Mark of the Devil - Will's Review

I was quite looking forward to the week's movie; it's a reader recommendation (via our Facebook Page), and it has Udo Kier in it!

Our last Reader Request was Ilsa: She Wolf of the SS, while Naziploitation isn't my favourite genre, Ilsa was one of the better examples.

Sadly this weeks movie is, in all but the trappings, a run of the mill naziplotation movie. Swap out Nazis for the church, the SS for witchfinders, Jews for peasants, and the Camp for a small village, and it's the same old same old.

The acting is terrible, save for Keir; who doesn't exactly give a career best performance himself, and spends most of the film in trousers so tight that an interested observer could probably narrow down his religion.

Against the stock background of people (mostly women) being tortured is the story of the Witch-finder general's student/protégé/apprentice (Kier) realising that his beliefs are not all they're cracked up to be.

Aside from that its a fairly standard 70s/80s torture movie; nothing to write home about, but not terrible either.

Week 114 - Mark of the Devil

Year: 1970

Reviews / Author Comments due: 27/7/13
Reason for Inclusion: Reader request via facebook group

BBFC Status: Passed uncut in 2003

More Info: Wikipedia, IMDB

DVD: LINK

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Feel free to use the comments section of this post to add your own reviews and thoughts about this movie.

Ilsa: She Wolf of the SS - Will's Review

After the Naziploitation movies from the DPP list, I think we were both ready to turn our back on the genre forever; however, a reader on our FaceBook group requested / recommended this one, and so here we are.

I will say, right off the bat, that this is without question the best (or least-bad) Nazi movie we have watched; I'd even go as far as to say I enjoyed this one.



Yes, Big chunks of it were played for titillation (that's half of the appeal if Exploitation movies are your thing after all) but the very worst of the abuse, not so much; When a POW gets raped, we usually see the horror on her face, rather than the pleasure on the face of her attacker (or worse; groin and boob close-ups), and this one actually had a plot!

The usual "Nazis doing experiments" story (which this time dealt mostly with Ilsa's desire to prove that women can tolerate pain better than men) is present and correct, but this time around we have a properly realised escape sub-plot. Admittedly, the escape plan falls apart at the end when most of the prisoners decide to stay and take revenge, rather than actually escape, but points for effort.

I'm not going to actively recommend this one, but I believe its the first movie of its type that I'm not branding "Avoid"

WEEK 110 - Ilsa, She Wolf of the SS

Year: 1975

Reviews / Author Comments due: 29/06/1978

Reason for Inclusion: Reader requested.

BBFC Status:  Never submitted, therefore nominally banned

More Info: Wikipedia, IMDB

DVD: The Ilsa Triliogy (cheaper, after postage, than the single movie)

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Feel free to use the comments section of this post to add your own reviews and thoughts about this movie.