Henry Zebrowski

Now, concerning the devil's reign, the plot barely makes sense.

And I've seen it, like, a few times.

Well, best as I can tell it, Ernest Borgnine plays a satanic priest who's been trying for hundreds of years to obtain a book from a family of former followers.

The book is filled with the names of followers Borgnine has obtained for Satan.

You know, remember all the Salem Witch Trials stuff, you know, that put the name in the devil's book.

But those souls cannot be claimed by Satan until Borgnine gets the book back, and therein lies the plot.

Yeah, yeah.

No, it don't count.

No.

Oh, hell.

You can smoke as much as you want, but if you don't turn them in, you ain't getting the windbreaker.

No.

Now, The Devil's Reign was a full-on production, and Anton LaVey was present for the entire five-week shoot down in Mexico.

He did set design, costume design, and his name is prominently displayed in the opening credits as technical advisor and high priest of Satan, which, I mean, it's more of a publicity stunt than anything.

It was.

But Anton LaVey did put quite a bit of Satanism into the movie, and he did work both as an advisor and as crew when needed.

During the filming of one scene, for example, LaVey led the local Mexican extras playing Satanic cult members in a recitation of actual magical rituals from the Lesser Key of Solomon, which were also printed in the Satanic Bible.

But since the extras didn't speak English, LeVay wrote out syllable-by-syllable cue cards for the scene, and he stood next to the cards during the filming, pointing to each syllable for the extras' benefit.

This actually happened.

There are pictures of him doing it.