Mark of the Devil

Robbing, ravishing and murdering in the name of the Church

In the early 1700s, a witchfinder & his apprentice (Herbert Lom and Udo Kier) come to a village in Austria to take over the job from a corrupt local witch hunter (Reggie Nalder). The noble pupil, however, starts to question his mentor when a woman he is fond of is falsely accused of witchcraft (Olivera Katarina).

Mark of the Devil (1970) is a West German production inspired by the success of Witchfinder General, aka Conqueror Worm. Producers even wanted the same director, Michael Reeves, but he unexpectedly perished at the age of 25 of an accidental overdose.

The opening wildly exaggerates the number of people who were executed between 1300-1800 under the accusation ...

Surprisingly good and well acted drama featuring great performances from Herbert Lom, Udo Kier and Olivera Katarina. Some gruesome torture scenes isn't gratuitous and serves an actual story and characters. Seems like the sort of movie that Arrow would release and instead landed with Vinegar Syndrome, a distributor not exactly known for high quality works and more in the super low budge exploitation realm. Well worth checking out. 3.75/5