Mark Of The Devil [1969] [DVD]

 

 

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This is a horror movie very much in the vein of movies such as Witchfinder General and Blood On Satan's Claw but it goes even further in terms of its scenes of graphic torture and violence.

The inimitable Reggie Nalder plays local witch finder Albino who pretty much rules the roost doing as he pleases, accusing various people of practising witchcraft and administering gruesome tortures and punishments, until Lord Cumberland (Herbert Lom) arrives with his assistant and protege Christian (Udo Kier) to take over.

One of the ladies on trial for witchcraft just happens to be the woman that Christian is in love with so he is torn between following his mentor and trying to save her from certain death if she is found guilty.

This love story plot element really runs secondary to a series of pretty nasty scenes involving genuine instruments of torture. People are stretched on racks and have their fingers and thumbs broken in thumb screws and, in perhaps the film's most famous scene, one woman has her tongue torn out with a pair of tongs.

Although these scenes are strong and uncomfortable to watch the film on the whole lacks the punch that Michael Reeves's far superior Witchfinder General has. For me, the acting is far better in Witchfinder General and the plot is far more involving.

Despite all the onscreen violence and carnage, there is some humour and irony to be found in Mark Of The Devil. Lord Cumberland (as in the sausage) is a good name for a character who is impotent and it is ironic that Udo Kier's character, who is drawn into the practice of dishing out punishments and supervising the various methods of torture, should be called Christian.

No review of this movie would be complete without mentioning Michael Holm's beautiful, if often inappropriate, music score. The main theme running through this film is a haunting Mantovani-esque love theme which contradicts the frequent nastiness taking place on the screen. I do not know why, but it seems to be a general rule of European horror films that the more bloody and brutal the film is then the lovelier the music has to be!

This DVD presents the film in widescreen format and is generally a decent enough print. However, I have two problems with this version, released by Anchor Bay. Firstly, although it is a much more complete version than the one released by Redemption Video in the 1990s, it is not an uncut version. It seems that certain scenes in this film still cause a bit of a problem for the film censors in Britain. I have heard that the version released in the USA by Blue Underground is uncut though. The second problem I encountered was with the sound. Occasionally I found that the sound was a bit wobbly in places but this did not occur too often and certainly not enough to spoil my overall viewing of this film.

There are a few extras on this disc including an interesting documentary where director Michael Armstrong gives us an insight into the problems he had making this movie and of his clashes with executive producer and actor Adrian Hoven. So, all in all, not a bad package for horror fans although I was slightly disappointed that no vomit bag was included - cinema goers were treated to this free gift when the film was first shown. How about releasing Mark Of The Devil 2 on DVD? - Over to you Anchor Bay or any other DVD company.

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