LET’S GET PHYSICAL: MARK OF THE DEVIL (1970) ***

FORMAT:  4K UHD

ORIGINAL REVIEW:

(As posted on July 17th, 2007)

The ads said: “Positively the most horrifying film ever made!” Not really, but the film has many unsettling scenes of torture. It takes place during height of the Salem witch hunts. We get to see fingers cut off, tar and feathering, and witches burned at the stake. And that’s the first five minutes! 

Herbert (The Pink Panther movies) Lom comes to a small village and takes over as Head Witchfinder for Reggie (Salem’s Lot) Nalder. At first, he seems more reasonable than Nalder, but soon resorts to even worse tactics. Udo (Andy Warhol’s Dracula) Kier is Lom’s protégée, who’s in love with a sultry bar maid. When she spurns Nalder’s advances, he accuses her of being a witch and has her imprisoned. The townspeople revolt and in the downbeat ending, Lom (who we find out is impotent) escapes and the heroic Kier gets lynched. The original ending had all the murdered torture victims rising from the grave to get revenge, but the distributor hated it so much he burned the negative!

The graphic torture scenes include finger crushing, whippings, girls topless on the rack, bare asses on spikes, Chinese water torture, and in the film’s most famous scene, a girl’s tongue is ripped out. The film is at its best when showing this stuff in gory detail but is also effective at showing the hypocrisy of the witchfinders. Lucky as hell first run theater patrons got free Mark of the Devil Vomit Bags when they saw this in 1970. The first film “Rated V for VIOLENCE!”

AKA:  Witches are Tortured to Death.  AKA:  Austria 1700.  AKA:  Hexen.  AKA:  Burn, Witch, Burn.  AKA:  Satan.

QUICK THOUGHTS:

I’ve always thought of Mark of the Devil as Witchfinder General’s trashy cousin.  That film had class, style, and a terrific performance by Vincent Price.  This one is exploitative, grisly, and has Herbert Lom chewing the scenery.  Still, you’ve got to admire the way the film rubs the audience’s nose in the deprived excess.  The torture scenes still pack a punch (especially the justifiably famous tongue tipping scene), even if the stuff in between them is decidedly less than gripping. 

4K UHD NOTES:

This is another fine remastering by Vinegar Syndrome.  They cleaned it up nicely, but they left in just enough grain to make it look like you’re watching it at a drive-in.  The colors look especially great during the psychedelic swirling that occurs right before Lom’s assistant gets his eye gouged out.  Too bad it didn’t come with a commemorative barf bag.