Mark of the Devil

Somewhere in Europe, sometime during the witch craze: Town witchfinder Albino (Reggie Nalder) terrorises the populace, torturing and executing on a whim. Christian von Meruh (Udo Keir), the young protege of Lord Cumberland (Herbert Lom), arrives to inform Albino that his master will shortly be arriving and taking over.

After Albino vents his frustrations on the beautiful, outspoken, strong-willed serving wench Vanessa (Oliviera Vuco), Christian intervenes. He soon develops feelings for the girl, leading to complications when Cumberland unexpectedly concurs with Albino's assessment that Christian's new love – who is plainly not a particularly god-fearing sort – is indeed a witch who must be made to confess before she is executed for her crimes…

Then, after the young Baron Daume (Michael Maien) is brought in for interrogation, with Cumberland willing to free him only if he will sign over his estates to the church, Christian begins to realise that his lord and master is not just wrong on this occasions but is in fact as bad as Albino, if not worse on account of the veneer of respectability he cultivates…

Part of a mini-cycle of films seemingly inspired by Michael Reeves's Matthew Hopkins: Witchfinder General along with Jesus Franco's The Bloody Judge, Gordon Hessler's Cry of the Banshee and Piers Haggard's Blood from Satan's Claw, Adrian Hoven and Michael Armstrong's Mark of the Devil (AKA Hexen bis aufs Blut gequält) surpasess its model in terms of sadistic spectacle – the original US release in 1970 saw the film being promoted as being "Rated V for Violence" and with free vomit bags being handed out to the audience – if nothing else.

Though claiming to present three cases drawn from records, the film ironically fails to convince as a historical document in the same manner as the fictionalised portrait of Hopkins in Reeves's film. While the panoply of tortures on display are horribly authentic – even if some of the effects work has dated a touch since 1970 – the film elsewhere has a very composite and ersatz feel to it. Despite good production values and useful scenic locations, Hoven and Armstrong fail to convey a definite sense of time and place – much less a sense of genuine purpose or critique – the film coming across as a piece of exploitation aimed squarely at the sadist.

Likewise, while the writing has some interesting ideas, such as the clash between the ill-educated local Albino and the privileged Cumberland acting on the central(ising) authority of the Prince – "the day of the local witchfinder is over" – they are not satisfactorily worked through. It also beggars belief that Christian – a rather obvious name – would not previously have had cause to question his commitment to Cumberland and his cause in three years of apprenticeship, nor that Cumberland would not have illustrated his hypocritical, greedy, power-hungry tendencies time and again in this period.

On the upside, the performances are quality, whether it be Udo Keir's portryal of the young idealist torn between love and duty and gradually realising that the man he has worshipped has led him astray; Herbert Lom as the misogynistic witchfinder driven by sexual inadequacy; or Reggie Nalder as the hideous monster who positively revels in his base desires, right down to supporting faces like Herbert Fux's tortures and Johannes Buzalski's advocate.

For all the above criticisms, Armstrong and Hoven's direction is effective in terms of creating a nightmarish mood with some nice touches on occasion, such as the Bava-esque lighting effects behind Fux as he watches one of his victims be slowly driven insane by the drip-drip of water torture.

Michael Holm's score is a mixed blessing. While his title theme, with its easy listening/lounge stylings sounds and strong similarity to Riz Ortolani's credits theme for Cannibal Holocaust seems out of place, the violin piece that accompanies Cumberland's appearances and the downbeat climax is evocative and effective.

All told, Mark of the Devil delivers the gory goods that its target audience expects, but fails to go sufficiently beyond its exploitation movie origins to interest the more general viewer.