I saw this way back in my high school days at a drive-in on a triple bill with "Last House on the Left" and "The Possession of Joel Delaney" (it was definitely the weak feature on that bill). Frankly, all of us watching at the time found it nasty and laughable. Recently I have been able of course to obtain it on DVD. I did so more for nostalgic reasons more than anything else. Bur I watched it thinking maybe it needs an adult appreciation. Time has not been kind to "Mark of the Devil"; whereas in the past I would have been disturbed by its pointless repetitive violence, now I must point out just how really DULL this film is. When people weren't being torn apart and burned, what little action there was played out at a snail's pace, and did little that was creative or even mildly interesting. So, aside from the graphic, ill-conceived torture scenes, the film offers little. This territory was covered much more productively in "Witchfinder General", aka "Conquerer Worm". That film had a definite point to make about the futility of violence that utterly escapes the exploitationist creators of "Mark". Besides, no movie that offers its viewers "stomach distress bags" can be taken seriously. It would have been better if they had offered: a; No-Doz tablets, b; profound apologies, and c; a refund.
Review of Mark of the Devil
