Mark of the Devil: The definitive exploitation movie?

Mark of the Devil (1970), Dir. Michael Armstrong, 97 mins, Amazon Prime Video

Well, back to horror films for a moment- and in this case a particularly nasty one.  Arrow released this on Blu-ray several years ago, and I was tempted to give it a try during a few of their sales over the years, but never did. That’s probably just as well, as Mark of the Devil is not a particularly good film and I can’t imagine it would reward any repeat viewings. In any case, I stumbled upon it on Amazon Prime – yes, again, it seems that Prime is like the streaming equivalent of some sleazy corner of a indie video rental store of old- and thought I’d give it a go, if only for curiosities sake after so many years.

Set in 18th century Austria, the film has a cautionary on-screen text (with ominous, ‘Criswell predicts’-kind of narration) reminding viewers that it was a dark time in Europe, with countless innocent men and women tried, tortured and murdered for the crime of witchcraft, and that this film was based upon three real, recorded events.  Its obviously some half-baked attempt to lend this film some kind of historical credence, to perhaps excuse some of its graphic excess later. To be sure,  much of the physical horror/torture sequences in this film may look rather tame some fifty years later, considering how graphic horror films have become in the years since, but there’s some argument to be had that this film’s limits, leaving the rest to audience imagination, possibly make it worse.

If there’s a lesson in this film, its possibly that 18th-Century Austria was a bad place to be for a pretty young woman; look the wrong way or refuse the wrong man’s advances and -bang- it seems you could be damned as a Witch or disciple of Satan in an instant. with no recourse to proper justice. Sadistic local witchfinder Albino (Reggie Nalder, whose real scarred face must have saved the make-up boys a fortune) is terrorising a village with rape, murder and torture, all justified by working for the church in expunging evil from the area. Albino lusts after busty barmaid Vanessa (Olivera Vuco) who refuses his lecherous overtures only to get denounced by him as a witch and dragged to the local castle torture chamber. But soon Albino has fresh competition – it is announced  by trainee Witchfinder Count Christian von Meruh (a shockingly-young Udo Kier) that wildly esteemed, and wisely feared, witch hunter Count Cumberland (Herbert Lom) is to arrive in town soon to investigate Albino’s antics and offer his own perspective on the Satanism apparently wildly prevalent in the area.

Any hope that Count Cumberland is any wiser or fairer than the sadist Albino is ill-founded, however;  his arrival is shot as moodily and menacingly as how Darth Vader arrived in Return of the Jedi‘s opening, and it transpires that Cumberland has accused a young Baron of Witchcraft in order to gift the Baron’s entire Estate to the Church, and Cumberland’s own impotency has ensured his hatred of women knows no limit. There is some subtext regards the hypocrisy and criminality of the Church, and how sexual inadequacy is externalised as violent misogyny, but its well hidden under the surface and not explored at all, really (mores the pity). The main thing this film seems interested in is finding cheap and frequents excuses to graphically torture poor individuals who fall under either Witchfinder’s ire (although it is darkly amusing seeing the two Witchfinders at odds with each other).

And it does find plenty of excuses for all the torture, and is it possible we are seeing real historical torture apparatus being used? It sometimes seems like it, only adding to nagging sense of a disturbing authority to it all.  We see an accused blonde witch (having already been stretched on the rack and her bare feet branded by an hot iron), have her tongue pulled out, some particularly nasty drawn-out burnings, torture by thumbscrews, some beatings, whippings, a Chinese water torture, use of a spiked chair, some clumsy beheadings, an eyeball impalement, and added to all that some rape scenes, in one of which Count Cumberland seems to find the only way to prove his manhood – all in service to the Church, obviously.

For all this, I  still rather feel I’m failing to make this film seem as repugnant as it really it is- it is thoroughly nasty, and its a shame seeing poor Herbert Lom in something so terribly beneath him (I’m reminded of how often Peter Cushing can be found slumming in some horrid horror b-pic). The curious thing is that while this film is obviously low-budget and having art direction etc much in common with Hammer’s offerings, it does benefit from some impressive location shooting in and around a real Austrian village and castle which affords it a higher production value than Hammer ever managed. All of this is to no avail, however, as the film lacks any of the charm, style or wit of even the average Hammer film. Although I believe the film was filmed in English, it seems entirely dubbed and its some of the worst -and unintentionally hilarious- dubbing this side of the most awful Italian spaghetti western, a major handicap, and although Lom is clearly dubbing himself I’m not sure any of the other actors are, only adding to the uncanny valley of the audio.

One to avoid for the mildly offended then, and really, one only for the most hardcore of horror fans. Its certainly an excessive exercise in exploitation- perhaps the 1970 equivalent of The Evil Dead, in that respect, and it certainly serves to put into focus just how good, and indeed reserved, Michael Reeve’s earlier Witchfinder General (1968) really was. Reeve’s film was obviously the ‘inspiration’ for this film, and I understand Reeves himself was originally intended to direct Mark of the Devil, before his untimely death. I suspect that, had Reeves lived to make it, it would have been a far different film, and better for it, but of course we’ll never know- just another of those movie what-ifs. There is absolutely no nuance at all to Mark of the Devil, no subtext, no real commentary: I suppose one could mention that the disfigured Albino is no more a monster than the more sophisticated, intelligent Count Cumberland or that the Church turns out to be as corrupt as Albino and his lackies. Unfortunately the film fudges any drama to this- its all just a  veritable cauldron of the very worst of man’s inhumanity to man and any real lesson seems lost.

So its ‘just’ a bad exploitation film, then- maybe the definitive one, even. There may be worse, but if so, I certainly don’t have any interest in seeing them.