The Scare Salon

In 1968, Michael Reeves’s historical folk horror film Witchfinder General (which Tom and I reviewed here) hit theaters in its native Britain. Starring the always incredible Vincent Price and renamed The Conqueror Worm for American audiences, the film took the real-life figure of English witchfinder Matthew Hopkins and spun a lurid tale of torture and intrigue out of his (partially fictionalized) exploits.

Although the movie was only moderately successful, it did seem to spawn something of a mini-boom in so-called “witchsploitation” cinema, as filmmakers began seeing the financial potential in mining the horrific realities of the European witch panics for potentially lucrative films featuring lots of half-naked women being abused by leering priests and nobles.

One of the films that followed in the wake of Witchfinder General easily became one of the most notorious exploitation films of the decade, landing on the UK’s video nasties list in later years (even with twenty-four minutes cut out of it) and getting itself banned outright in several countries. The movie, 1970’s Mark of the Devil, was a West German production, and was originally titled Hexen bis aufs Blut gequält (literally Witches Tortured Till They Bleed). Although the film is obviously not all that shocking nowadays, it’s still pretty rough given the context of the time, though I’d argue that a large part of its infamy likely stemmed from its brilliant marketing campaign, which made a big show of the movie being “rated V for violence” and giving each audience member a free barf bag with admission.

I had seen Mark of the Devil a couple of times years back (and I even own a T-shirt bearing an image of its iconic poster), and I remembered it being much better than I’d expected, so I decided it was about time to give it another go and see what I thought about it now. And honestly, despite the sort of lame dubbing (the film only exists in dubbed versions, as there were several different nationalities of actors in the film), this is still a pretty compelling movie overall, with some effectively icky gore sequences, brutal sadism, decent acting performances, and some appropriately hateable villains.

At the start of the movie, there’s a title card explaining that the story is taken from the transcripts of three real trials, but it then goes on to make the outrageous claim that over eight million people were executed as witches in the 17th century; the consensus actually stands at more like 60,000, which is alarmingly fucking high but is significantly fewer than the movie wants us to believe.

Anyway, the story is set in a village in the Alps in Austria, and after a brief opening sequence in which some guys attack a convoy of wagons and rape some nuns (yes, we’re diving right into the depravity), we’re introduced to this particular village’s local witchfinder, a completely ruthless fuckhead named Albino (no, he’s not actually an albino, but he is played by the amazing Reggie Nalder, probably best known to horror fans as the vampire Barlow in Tobe Hooper’s 1979 adaptation of Stephen King’s Salem’s Lot). Albino abuses the shit out of his power, basically accusing anyone of witchcraft who pisses him off and/or won’t sleep with him, so needless to say, the witch-burning pyres are kept busy in this particular jurisdiction. Albino, who is illiterate, has a fawning lackey, called the Advocate, who is played by Johannes Buzalski but I don’t think is ever given a character name. He factors a great deal into the events, however.

Well, it comes to pass that the prince has decided to essentially federalize the witch-finding industry, as leaving it to local dudes is allowing witchcraft to run rampant, or is alternately not bringing in enough cash to the church. Therefore, the regal Lord Cumberland (Herbert Lom), an eminent scholar and witchfinder, is going to be arriving in town to root out its little witchcraft problem. Albino is incensed about this, not only because he doesn’t want anyone to interfere with his little rape-and-torture-heavy fiefdom, but also because he’s going to be expected to hand over written indictments for all of the “witches” he burned, and he never bothered to do any of that legal malarkey; he just jumped straight to the burning. He tells the Advocate to stay up all night and write a bunch of bogus indictments ahead of Lord Cumberland’s arrival so he can cover his ass.

Before the big cheese shows up, however, his much younger and hotter protégé, Count Christian von Meruh (played by a very young and unbelievably beautiful Udo Kier, in only his second major film role) arrives to make sure everything is hunky dory in regards to accommodations and what not. On his first day there, he’s eating at an inn and locks eyes with a gorgeous barmaid named Vanessa (played by Olivera Vučo, now known as Olivera Katarina), who also seems quite enchanted with him.

The next day, though, a cranky Albino sleazes into the tavern and tries to rape Vanessa in a back room; she slashes his face with a knife, and rightfully so, but he just drags her out into the dining room, loudly proclaiming to everyone that she’s a witch. He even takes out his little witch-poking needle and sticks it into a mole in her face, exclaiming triumphantly that she didn’t scream when he did it. He then tears her bodice and starts poking her in the back, but at that point, Christian arrives and puts a stop to the shenanigans. He concedes to Albino that Vanessa may indeed be a witch, but that Albino has no formal indictment or accusation against her, and can’t just go around poking at random people in public places like that, whether you think they’re in league with the Devil or not. There are RULES to be followed before you can burn or behead an innocent woman, dontcha know. Christian insists that when Lord Cumberland arrives, he’ll be able to tell right away whether Vanessa is a witch or not, because he’s just that good.

Christian, who has clearly taken a shine to Vanessa, invites her back to the castle where he and the soon-arriving Cumberland are staying. During dinner, Christian is very serious and sincerely believes he’s doing God’s work, but Vanessa then asks him how he would feel if his own mother was accused of witchcraft and he was obliged to torture and execute her. Christian doesn’t seem to have a good answer for that.

There’s a bit of a montage where it’s obvious that Christian and Vanessa are falling in love, as they frolic through fields and so forth. Vanessa is clearly a free spirit and says things that she probably shouldn’t, given the era she lives in, and Christian tells her she’d be wise to keep a lid on that shit.

Lord Cumberland eventually arrives and sets up shop in the castle, and all the accused witches from the village are paraded before him, complete with their (faked) indictments. At first, you’re inclined to think Cumberland is a much more sober and fair fellow than Albino, as the first woman brought before him is deemed not a witch and released, but soon enough, his true nature begins to come to the fore. Cumberland, it turns out, is even worse than Albino in some ways, because he couches his villainy in a veneer of moral uprightness and calm, studied reason.

The second woman, Deidre von Bergenstein (Gaby Fuchs), is accused of giving birth to the Devil’s child. She insists that the baby was the product of a rape perpetrated by a powerful man (I think it was a bishop), but OH HELL NO, the witchfinders are not having any of that; they tell her in no uncertain terms that a man of God would never do any such thing, and she must therefore be a lying whore of the Dark One. They send her off for several lively bouts of torture to get her to confess that the Devil knocked her up all consensual-like. Said torture consists of thumbscrews, stretching on the rack (which of course she has to be naked for), and eventually, having her tongue ripped out at the root in what is actually a pretty decent effect. Despite the prolonged agony, badass Deidre refuses to confess and eventually gets burned alive.

Vanessa next gets dragged before Cumberland, and even though Albino went to the trouble of having the Advocate draw up an indictment, it’s implied that Christian “misplaced” it before Cumberland could see it. Albino throws a shit fit, so Cumberland has Vanessa thrown into the dungeon until another one can be written up.

Meanwhile, a nobleman named Baron Daumer (Michael Maien) is brought into the village on a cart, accused of being a sorcerer. The Baron knows what’s up, though; he just inherited a huge estate from his father that the church wants to get their grubby mitts on, so if he’s executed for witchcraft, they’ll get all his land. Lord Cumberland basically tells him that they’re either gonna torture him until he confesses he’s a witch, at which point he can go free but has to forfeit all his shit, or he can deny the charges, get tortured and executed anyway, and the church will still get all his shit. It’s a win-win!

As Christian sees all of this chicanery taking place and as his feelings for Vanessa deepen, he starts to slowly realize what a scam all of this crap is, and how no one actually believes any of the bullshit they spout but are torturing and killing innocent people for their own selfish ends, whether financial, sexual, or sadistic (which…duh, Christian, get on the clue bus, buddy). His wavering conscience is finally pushed over into full-blown realization when he accidentally witnesses his exalted mentor, Lord Cumberland, straight-up strangling Albino to death in a fit of rage after Albino implied that Cumberland was impotent (which seems to be something of a sensitive topic for the old coot). Christian starts giving Cumberland some serious side-eye after that little debacle, but Cumberland tries to minimize the damage, saying that doing God’s work is so hard, you guys, and he’s only human after all, and other happy horseshit. Nice try, jackhole.

In the movie’s most blackly comedic sequence, all the more hilarious and terrifying (hilarifying?) because it’s probably mostly true, the Advocate and his gang of imbeciles see a bunch of kids playing in the street. One of the kids has made a “mouse” out of a handkerchief (which looked more like a bunny to me, to be honest) and blithely tells the Advocate that he knows all about magic. Practically salivating at the thought of arresting more completely harmless people, the Advocate and his posse chase the kids back to a nobleman’s house and just plow their way inside, going upstairs to a parlor where the charming parents of two of the children are giving a puppet show for a bunch of other kids and their parents.

One of the puppets says something about wanting to be able to fly like an angel, but the other puppet scoffs that the guy isn’t good enough to be an angel, so the first puppet then says he can maybe be a witch and fly, at which point the second puppet says he isn’t bad enough to be a witch. It all seems pretty harmless, but of course, the Advocate is apoplectic, not only because of the dialogue of the puppets but also because he seems to genuinely believe that the puppets are animated by witchcraft instead of by the very obvious people operating the strings and talking from behind the stage. While funny and absurd, I am absolutely convinced that there were people back then stupid enough to believe that; in fact, there are probably lots of stupid people who would believe that NOW.

Anyway, the goons beat up the dad and then haul off dad, mom, and the two kids to the clink to be accused of witchcraft for the audacity of making and performing with marionettes. Christian sees this whole farcical situation and begs Cumberland to let the family go, for fuck’s sake, but Cumberland makes the monstrous argument that even though he knows that the family is innocent and that the puppets are just puppets, he’s going to execute them anyway because the Advocate made an unauthorized public arrest and since the whole village knows about it, Cumberland doesn’t want to be seen as soft on witchcraft. If they’re executed as innocents, he rationalizes, then they’ll be martyrs, so what’s the harm, after all? Christian is understandably disgusted and sneaks down to the dungeon to spirit Vanessa out of the place.

The Baron is also being tortured around this time, forced to sit on a bench of spikes and having the bottoms of his feet whipped, and later being stretched on the rack. The Baron won’t confess to anything either, and you have to admire the fortitude and strength of spite it would take to not give these fuckers the satisfaction of saying what they wanted you to, even while your body was being completely pulverized.

The puppet family is also getting the business; the dad is fastened to a chair with iron bars and subjected to Chinese water torture which slowly drives him insane, while the stunning blonde mom is brought into Cumberland’s office. He pretends to be kindly at first and tells her he’s going to let her go, but then he drags her to another room and savagely rapes her, in a scene that’s not graphic at all but is suggestive enough that it made me really uncomfortable. She’s then sentenced to be beheaded, as is Baron Daumer.

Meanwhile, Vanessa has arrived back at the tavern where she worked, and gives a very brief, rabble-rousing speech in which she excoriates the shiftless villagers to get off their drunk asses and storm the castle, torturing and killing Lord Cumberland if they can manage it, please and thank you. The villagers literally could have done this at any time, but no, they chose to sit around stuffing their faces with bread and gruel until one hot brunette who they all suspected of being a witch marched in and lit a fire under their butts, at which point they became an angry mob within five seconds. Better late than never, I guess.

The mob sets out for the castle, pitchforks at the ready, but they unfortunately arrive too late to save Baron Daumer, whose head is separated from his body shortly before the platform is overrun. The puppet lady, who was next on the docket, ends up retaining her noggin and eventually finds her unharmed children in the dungeon (though her husband is killed in the melee).

The villagers go absolutely ham on the joint, killing everyone within reach, but after a prolonged chase, Lord Cumberland is able to wedge his substantial bulk out of a window near his carriage and flee before anyone can catch him. So the main villain of the piece escapes justice and presumably lives to torture again, an inspirational message for all mankind.

The villagers, since they couldn’t get their hands on Cumberland, then set their sights on Christian, either not knowing or not caring that the young ex-witchfinder has seen the error of his ways. He gets strung up on a cross contraption and then the Advocate places a spiked pincer-like thing around his midsection that he then tightens until it pierces all his internal organs. Vanessa, who was apparently some way behind the rampaging villagers (probably on account of having to run in a dress that looks like it weighs about seventy-five pounds), hears Christian screaming in torment and rushes to save him, but is ultimately too late, and can only hug him tightly and weep at the injustice of it all while the villagers scoot sheepishly away.

Mark of the Devil is one of the more brutal exploitation films of the period (though I’ve seen far worse), and the fact that it was shot in a real Austrian castle that contained real torture devices that were used during the witch panics gives it a disturbing air of verisimilitude for sure. The torture sequences, while not overtly graphic, are still effective and give you a very small sense of what it might have been like to have been accused of witchcraft in that era. The acting seems solid, especially that of the villains Cumberland and Albino (though admittedly the dubbing makes it hard to tell, as we’re not hearing their real voices), and Udo Kier is a real standout; you can easily tell by watching this that he was going to be a big star, as he’s completely magnetic in every scene he’s in. The cinematography is also quite lovely, and the film utilizes its sweeping locations to great effect.

Though it could be argued that the film was exploiting the very tragedies it sought to condemn by showing them in such a titillating way, I didn’t personally have an issue with its approach; it’s not like the filmmakers were making anything up, after all. Stuff like this did happen, and maybe it’s better to show it without sugarcoating it, even if it does seem to appeal to prurient interests, let’s call them.

Anyone who has any interest at all in exploitation films of the 70s or the video nasty panic of the 80s should definitely see this, as it’s infamous for a reason. As I said, it’s not the most disturbing thing I’ve seen by a long shot, but it’s a fascinating relic of the era and a surprisingly decent film to boot.

Until next time, keep it creepy, my friends.