Director: Michael
Armstrong
Notable Cast: Udo
Kier, Herbert Lom, Olivera Katarina, Reggie Naldar
Often times the media can hype things up too much. Even
decades down the road, there is an aura around Mark of the Devil that radiates
a truly grindhouse and exploitative feel for the film. When it was released, it
was marketed as a film that needed barf bags and a steel trap mindset to
withstand the horrific violence. By today’s standards, most of the material you
are going to see is pretty standard horror affair – it just so happened to be
40 years ahead of the curve. What isn’t clearly stated about Mark of the Devil
is how remarkably effective it is at its intent – horrifying an audience with
tension and circumstance. There is enough torture and gore to make the soft
stomached turn a bit, sure, but Mark of the Devil is substantially more than
that too.
For Count Christian von Meruh (Udo Kier), his trip to a
small village in Europe to set up the arrival of the head witch hunter Lord
Cumberland (Lom) is going to be a new experience. On one side, he has the
malicious Albino (Naldar) whose obvious abuse of power as the local witch
hunter is going to lash back on church. On the other side, he has the beautiful
Vanessa (Katarina) who has smitten him and finds herself at the wrong end of an
accusatory finger. Can he save her in time or will paranoia and corruption be
the end of both of them?
The eyes that pierce the soul. |
Strangely enough, upon my first viewing of Mark of the Devil, I found the film to
be rather…sensible. Considering the accusations, reputation, and history of the
film, the expectations going into it were a bit more extreme. What greets
the audience in Mark of the Devil is
a film that touches on a lot of hard to stomach issues (including torture, rape,
corruption of the Church, and insurmountable odds playing against our
protagonists), but the core of the film is something timeless with its characters and morals. This is a film
that could easily be updated, twisted, or manipulated to fit a variety of time
and circumstantial plot devices. In a way, planting it in a time long, long ago
acts as a sort of safety net to make sure that the film doesn’t feel too
exploitative in its nature and it does the film wonders. The characters are
heartfelt in their motivations (whether good or evil) and the film toys with a
lot of concepts that are hard to watch, but remain impactful in their
thoughtfulness at times.
However, the film does remain a bit dated when it comes to
its presentation. I’m not talking about its overall look, the new Arrow Video
release of the film does some remarkable things to remaster the visuals and
sharpen the sound, but the film feels very 70s and it undermines a bit of its
universal concept that it is attempting to convey in its narrative. Like many
of the extreme films of the time, Mark of the Devil suffers from sudden shifts
in tone and many of its elements are painted in with heavy handed strokes. The
romantic subplot is pummeled down with a bombastically optimistic sounding
score and enough teary eyed moments that Nicolas Sparks would be a bit put off and
some of the torture sequences are elongated for effect…but they keep going long
after the effect has hit home. This makes some of the more subtle pieces of the
film, including a nice plot line about a young man who must give all of the land he
inherited to the Church or be tortured as a conspirator with the devil, feel weak in comparison to the more extreme sequences.
Much of the film is driven by some impressive acting
performances throughout. Even with some of the obvious dubbing and sound effects work
(which might have been made more apparent by the work of Arrow Video for the release), Udo Kier
drives the film home as a wholly relatable protagonist surrounded by
questionable villains. Reggie Naldar ably portrays the evils of the
circumstance and era with such relative ease, it’s hard to see him play
anything but a villain in films that haven’t made it into my viewing queue.
And let’s not forget Olivera Katarina, who despite an obvious attempt by the
film makers to make as lustful as possible with her cleavage and batting eyes,
actually plays the role with remarkable depth. A task that is much harder then
it probably seems on the surface.
"She kind of needs that tongue to confess...but oh well." |
Mark of the Devil
is the kind of film that earned a reputation for being extreme, but time has whittled away. The torture can be a bit much and there
are plenty of hot, controversial topics in its narrative for people to bitch
and complain about, but the rest is actually a well layered and thoughtful story
about a man and woman trying desperately to convey common sense in a world
where the systems are meant to trample it. If viewers are willing to overlook
some of its dated execution and exploitative elements, there is quite an
effective film in Mark of the Devil.
It’s quite easy to see why Arrow Video chose this one for restoration and release.
Written By Matt Reifschneider
Feel like Mark of the Devil is for you? You can purchase it at the link below from our friends at Arrow Video!
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