Review: Mark of the Devil

Mark of the Devil (1970)

Corrupt witch-finders terrorize an English village during the height of witch hunting days. This is a classic witch hunting movie with plenty of gruesome torture. While most of the superstitious paranoia in this movie remains effectively disturbing, some of the absurdity of the (like believing marionettes are tools of the devil) is played for laughs. Over all I'd say its on par with The Conqueror Worm, and although this one lacks Vincent Price there are some good performances here, the character Albino being especially memorable. Also, I recognized a lot of the audio from this movie from being sampled in the album  Dopethrone by Electric Wizard. I really enjoy this type of movie, there is something really stylish about them that I dig, not really sure what that says about me psychologically...

Review: Black Sunday

Black Sunday (1960)

Mario Bava's atmospheric, gothic chiller with a gruesome streak. A nobleman's family is haunted by the curse of a witch sentenced to a torturous death. Super atmospheric, the movie captures the feel of the classic Universal horror films as well as delivering the kind of occult torture scenes and sadistic religious inquisitors that seemed to be popular in the 60's. I thought the film was pretty stylish, the haunted castle the film takes place in feels huge, like something from Castlevania. Mario Bava always incorporates really great visuals in his movies, so even if you can't dig the dubbed dialogue you could add your own soundtrack of some doom metal or some other dark tunes and imbibe in your favorite way and still have a good time.