for as little as $2. Of course, that would still involve, you know, going to all the trouble of typing in my PayPal password and clicking OK a couple of times.

Even easier, since I subscribe to Zip.cafor Americans: Think of this as “Canadian Netflix”., I can pop over there and see that… yes, they do have the film available for rental. And the page includes this quote:

During an outrageous climax — in which none other than William Shatner is offered up in sacrifice and Borgnine is transformed by a lightning bolt into a chunky horned demon — the receptacle of souls is shattered, releasing the title storm and causing the congregation to melt into puddles of multicolored goo (a scene which seems to last forever).

Boy, I love that service for the Long Tail effects–this isn’t the first time they’ve made it very easy to get a copy of something on the obscure side. One click, and it’s on my list. And that means that at some point it’s going to show up here. And that means that at some point I’m going to get the boys together and we’re going to have a The Devil’s Rain party.

And it’s all Jeff Ford‘s fault. Well, Jeff Ford and the tubes.