Mark of the Devil (1970) on Netflix
Count Christian von Meruh, apprentice to the witch hunter Lord Cumberland, arrives in an Alpine village. There Albino accuses barmaid Vanessa Benedikt of witchcraft after she refuses him.
- Netflix2.7/5
- IMDb6.1/104,574 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes38%
Trailer
Plot summary
A witch hunter named Albino has taken control of a small Alpine village in early eighteenth-century Austria, accusing women who refuse his advances of witchcraft; the accused are tortured under his authority. Into this comes Count Christian von Meruh, a God-fearing witch hunter apprenticed to Lord Cumberland. When barmaid Vanessa Benedikt turns Albino down, he names her a witch, and Christian watches the scene. While he waits for Cumberland to arrive and review the indictments, Christian befriends Vanessa, who insists she is innocent. Cumberland reaches the village and hears the case of Deidre von Bergenstein, accused of bearing the devil's child, who tells him she was raped by a nobleman.
Cast
- Percy Hovenas Blond Child
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Mark of the Devil (1970)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Mark of the Devil was shot in an Austrian castle where real witchfinding interrogations had taken place, and the castle also operated as a museum whose authentic torture tools were used in the film's scenes.
- Filming in Austria in the summer of 1969 was difficult: at least half a dozen languages were spoken on set, and producer Adrian Hoven and director Michael Armstrong disliked each other intensely and argued constantly.
- Director Michael Armstrong lost control of parts of his own film: producer Adrian Hoven kept only a few scripts on set and cut some of Armstrong's footage so his own ideas could be inserted, while cinematographer Ernst W. Kalinke shot scenes with Hoven without Armstrong's permission.
- Mark of the Devil was not prosecuted for obscenity in Britain, but it was seized and confiscated there under Section 3 of the Obscene Publications Act 1959 during the video nasty panic.
- The film's opening credits and voiceover claim that over eight million people were condemned and killed as witches in the era it depicts, while scholarly consensus puts the total number of witchcraft executions at 40,000 to 60,000.
- US distributor Hallmark Releasing promoted Mark of the Devil with slogans including "Rated V for Violence" and "Positively the most horrifying film ever made", and gave audiences free sick bags on admission.
- VHS companies cashed in on the title's notoriety by retitling unrelated European horror films as sequels: the 1975 Mexican film Sisters of Satan became Part III, and Part V's box art showed scream queen Michelle Bauer, who does not appear in the movie.
