Mark of the Devil, 1970.
Directed by Michael Armstrong.
Starring Herbert Lom, Udo Kier, Olivera Katarina, Reggie Nalder and Herbert Fux.
SYNOPSIS:
Apprentice witch hunter Udo Kier comes to realise that his mentor Herbert Lom may not have the best of intentions when it comes to deciding who is guilty of witchcraft.
A notorious folk horror film from the golden era of post-Witchfinder General movies that relished in showing medieval practises for what they really were, Mark of the Devil was notable for being the first movie that was “Rated V for Violence” – or so the advertising campaign claimed – and for US cinemas supplying vomit bags to accompany the “Positively the Most Horrifying Film Ever Made” tagline.
Although in 2014 that tag obviously no longer applies, Mark of the Devil is still quite a brutal film when put into context and is in many ways superior to Witchfinder General, the film to which it is obviously most indebted to. Although it doesn’t have the masterful Vincent Price at the peak of his powers, Herbert Lom adds a more sombre presence as Lord Cumberland, the chief Witchfinder, but it is the despicable Witchfinder Albino (played by the distinctive looking Reggie Nalder) who manages to outdo Lom in terms of sheer vileness and outright devilry. The young Udo Kier makes for an engaging lead, his character of Count Christian von Meruh being the naïve apprentice who believes in the Church and the motives of his master but sees behind the façade once the strikingly beautiful Vanessa Benedikt (Olivera Katarina) is brought before Lord Cumberland after she is accused of witchcraft because she rebuked Albino’s advances.
After the fairly long setup, Mark of the Devil gets to its most infamous scenes where Cumberland expresses his rage by torturing some of the women he has captured. Tongues are ripped out, fingers chopped off and people frozen alive in scenes that are very well crafted for the time and certainly give more than what Hammer or Amicus were prepared to show, and as well as the graphic violence and nudity the film is superbly photographed and scored (anyone who has seen Cannibal Holocaust will recognise the theme as it bears more than a passing resemblance) which gives it a cinematic quality that lifts it above the rest of the bunch of Euro-sleaze exploitation films from around the time.
Presented in an excellent Dual Format Blu-ray + DVD package, Mark of the Devil is bolstered by some superb special features that include a fascinating feature-length documentary called Mark of the Times, which features interviews with some notable filmmakers from the late-‘60s/early-‘70s such as Michael Armstrong, Norman J. Warren and David McGillivray, plus author Professor Peter Hutchings and film critic Kim Newman, and offers a real insight into why filmmakers turned to ‘real world’ settings during the period. There is also an audio commentary by director Michael Armstrong, moderated by Calum Waddell, and featurettes on filming locations and US distributors Hallmark Releasing.
Overall, Mark of the Devil is a very worthy addition to the Arrow Video catalogue and a film that, despite not always getting the recognition it deserves, stands up as a bleakly entertaining dose of exploitation that could still offend given the right (or wrong) audience, and could possibly even be viewed as a forerunner for the more graphic violence that gets commonly referred to as torture porn. Whether that excites or repulses you is a matter of personal taste but either way, Mark of the Devil delivers what a lot of other similarly-themed films only hinted at.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★ ★
Chris Ward
