Hexen Bis Aufs Blut Gequält (Mark Of The Devil)

Score: 6 Out Of 10 

           The picture to the left proclaims this to be "the most horrifying film ever made," and that might have been true in 1970, but by todays standards, I think it is actually pretty tame. Some people get burned alive, a few people get caned or whipped and one poor girl gets her tongue yanked out. Most amusing of all the torture was a guy being forced to sit in a large wooden chair while a fire is lit underneath him. The film takes place during the sixteenth century in germany and focuses on the real life early European wich hunts. I do not know how much of the film is accurate or how much of it is exagerated (I am willing to bet quite a bit is exaggerated), but over all the story is pretty good. The story focuses on the church using religion and fear to steal peoples land and possessions and rape and torture big brested women. One of the people working for the church begins to suspect wrong doings and starts to rebell.

          "Mark Of The Devil" was directed by Michael Armstrong and stars Herbert Lom, Udo Kier and Olivera Katarina. The acting here is pretty solid, especially on the part of Kier (but when does Udo Kier ever putting up a bad performance? Answer: NEVER!). I am used to seeing movies where you have the worst actors and actresses and Kier just

giving stellar performances, but this was not the case with this film. Everybody shows off some pretty good acting chops. The main problems with this film were not so great dialogue and the lack of real gore. Admittedly I am pretty decensitized but I do not believe that the average film fan is that much less decesnsitized than I. Most of the violence is mainly just blood splatter. A few people are dissmembered but the camera cuts away before you really see anything. A couple people get burned alive, but it just looks like dummies being tossed on fires.

                     On the positive side, it did keep me somewhat enter tained for about ninety minutes, so I guess I shouldn't complain too much. I should also mention that there were some rapes in there too. In fact, in hindsight I guess this could almost be considered an exploitaion film.

Love,
          The B-Movie Guy


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