Edgar Soberon Torchia Neither bad nor plausible work, with no discernible motivation than to make a profit from the outburst of raw emotions and epidermis of the 1970s, with the fall of those moral codes that every now and then emerge in the media industry. It follows the line of «Witchfinder General» but without the indispensable amount of rigour in that historical drama by Michael Reeves (who was supposed to make this one but died too young), to move it from low-income neighborhood to big city respectability, so to speak... The following year Ken Russell would strike gold with a new re-telling of the case of the inquisitors, devils and nuns of Loudon (which was treated as early as 1921 in «Häxän» and later in 1961 in «Mother Joanna of the Angels»). Both Reeves and Russell had larger budgets, but all three movies are tales without hope, in which love and innocence are destroyed. Three aspects most negatively affect this motion picture, in my opinion. First, Michael Holm's Euro-pop score is too contemporary, obtrusive and rather ugly. Second, we have two actors with no chemistry unconvincingly enacting a romance (with bad dialogues, true, but Udo Kier's face is as blank as usual, and Olivera Katarina looks like his aunt). Last, the film editor had no sense of rhythm, sometimes not knowing when and what to cut (like the drops of water that fall on the head of a torture victim). There were some jaw dropping, eye opening exploitation films at the time, a few became classics, but not this one. Compared to them, this movie is just routine.

Dennis Stewart It was a truly horrific film for it's time. But released to the public there were several cuts to it and also they tried to combine the two actress parts of Gaby Fuchs and Doris Von Danwitz in the cut film version. Gaby Fuchs already had experience as a horror film actress and was featured as one of the women who was put on the rack and had the soles of her bare feet scorched by Albino's henchman with a red hot branding iron. In an interview with sexy Gaby she had revealed that before that scene was filmed she already was secured on the rack nude with neck stock and the four actors enjoyed taking turns torture-tickling her bare feet; not in the script and not an act. She remarked "I certainly didn't expect it and my feet are ticklish but I realized since I wanted this part so much I had no choice at this point but to endure all four men tickling my bare feet, and believe me these men DID NOT know me & DID NOT act like gentlemen while doing it, they were VERY aggressive in their sadistic tickling of my bare soles which just about drove me to the point of insanity!". "Moviegoers are not aware of this." Doris Von Danwitz on the other hand had her rack scene cut out where before her feet were scorched Albino pricked her toes and soles with a sharp pick as she screamed. A henchman for Albino then held her slender ankle and scorched her very erotic and high arched sole to her hysterical wailing and teeth barring as a truly intense torture scene. I would have loved to see my second wife Fern Rothschild in the place of Doris Von Danwitz getting stretched on the rack and the soles of HER bare feet scorched (branded) with a red-hot branding iron by Albino's henchman as she turned out to be one of those women appearing in adult theater flicks of the late 1970's sucking a number of men's boners and kept it a total secret from me. (comments?) I often wonder if Gaby Fuchs and Doris Von Danwitz had husbands or boyfriends and how they reacted to these two scenes their women decided to appear in.

HumanoidOfFlesh "Mark of the Devil" was made as an obvious attempt to cash in on Michael Reeves medieval torture classic "Witchfinder General" aka "Conqueror Worm".It was filmed in an Austrian castle where actual witchfinding interrogations took place.This castle also served as a museum with authentic torture tools that were used in the film.When the film was released to cinemas the viewers were vomit bags as a promotion.The cast is excellent and the main music theme of "Mark of the Devil" is truly haunting.Reggie Nalder is memorably hideous as a bloodthirsty witchhunter Albino and Oliviera Vuco is jaw-droppingly beautiful and sensual.A must-see for fans of historical dramas with some nasty torture thrown in.A tongue removal scene is the most shocking bit.9 out of 10.

ferbs54 I hadn't seen the British/German coproduction "Mark of the Devil" since its initial release in 1970, and could only recall one image from this now infamously violent film: an accused blonde witch having her tongue slowly pulled out. For us kids back then, this was enough to guarantee the picture an enduring rep. Having just watched the film again, almost 40 years later, I am now stunned that we kids were allowed to watch this movie in 1970 at all, featuring as it does not just that legendary tongue yank, but also whippings, burnings, a tar & feathering, thumbscrews, beatings, Chinese water torture, skewers, branding, a spiked chair, beheadings, an eyeball impalement, stretchings on the rack, and several rape sequences, all in fairly realistic detail, and all carried out in the name of the Church in the furtherance of exposing disciples of Satan. (No wonder free barf bags were famously given to all the film's theatre patrons back when!) Today, these exploitative shock elements strike me as being somewhat of a distasteful necessity, as the filmmakers are purportedly endeavoring to expose the cruelties of the age. Taking place in an unnamed locale in what seems to be the early 18th century, "Mark of the Devil" has lots more going for the adult horror fan than just these scenes of gruesome torture. Herbert Lom is quite excellent as Lord Cumberland, the impotent chief witch-hunter (the viewer must gather that if Viagra had been available 300 years ago, many hundreds of women might have been spared!), baby-faced Udo Kier very fine as his apprentice, and Olivera Vuco extremely sensuous as Vanessa, an accused hotty. The picture has been beautifully shot and handsomely produced and, perhaps best of all, features a gorgeous score by Michael Holm that will likely be running through your head for days afterward. This lovely melody is all the more striking, given the ugliness so often shown on screen. A nasty piece of Euro horror, to be sure, and most certainly not for the kiddies, the film is superbly presented here on this great-looking DVD from Blue Underground, loaded with so many extras as to make your tongue hang out....