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SimplyScripts Screenwriting Discussion Board    Reviews    Movie, Television and DVD Reviews  ›  Mark of the Devil Moderators: Nixon
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  Author    Mark of the Devil  (currently 489 views)
James McClung
Posted: July 26th, 2010, 1:26am Report to Moderator
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Before Cannibal Holocaust, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Last House on the Left... there was Mark of the Devil. Along with H.G. Lewis's films, 1970's Mark of the Devil is one of the pioneering gore films as well as one of the first truly hardcore exploitation films and a precursor to the "torture porn" craze of today. The film is also known for its marketing campaign which spawned slogans such as "Positively the most horrifying film ever made" and "Rated V for Violence." Promotional barf bags were also handed out at the screenings.

It's always fun to come across horror movies with such interesting histories and see where they sit in the timeline of the genre's history.

Mark of the Devil takes direct influence from real life European history. In 18th century Austria, Lord Cumberland, church appointed "witch-finder," captures, tortures and kills accused witches with little to no regard to the merit in said accusations. "Where does safety lie" asks his Baron apprentice Christian (horror legend Udo Kier) asks him at one point. "Not for you, not for me," Cumberland replies. Naturally, hundreds of innocents have to die. But first, they must endure brutal torture in the form of lashings, thumb screws, the rack and countless other contraptions spawned from the darker times of our species' history (even Chinese water torture makes an appearance).

As soon as the credits started to roll with "Herbet Lom as the Witch-finder in Mark of the Devil" superimposed on the image of a picturesque country landscape over a dreamy soundtrack that sounds like it was composed by Disney's Snow White... I knew, one way or another, I was gonna like this movie. With such a cheery interlude knowing how dismal the plot will soon become, it's not hard to guess where the composer of Cannibal Holocaust got the idea for the theme song.

Indeed, Mark of the Devil is an interesting little horror movie. I have to admit, I think 1970 is just a tad too early not to look dated. The dubbing sounds even more dated. Make no mistake. This is an old film. Still, it has some interesting elements to it that I don't think as many other exploitation films were able to follow suit with.

At its most basic, Mark of the Devil is an exploitation film. There's an abundance of scream queens in this flick and they're all babes. There's lots of boobies. There's also a ton of greasy, leathery looking old men who are clearly getting their rocks off torturing these poor gals, led by the scar-faced Albino. Lord Cumberland tries to pass himself off as a righteous man while Albino has a much more carnal approach to witch-finding. Definitely a "bitches and hoes, cars and clothes" type guy. A lot of the dialogue comes off as hokey and pseudo-porn-esque. There's lots of mentions of accused witches making love to the Devil. It's all highly sexualized. It's also quite brutal. Despite the dated effects, there's some pretty nasty torture scenes. The screaming is actually quite horrible and grating and there is quite a variety of tortures utilized. A scene with a woman's tongue getting ripped out by iron pincers has more or less become the face of the film.

So yeah. This one's for the freaks.

And yet, there's a little more going on here. There does seem to be a fair share of satire going on here. There's a lot of talk of witches cooking brews and casting spells to bring impotence to the townsmen. The film definitely pushes the point that these witch-hunters were basically all perverts and misers who hated women. They really nailed the "big dick" metaphor with this one. I feel it might have a little Dr. Strangelove going on. There's also a fair share of authenticity to it all. The film was shot in an Austrian castle where real life witch hunts and trials took place, real torture instruments were on site and used in the film and a lot of the dialogue comes from actual witch trials. All of the characters are aware of innocent people getting convicted and yet do nothing to stop it, fearing they will show weakness in making mistakes. This is all stuff that actually happened and a lot of the story rings true because of it.

There's some bad dialogue, dated effects and a cheesy romantic subplot but it's not a bad flick. It's far from horrifying and wouldn't shock most people today but it's still worth checking out. A lot of the most buzzworthy horror movies around now wouldn't exist if it hadn't been for this film.


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