Mark of the Devil (1970)

Director: Michael Armstrong

Starring: Herbert Lom, Udo Kier

More Info: IMDB

Tagline: Positively the most horrifying film ever made.

Plot: Austria - 1770. A time of superstition and religious persecution. Count Cumberland and his evil henchmen torture and kill innocent citizens accusing them of witchcraft.

You can begin watching the entire film here:



My Rating: 7/10

Would I watch it again? Are you kidding? Witch torture? Hell, yeah!

#102 on Drive-In Delirium Vol. 2 (part of the TRAILER TRASH PROJECT) 

I dig these 60s/early 70s period Euro horror films that deal with witchcraft and the devil and all the rest of that religious claptrap nonsense. This one took me by surprise. Here's the setup after the first 7 minutes:

(scrolling up the screen against a backdrop of fire-blazing branding irons)
"In Europe, between the 15th and 19th centuries, it is estimated nearly eight million people were convicted of heresy and executed by fanatical witch hunters, in order to save their souls.

Their deaths on the scaffold or the funeral pile was for them the release from agonizing torture which often lasted for years.

This motion picture shows three cases taken from authentic documents from the time when witch-hunting had reached its peak and can only give a slight idea of the cruelties of one of the blackest pages in the history of man."

This film is brutal. I was stunned to see such grisly torture scenes. In one scene, a woman insists a priest raped her so her torturers rip out her tongue, saying, "For those against our savior, no punishment is sufficient." FUCK ME SIDEWAYS!


And there's more. You get...

- Fingers in a vice (very nasty)
- A bare ass pushed down on nails
- A fire placed under a bare ass

Lom is great as the evil Witchfinder Lord Cumberland. He's got a great scene where he dismisses this handsome man named Albino:


Well, Albino doesn't take it lightly so he threatens Lom with, "I'll tell them you HATE women, you burn innocent people, you kill for money - you're impotent!" Lom's cool with everything until he says he's impotent. Then Lom grabs him by the throat, knocks him to the wall and a shield falls to the floor, wobbling loudly until Albino is strangled to death with the sound of his gasping muffled by the wobbling shield. When the shield's movement stops, Albino's struggle is over. Very nice.

"Just in time for Easter"

WITCHFINDER SPOILERS:

Udo Kier's character, who is a good guy but is disliked, mistakenly, by the townspeople, seems like he's going to make it through. After all, WE know he's a good guy and is doing what he can to put an end to this madness. Near the end, when the townspeople storm the castle, and just when someone arrives to save Udo, they behead him (Udo). WOW! It gets better. Lom (whom everybody hates) escapes.

END OF SPOILERS...YARRRRR!

What a bleak ending. I loved it. I just discovered there's a sequel. I'll have to seek that one out.