"Mark of the Devil" Blu-ray Cover
Director: Michael Armstrong
Writer: Michael Armstrong
Producer: Adrian Hoven
Cast: Herbert Lom, Udo Kier, Olivera Vuco, Reggie Nalder, Herbert Fux, Johannes Buzalski
Running Time: 96 min.
By Kyle Warner
In Europe between 1500 and 1750, countless people accused of heresy, blasphemy, and witchcraft were killed by agents of the Church. It didn’t take much to accuse someone of witchcraft and after an accusation was made not much could be done to save the poor man or woman (mostly women, I should think). Superstition and corruption led to many false accusations, of course. As depicted in Mark of the Devil, the accused would be tortured until they confessed, at which point they would be burnt alive. So, you either endure torture and deny the claims against you… or you go along with what they’re saying and die for your confession. Very much a lose-lose situation.
It’s all a very frightening part of human history that we don’t often like to look back on and talk about. So, when a film comes around like Mark of the Devil and throws all of that ugliness up on screen, people are going to take notice. And when the film was released in 1970, it was banned in multiple countries for its violent content.
When Mark of the Devil hit theatres in the US, posters proudly claimed that it was “the first film to be rated V for violence.” Filmgoers were handed vomit bags and it was sold as one of the most horrifying, disgusting films ever made. Apparently the MPAA was livid about the made-up V rating, as a false rating allowed all ages into the film which would’ve otherwise been rated R or worse.
Because the film’s legacy has so much to do with its gory depiction of torture, I feel the need to talk about the violence first. Mark of the Devil is a very unpleasant film. Men and women are tortured in awful ways and the film’s effects stand up to this day, making it all rather difficult to watch. When a woman has her tongue ripped out of her mouth you can bet that I gasped and cringed. However, in the age of ‘torture porn’ horror films like Saw and Hostel, perhaps Mark of the Devil’s violence doesn’t shock quite the same way that it used to. Still, it’s sickening to remember that some of the gruesome torture in this film is very much based on historical fact.
In the film Herbert Lom plays a renowned witch hunter and an incredibly young Udo Kier plays his apprentice. They arrive in a town where the local witch hunter has abused his power for too long, raping the women he desires and accusing of witchcraft those who deny his advances. The new witch hunters are expected to restore order, but it’s pretty clear that Lom’s character is just more of the same and ends up bringing only further suffering to these people.
Mark of the Devil has much in common with Witchfinder General, the 1968 horror film which starred Vincent Price. In some ways Mark of the Devil plays like the gorier, sleazier take on that similar story. But there’s a good deal of skill and talent involved in the making of Mark of the Devil. The production values are high quality, the location shooting looks good, the violin score is topnotch, and the actors bring respectability to the script. It is a sleazy exploitation horror film but it’s a superior sleazy exploitation horror film.
I think Herbert Lom is really good here as the self-righteous villain. Lom is probably best remembered for comedies like the Pink Panther movies, so his appearance in such a nasty horror film is kind of surprising. Equally interesting is Udo Kier, who had only been in two feature films up to this point. We know Kier now for mostly playing eccentric characters and villains, so it’s entertaining to watch him play the romantic lead here. He does a pretty good job of making his character both an opportunistic hero and an unforgivable part of the problem. Sometimes I wish he had dialed back the looks of romantic longing, though.
Mark of the Devil arrives uncut on the Arrow Video Blu-ray. The film’s picture quality looks good, with only a few shots appearing scratchy here and there. The Blu-ray is packed with special features including a commentary, featurettes, interviews, and a trailer. The commentary with director Michael Armstrong is a lively track. He talks about how he was fired from the film and replaced by producer Adrian Hoven, who would take over filming and handle post-production. Hoven also changed the original ending which would have brought the film into supernatural territory. The original ending has apparently been destroyed, but images of it pop up in other special features on the disc. Armstrong’s often funny even if he is understandably bitter about how some things turned out, and it makes for an entertaining commentary
The best featurette is the 47 minute Mark of the Times which talks about 70s British horror when Hammer Films was falling-off and a new wave of young filmmakers was taking over. Directors like Armstrong, Norman J. Warren, and writer David McGillivray share their memories of being a part of that film movement. Also interesting is Hallmark of the Devil which focuses on Mark of the Devil’s release in America by Hallmark Releasing, and talks about the controversial nature of their advertising and the success the film found in the US. Some of the interviews are a little dull because time has made memory fuzzy for much of the cast and crew. The Udo Kier interview is funny, though, because the actor clearly doesn’t want to be there. He even complains at one point that they’ve been talking for 20 minutes when he only agreed to 10. It’s a great release from Arrow: the uncut film, very good picture quality, options for both English and German audio, and a strong helping of extras that should make any fan happy.
Overall I find Mark of the Devil to be a difficult film to recommend because it’s not an easy film to like. Almost all the characters are rather despicable and the grueling torture is difficult to watch. Thing is, I was more impressed with the film than I expected to be, and I think it holds up pretty well four decades after its original release. I didn’t particularly enjoy Mark of the Devil but I definitely get why it has its fans.
Kyle Warner’s Rating: 6.5
