The Touch of Satan (1971) User Reviews

Dreadful & Dull

[Gafke · 1/10 · 10 May 2004]

A young man named Jody drives across country and decides to stop and have lunch in a small town where, he's been told, a "chromichidal maniac" is on the loose. He meets a young pretty girl named Melissa, falls instantly love and follows her home for dinner. Dinner turns into a weekend and we slowly (very slowly) learn that Melissa is no ordinary seventeen year old girl. She's a 120 year old witch who sold her soul to Satan, and the incredibly wrinkled woman she claims is her great grandmother is actually her little sister...and a "chromichidal maniac" to boot. Seems Melissa sold her soul to save the weird old chick from being burned at the stake by an angry mob 120 years earlier. Now, it seems, nothing can save Melissa from the curse...except perhaps for Jody's love. Will he sell his own soul to save her? Who cares?

This 70s effort is filled with bad acting, a terrible script and a story that doesn't make a whole lot of sense. The flashbacks to the 1850s still manage to look like the 1970s and the angry mob is more of a slightly irritated gathering. Everyone looks stoned and delivers their lines in half hearted monotones, eyes glazed and faces expressionless. And Jody has got to be the stupidest kid yet to appear on screen. He hangs around even though he's clearly not wanted and continues to hang around even after things begin to get menacing. Not even the sight of Gramma-Sister eviscerating a cop with a scythe can scare him away for long. No, he's too much in love with Melissa, a drab farmgirl with minimal beauty whose claims of Witchy-ness cannot penetrate Jody's thick skull and sound any sort of alarm bells. And who the hell are those people that Melissa is living with? They're not her parents, but they're in on the Dreadful Truth, so what gives? This is just one of the many glaring plot holes that litter this lackluster film. Not even the horrific murders and the fiery finale could keep me from nodding off. This movie just kind of plods along like a cinematic sedative until it finally peters out and ends with no fanfare whatsoever.

Guaranteed to cure insomnia.

1970s Trash With Just a Hint of Possibility

[gavin6942 · 3/10 · 2 April 2012]

The plot says, "A man meets a farmgirl who is actually a witch." I think the story is a bit more complicated than that, but sure...

The film has flaws. Oh, yes, it sure does. Poor video quality (perhaps fixable) makes the picture appear even more cheap than it probably was. The plot drags at times, many times, and the villain relies on some rather poor makeup (though this would be less bothersome if she was shown less). Actually, the plot dragging is the worst part. Cut ten minutes off this to improve the pace and the whole movie would instantly be improved.

Most people have probably seen this film on "Mystery Science Theater"... (actually, most people have not seen the film at all). Do not let this fool you. While the movie is bad, it is not quite the terrible film IMDb makes it out to be. I see worse films on a regular basis that somehow get better rankings. So, although this film is bad, its being on the Bottom 100 is in error -- with a few touch-ups, edits, etc. this film has the potential to be something more. Still something average, and not actually good, but far from the worst...

Did a plucked Turkey in a wig just talk to me?

[Oosterhartbabe · 1/10 · 17 April 2004]

(spoilers)Did anyone else actually enjoy the mad killer Grandma? At least she wasn't boring, and she didn't perpetually pause like the rest of the cast. Jody's a dull wuss, Melissa's a floppy vacuous Rhoda like girl, and her 'parents' aren't much either. Lucinda's actually alot of fun-from drifting into Jody's room to scare the crap out of him, to stabbing the womany cop to death with a hay hook. And heck, she even almost managed to kill the annoying Jody, so kudos to the crazed old witch for at least providing some entertainment value in this otherwise extremely slow film. And senseless, let's not forget senseless. There are so many things in this film that simply don't make any sense at all. Just who ARE the 'Stricklands'? Are they related in any way, or did Melissa simply force them to live on her ranch and pretend to be her parents? Why did Satan bother to possess Melissa at all, if he/she never intended to return? Don't you think the Devil would have found something for his servant to do in the last one hundred and twenty years besides try to corral her mad sister? Why don't the townspeople realize that Melissa never ages? How does Jody sleeping with Melissa(maybe to prove his 'love' for her was real?) help her escape from her devilish deal? And what kind of moron does it take to sell himself to the Devil just to get seconds? So they're both in the service of the Devil, and the whole beginning of the plot is negated. Melissa doesn't escape her eternal torment, Satan now has puss boy's soul as well, and nothing has been accomplished. Way to go, idiot. Besides these annoying little niggles, there's also the crappy soundtrack, the lighting that makes it appear as though the sun is going nova in every shot, and the apparent sleepiness of all of the cast members except for the dynamic but crazed Lucinda. The Touch if Satan apparently is supposed to make one fall asleep.

A touch of ridiculousness

[divaclv · 26 October 2002]

How is this film stupid? Let us count the ways:

1) It centers around the two most lackadaisical characters to ever be the subject of a film. Jody and Melissa spend half the movie sitting in uncomfortable silence, and the other half trading dialogue in accents that never reach any level of emotion, not even when Melissa's loony "grandmother" Lucinda starts skewering people with farm implements.

2) Melissa and Lucinda live out in the middle of nowhere, on what Jody insists on calling a "walnut ranch." Note to screenwriter: ranches usually raise livestock. Walnuts are more likely to be found in an orchard.

3) Besides Melissa and Lucinda, the ranch is also home to Luther and Molly. We assume they're Melissa's parents, until circumstances prove that impossible. Who they really are is aparently none of our business.

4) Melissa insists she's possessed by the devil. Jody refuses to believe her. This will persist, with no variation, for most of the film.

5) In a flashback, we learn Melissa and Lucinda are really sisters, and that Lucinda was nearly burned at the stake for witchcraft by an angry mob (more on them later) until Melissa sold her soul to Satan to save her. This scene, we later learn, takes place sometime in the 19th century. Blaming witches for everything had pretty much gone out of vogue by that time, although blaming minorities was pretty popular, if I remember my history.

6) Satan apparently is inconsistant in his deals. Melissa is allowed to remain young, while Lucinda ages. Then again, Lucinda in her youth looked something like Frida Khalo, so she didn't miss much.

7) About that angry mob--okay, angry isn't the best word for them, since they have about the energy and enthusiasm of a checkout line. How are we supposed to feel about them? They arrive with torches to burn Lucinda for witchcraft, but then it seems Lucinda really is guilty of the crime. It's one thing to portray Christians as narrow-minded, superstitious, and hypocritical, but what happens when they're actually right?

8) During the burning, the mob breaks out into "Amazing Grace." Aparently they only know one verse to the song, since they repeat it endlessly.

9) To save Melissa from the Devil, Jody must sleep with her. We're not sure why this is.

10) Once freed from the clutches of evil, Melissa begins showing her age, which is around a hundred and twenty. Most films would allow Melissa to die, so that her tormented soul may finally be at rest, but nooo--Jody has to sell his soul to the Devil to get her back. This might be a harrowing statement on the powers of darkness, until I recall that having people like Jody and Melissa in the camp isn't exactly an asset for the forces of Hell.

much better than I expected, though no classic of the genre

[FieCrier · 5/10 · 5 September 2005]

I found this far more watchable than most others seem to have.

A farmer inspects a noise in his barn, which we can see came from a doll. He encounters a killer with a pitchfork. The scene following seems to have a family commenting on the death, suggesting the guy turned out OK. However, it turns out they were talking about something else, as the killer stumbles in - and the family is committed to hiding the crime.

A young man traveling to California stops in the town, and meets a young woman by her family's pond. They take a liking to each other, and she invites him to stay. Unfortunately, they're the family from the opening scene.

She claims to be a witch, and he's skeptical. She claims also to be possessed by the devil, but this seems to refer more to ownership than the devil actually being inside her controlling her actions.

The movie is slow, but has a nice 70s flavor, and a bucolic farm setting. For the gorehounds, there's the opening pitchfork scene (not terribly gory), and a much bloodier kill with a hook used for handling hay bales. There's a flashback to 100+ years ago of the punishment of a witch. The ending is perfect.

Satanic mess

[BandSAboutMovies · 3/10 · 24 January 2020]

Shot between 1968 and 1970 in the Santa Ynez, California area, Touch of Satan was a regionally released drive-in and grindhouse film that wasn't well-known until it appeared on a 1998 episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000.

There was a rumor that this movie was directed by Tom Laughlin, who made the Billy Jack filmns and used the pseudonym Don Henderson as the producer of The Born Losers and the editor of Like Father, Like Son. The director of this movie really as Don Henderson, who only made two other films: The Babysitter and Weekend with the Babysitter. While not actually connected, the second film is a spiritual sequel to the first. George E. Carey wrote, produced, and starred in both films - but played different characters. Yet they both share the idea of an older man having a fling with the babysitter of his children, named Candy Wilson in both movies, but played by two different actresses, Patricia Wymer and Susan Romen.

This movie begins with a farmer being repeatedly pitchforked by an elderly woman who has a burned up face. She goes scorched earth and sets his barn on fire too, while she's at it. As she literally falls through the screen door when she gets back home, an older couple and a young woman begin arguing about how to handle things, adding that she's done things like this in the past. Please note: this family lives on a walnut ranch.

Meanwhile, Jodie Thompson comes to town, as part of his vision quest as he decides whether or not he wants to be a lawyer like his father. He falls for Melissa, the girl we've just met with the insane grandmother, who is really her sister because our girl Melissa is a witch.

Cue the Mercyful Fate!

"Melissa, you were mine Melissa, you were the light She was a witch Why did they take you away?"

When the old woman murders a cop, Melissa confesses that she is a cursed witch and possessed by Satan. She sold her soul to save her sister, who was burned at the stake in the 19th century by an angry mob. As part of the deal, she has eternal youth but must deal with her homicidal - or as one character says "fromakital" - sister, who has aged and still bears the burns on her face.

Eventually, her sister tries to kill Jodie, but Melissa saves him and her sister dies. This of course leads to the happy couple doing the devil's dance - you know what I'm talking about and I think you do - which frees her from the powers of Hell but also instantly ages her. So of course, Jodie makes a deal with the dark one to make her young again.

Believe it or not, this movie takes plenty of dialogue from the H.P. Lovecraft story "The Horror at Red Hook."

While this was originally going to be called Pitchfork, it has an amazing Italian title: L'Ossessa: i raccapriccianti delitti di Monroe Park, which translates as The Obsession: The Horrific Crimes of Monroe Park. That said - there's no location named Monroe Park in the film. There is, however, that one amazing bit of dialogue when Melissa says, "This is where the fish lives."

Zaaa!

[Brain_Guy · 1/10 · 23 March 2003]

Wow....this film......has....a lot of.......pauses! Was William Shatner the dialogue coach or something? If this movie was any slower, watching it would actually send you back in time! This is pure seventies Grade Z-movie cheese. Take it from me- a movie that includes a Maverick, a walnut ranch, multiple uses of Amazing Grace, "This is where the fish lives!", "Zaaaa!", vomiting on a car, and an extended but unsexy nude scene is to be avoided. Movies like this should come with a Surgeon General's warning!

Bad....but not horrible.

[planktonrules · 3/10 · 1 February 2020]

Jodie meets Melissa and soon falls for her. But it turns out she's a witch and her 120 year-old sister is a psychotic murderer. You'd THINK this would destroy the couple's relationship...but, oddly, Jodie seems pretty chill about all this.

Over the years, the folks with "Mystery Science Theater 3000" have made fun of many, many, many films. However, sometimes they must have had trouble securing rights to bad films, so they made fun of films that really didn't deserve it. Were these films classics? Not in the least. But a few of the films they made fun of were decent movies, such as "The Girl in Gold Boots", "Mitchell" and "Final Justice". Yet, because they were on "MSTK3000", tons of the show's fans went onto IMDB and gave the movies the lowest possible score. As a result, IMDB's old Bottom 100 List had a couple dozen movies on it that were parodied on "MSTK3000". I am not sure if this was the reason why, but IMDB changed their criteria for admission to this infamous list...increasing the minimum number of votes needed to 10,000 and thus eliminating very obscure low-budget films like these.

Among the two dozen or so movies on the old Bottom 100 list was "The Touch of Satan". Did it deserve to be on the list...or was it like "Mitchell"...a film unfairly targeted for abuse? Yes...and no. While the film is bad, it's not horrid. And, considering the minimal budget and no-name actors, it really isn't that bad. Not exactly a ringing endorsement, but it was irritating with the old criteria that "The Touch of Satan" made the list and many truly horrendous films didn't...just because of the "MSTK3000 connection.

No touching and no Satan, what is with this movie?

[Fishbait · 1/10 · 17 October 1998]

This, unlike many a bad movie, started out with an interesting plot. A girl sells her soul to the devil to keep her witch sister alive. It makes the mistake by starting up years after this event, where the witch lady is still as youthful as ever and has tricked a nice (if a tad bit dumb) guy to assist her. There's no more plot after that, the rest of the movie consists of various murder attempts by the severly aged sister and the witch lady tried to get the guy to help her. Add that with a couple of odd pieces of dialogue ("This is where the fish lives." "Zah!") and this movie never rises above camp, and fairly uninteresting camp at that.

Even if you're a devout Christian...

[Gislef · 1/10 · 12 April 1999]

...you'll be praying for Satan to make an appearance. _Anything_ to make this movie at all interesting or attention-grabbing. The Touch of Satan staggers along like William Shatner on quaaludes, with huge reams of dialogue interspersed with breathy pauses as if the actors are phonetically spelling out their cue cards. Even an actor of the caliber of Robert Easton (I), as the leader of a slothful mob, can't inject any excitement into the proceedings. What might have made a decent 30-minute Twilight Zone episode (and actually in plot may have been very similar to a couple) is padded out to unbearable lengths.

Make sure you have MST3k by your side if you watch this

[martine-12 · 1/10 · 7 April 2004]

We follow Jodie, a guy, but with a name like that he's exactly the kind of wuss you expect him to be, driving way out to the country to eat his ham sandwich.

He then stumbles upon Melissa who lives on the walnut farm (yep, you read that right) he stopped at. Besides a psycho grandma, Melissa has another dark secret that Jodie slowly, and I mean SLOWLY, unravels.

Without the help of MST3k this movie would be a total pain in the royal behind. The pacing is slower than flowing tar on the North Pole, the dialog is unbelievably campy and dull and the acting is just plain crap.

I'm not going to call this a turkey because the whole thing is not even funny bad, it's just bad bad. If you like boring, long-winded, trying-to-be-scary-but-just-stupid movies from the seventies, go ahead and watch this.

If you do, I recommend you watch the MST3k version though.

Yes, it was on MST3K, but it's better than average B horror!

[Nightman85 · 10/10 · 17 January 2006]

Relatively unknown low-budget horror (unless you happen to have caught in on Mystery Science Theater 3000 in 1998) is actually a pretty interesting and well-done horror venture.

Young man drifting through the American heartland meets an attractive farm girl, who turns out to be a 100 year old witch with some dark secrets.

Considering that The Touch of Satan is a drive-in flick of the early 70's, it comes off as a nicely-made and effective shocker. Director Tom Laughlin gives this film a gritty and creepy atmosphere. The film boasts some good tension and jolting murder sequences. The makeup FX are quite impressive, especially for a film of small budget. Story-wise the movie is both intriguing and chilling, reaching a truly poetic (and haunting) conclusion. Special mention also goes to Robert Ragland for his wonderful music score. The music is both beautifully stirring and melodic, a perfect piece for this film.

The cast is also great. Stars Michael Berry and Emby Mellay are likable and attractive leads.

The Touch of Satan is a much better horror film than many will give it a chance to be. Don't get me wrong, no one loves MST3K more than I do, but Touch of Satan is a horror movie that works even without the riffing.

*** 1/2 out of ****

If you like campy, this one might be worth pitching a tent over...

[Dolf · 7/10 · 5 January 1999]

If you went into this film looking for great acting, a quality plot, excellent writing, and stunning special effects - oh boy, did you come to the wrong place!

However, if you like a campy film that will allow you and your friends to revel in it's inadequacies - you've come to the right place.

I've seen the movie by itself and in the MST3K version. (If you need tips on how to enjoy campy BAD movies, please watch MST3K sometime.) They were both just as enjoyable from a fun perspective.

The dialog is unbelievably strained - but it doesn't come off boring, it comes off laughable. The male lead has some terrible acting, but funny enough to make you like the guy.

Sure this film has some plot point problems, like who the heck are her "parents" she lives with if she's 120 years old? Or why does Satan apparently talk to everyone with their own voice? But it doesn't distract you, it makes you laugh and get more interested in this bad film.

If you like campy schlock on a Saturday afternoon or Saturday night while drinking with your friends, this one is fun. If you want a good film, go elsewhere.

It isn't THAT bad

[Apollyon_Crash · 4/10 · 26 April 2004]

Currently over 58% of this films votes are "1", probably because it appeared on Mystery Science Theater 3000. While it was great material for the show, this movie isn't completely without merit. The core idea of the movie was interesting (although amateurishly handled), and Micheal Berry gives a decent performance as the protagonist (or maybe the worse actors in the film just made him seem better). Some of the scoring and directing here is effective, as well.

Overall, this film is a 4/10. But if you see it, see it on MST3K. Not only did it make for one of the best episodes (proof that the worst movies don't make the best episodes), but it makes some of the duller parts of the film seem lively.

Deserves to be re-made with better production values

[Eric-1226 · 14 October 2001]

Yes, the movie is pretty bad, and probably deserves the "heckling" it receives when being aired on MST-3000 on Sci-Fi channel. But it is still watchable, all the way to the end. I actually felt a sort of pity towards it: it seemed the movie had a feeling of wasted potential, like someone who could have been successful in life if only they had been allowed to attend a better school.

It brings to mind an excellent comment I read by a reviewer who was commenting on the remade (1998) version of the movie "Psycho" - basically, that it was so pointless, afterall there are so many bad movies out there that deserve to be remade, so why would Hollywood waste time and money remaking the good movies, it makes no sense...

And this movie fits that category exactly. It screams for re-make. It has all the makings of a pretty interesting, if not downright creepy, story: a traveller (driving a Maverick no less) who stumbles off the beaten path, into a remote out-in-the-boonies country location, where he encounters a good-looking girl living with sweaty people... But, she is not what she seems, because in reality she is 127 years old - her youth and vitality being due to a pact she made with Satan a long, long time ago... Oh, and there is death by pitchfork, and rural cops who even consider cowchips in the course of their crime investigation.

Yes, there is a veritable gold mine of possibilities here. So, I nominate this movie as one of the bad ones that urgently needs to be remade, only with better production values, better script, better acting, better overall budget. (And a better soundtrack, too - it needs more songs in it than "Amazing Grace"). I see lots of potential here. Too bad I'm not a producer or a director, I could really do a lot with the basic ingredients that are at hand here. And if the remake doesn't work, well, "Zah!"

"I meant to ask him in for pie, I don't know what happened."

[thenintengenius · 1/10 · 11 April 2004]

Like most who've commented, I saw this film with the help of MST3K, and I have to admit that this is one of the very few films I couldn't watch without it (along with the Coleman Francis trilogy and Manos).

There is so much wrong with this film that it's hard to start. The plot (if it can really be called that) is a retread, a boring premise (house with dark secret) that's been done to death in every other horror film ever made. The male lead, Jody (yes, JODY), is an ineffectual dope whose most memorable contribution to the film is yelling "Zah!" The "villain," Lucinda, is an ugly troll-like hag who can only spout gibberish when she's not busy hacking useless side characters into giblets. The love interest, Melissa, is a empty-headed ditz whose most enjoyable moment is showing Jody where "the fish lives" (and, quite fittingly for this film, is the character with the "dark secret").

Combine all this with horribly stilted dialogue (it feels like almost 3/4s of the film is pauses, either between lines or between words) and pacing somewhere between "cold molasses" and "glacier" (not to mention the fact that the first verse of "Amazing Grace" is used about 20 times in the film) and you have a movie that doesn't even manage to be affably mediocre or so-bad-it's-good, much less scary. Avoid this film at all costs, unless MST3K are shielding you from this film's dreadful slowness.

A decent story idea, smothered by ham handed execution

[lemon_magic · 3/10 · 9 December 2006]

"Touch Of Satan" has the feel of a movie destined for the 3rd feature at an drive-in triple feature. You get the feeling that by the time this thing started rolling at 1:00 am, everyone left at the drive-in was either 90% asleep, drunk off their butts, or so involved in heavy petting that it didn't matter what was on the screen. So on that level, TOS worked fine. It filled in 90+ minutes of screen and gave the night-owls some video background to accompany whatever their real priority happened to be at the time.

Unfortunately, I had to watch it while wide awake, 100% sober, and undistracted by any opportunity to smooch and make out. And so I have little use (or pity) for this movie....and I have to confess that it was so incredibly dull that I had a lot of trouble making myself pay attention to it. I kept pausing the VCR to get a soda, or go to the bathroom, or make myself a sandwich, or make a phone call, or to start the dishwasher. Then I'd get back, start things up again, and try to pay attention for another 5 minutes...only to decide it was time to start the laundry, or pay a couple of bills, or do some push-ups...

But unless a movie is actively offensive or horrifically awful, I always try to watch a movie all the way through and give it every chance to prove itself. So I eventually got to the end of "TOS", and my final reaction was...."Meh.".

I have to admit, there is the germ of a decent, unsettling story in this movie, and there is a plot twist that could actually be considered somewhat clever. The cinematography is OK in a 70's "Movie Of the Week" way, and the young romantic leads are decent looking, if not particularly striking. But even though director Tom Laughlin (of "Billy Jack" and "Master Gunfigher" fame) had previously managed to make some involving (if contrived) movies, here he couldn't pace a dramatic scene to save his life, and he definitely didn't have the know-how or the talent to make these uncharismatic actors carry the movie. Maybe he should have stuck to directing himself and his regular cast of cronies. Or maybe he should have stuck in some hapkido or some gunfighting to pick things up a bit. He definitely didn't have a feel for "horror".

As a previous reviewer astutely commented, this movie screams for a remake. Unlike good older movies, which are often happy accidents of inspiration, zeitgeist, and talent, the addition of modern 'gee-whiz' MTV jump cuts, CGI, and hot young actors would add a lot of visual interest to the proceedings, and would help frame the mildly interesting plot in a flattering way that held the viewer's attention.

However, that probably isn't going to happen. Hollywood is never going to be that desperate for material that this dull-tastic collection of 70's clichés will ever get a shiny new outfit.

Even in the MST version, the guys just didn't have anything to work with. That's kind of sad.

Should be called The Pause of Satan

[banshee-7 · 1/10 · 5 January 1999]

Ah, yes, The Touch of Satan. There's just one problem with this movie. It's bad, bad, bad. It starts off with a long, torturously slow drive through the opening credits, and never gets any better. Talk about slooooooooooow. This movie would probably only be half an hour long if they'd have just cut out all the dead space. More time is used up by pauses in the dialogue than the actors spend speaking their lines.

It's a movie about murder, witches, Satan, and love - your basic feel-good horror flick. The movie centers around our hero Jodie, a young man sowing his oats, and Melissa, the Satan-possessed would-be witch whom he falls in love with.

In a supporting role, Melissa's witch sister, (who resembles a cross between an extremely wrinkled leather coat and a troll doll) gleefully traipses about the family walnut farm pitchforking innocent farmers and meat hooking unaware sherriff's deputies, all the while making dolphin-esque squeals, and holding on to her favorite hideously ugly porcelain doll.

The strange thing is (no, there couldn't be anything strange about THIS movie), the person who's supposed to have been touched by Satan is the good guy. Melissa doesn't even get to kill anyone, and she's the one who was TOUCHED BY SATAN. The holes in the logic of this movie are big enough to lose the Mir Space station in.

It's also filled with memorable quotes like:

"This your pond?" "It belongs to my father." "Oh. Does he mind if people skip rocks across it?"

"What kind of farm?" "We grow walnuts mostly." "Walnuts, huh? I've never been on a walnut ranch."

And don't forget this classic:

"We ain't found nothin' yet, not even a suspicious cowchip."

This movie, as well as the rest of the world, would have been better off if it had "Touch"-ed the bottom of a garbage can instead of being released.

Zah! Please Remake This Film!

[geminiredblue · 3/10 · 3 May 2011]

I first saw this movie years ago when Mystery Science Theater (or MST3K) showed it. Since then, thanks to the miracle of something called videotape (and more recently on DVD), I've gone back to the definitive version (with the Bots) numerous times! Putting aside their funny antics, I'll try to rate the movie based on its own merits (or lack thereof.) First, the acting is uneven. The main character, Jodie, is kind of a bland Donald Sutherland. His hair, clothes, and mentality firmly point out that he's from the 70s. He's also pretty naive. Even though there's a lot of foreboding, Jodie is completely unaware of it. The actress who plays Melissa is equally bland, pretty but still bland. Between these two will pass numerous uncomfortable pauses. And when I mean pauses, I mean P... A... U... S... E... S... This is another one of those movies where you get the feeling the filmmakers didn't have enough material to make it a feature-length, so they compensated by putting long, slow pauses. Now mind you, pauses work when done right. Anton Chekov made a ton of plays using the pause to enhance meaning. The problem is when there's too much of a pause, it loses meaning. Not to mention, considering Jodie and Melissa are supposed to be budding lovers, it seems odd that they still share so many uncomfortably long pauses. The acting gets slightly better with the supporting cast. My personal favorite is the actress playing the witch/sister/great grandmother (depending on who's telling the story) Lucinda. When she flips out, it's convincing and startling. Good make-up too! In fact, that is the best feature about the film: killer witch/ sister/ great grandmother! Getting back to the love story, it's just as uneven as the rest of this film. Having just met Melissa, Jodie automatically agrees to stay for a few days with her creepy family. He's completely oblivious to their "less-than-welcoming" mood. As the movie goes on, we learn that Melissa is thought of as a witch in town. What follows is some of the blandest events to unfold. You get the feeling that there is a demonic force going on, but the pace needs to be ramped up! The ending is eerie, though it still seems out-of-place considering that the relationship between Jodie and Melissa doesn't appear to be that serious. Throughout the film, it's obvious there is no real chemistry between the two actors and it makes their relationship seem forced. Oh, did I mention the laughable dialogue? My favorite is when Melissa stops by a pond and says "This is where the fish lives." Huh, the fish? Just the fish? Just one fish? What does that have to do with anything?! And why, oh why, did they have "Amazing Grace" play at least three times in this movie? Public domain? The overall problem is that there is a decent and scary little witch movie buried within. Unfortunately, it's so buried underneath ho-hum acting, poorly paced scenes, and those god-awful pauses that it isn't scary. Could you imagine if they remade this nowadays? Here's one movie I wouldn't mind seeing the studios remake!

This *pause* movie *pause* is so *long pause* slow

[a-twetman · 2/10 · 15 November 2013]

Oh, the pauses, there are so many pauses in this movie. Touch of Satan is pretty much just dialog interspersed with a few scenes of action. The problem is, said dialog is exceedingly slow, and the actors keep making pauses, like they are afraid to sound rushed or something. When there is no flow in even the simplest conversation, there is really no flow in the movie. You could actually make this movie as a series of stills, and lose non of the pacing.

In most other aspects, I guess this film is sort of OK, just slightly below mediocre. The slow pacing just kills it.

Oh, and another thing, the music; there is an abundance of creepy music in the film, probably to heighten the tension, but when played over a scene depicting a guy skipping rocks over a pond on a sunny day, it doesn't really work, it just makes the movie makers seem slightly incompetent.

Will you believe your eyes?

[Sheepi · 5/10 · 29 February 2000]

Well, you decide for yourself; there are good and bad points to this film. This prejudice movie was obviously written by a man, because Satan is apparently female. Though the good point of this movie is Satan is never shown, allowing your imagination to work for itself, it may be considered a flaw by some who can see the low budget of Touch of Satan. The plot is very interesting and holds you in, however the acting and dialogue are a bit under done. This movie is actually frightening in a few aspects, though at times it does drag on and begin to grow dull.

5/10

But what can I, a single puss, do ?

[parramatt · 2/10 · 2 January 2006]

**This review is based on the MST3K version of the movie.**

This is a movie about a direction-less, spineless, and unlikable "hero" ( or at least the producer's idea of one) named Jodie who drives out to the country to eat his sandwich and meets a farm girl named Melissa. Melissa has a slight problem being that about 120 years ago she sold her soul to Satan and with our "hero" Jodie ( a male ) on the job the chances for correcting this problem do not look good. Jodie ends up spending a couple of days with Melissa at her family's walnut farm with her drab family who we do not care for or find interesting except for her old and ugly sister who makes a few appearances to murder people.

The acting is bad but what will really get to you is the SLOW dialog between the two main characters. If you edited out half the gaps between their words the conversation might actually appear to flow normally but since this was not done you are simply left with big gaps where audience members ( the smart ones that is ) will run out of patience and leave the room. It is amazing that the editor left these scenes in; "Yes, no room for improvement here. Another perfect take HA HA!" Speaking of amazing, the song "Amazing Grace" is featured about half a dozen times toward the end of the film. It would have been interesting to have seen this in the theater to see how much the audience groaned when the song started for the third or fourth time. I am sure that a collective "Not again !" drowned out the first measure of the fourth, fifth, and sixth renditions of the song.

About the only good thing about the movie is the woman who plays Melissa. She is most pleasant to look at. You think with a few, make that A LOT of acting lessons, her career could have been salvaged but it was not to be. With the mean-spirited and well-crafted remarks of the Mystery Science Theater gang the viewing experience will be about an 8 1/2. This is one of their best projects. They really tear this movie apart which is exactly what it deserves. Without them I only issue this warning; DO NOT WATCH THIS FILM ! YOU WILL BE SORRY ! I GAVE IT A 2 OUT OF 10 AND I MEAN IT !!!

**** SEMI-SPOILER AHEAD****

Our "hero" Jodie lets us down right to the end of the film. No surprise that a guy who takes THREE DAY lunch breaks is not a champion overcomer of adversity. Non-Christians will find the ending unclimatic but Christians will probably find it offensive much like I did. Remember, throwing a rock or an empty beer bottle at your television will not hurt those who are responsible for this film so just write a scathing review like I did. God Bless Mike and his robot friends.

Enjoyable drive-in fare maybe directed by "Billy Jack"??

[dmdavidsonhome · 10/10 · 29 February 2012]

I first saw The Touch of Satan at the Dublin (Georgia) Drive-In Theater following the 1980 re-release under the title Night of the Demon. It was then released under the original title on VHS video. I have read that it was directed by none other than Tom Laughlin, Mr. Billy Jack himself, despite the director's name being Don Henderson. I am aware that some people do direct films and write books using a false name but I have not seen where this credit has ever been officially given, implied or acknowledged. I am well aware that this film has been laughed-at, low-rated, panned, condemned, damned, parodied, spoofed and razzed by many. many people, but I still like it. There is just a certain something that makes it enjoyable to me. Michael Berry (Jody) seems to have gone on to a career working on film crews as an on-set medic, among other things. Lovely Emby Mellay (Melissa) seems to have simply just disappeared from the face of the earth after making this one movie. The location filming in Santa Ynez, California is one of the positives the film has. The scenery is lovely. The music was also quite good, too. The film also features some early makeup effects work by the talented Joe Blasco. I miss going to the drive-in and this is one film that transports me back to those days. I just wish that this DVD had been made from a better quality print of the film, if not remastered. It even looks a bit like a DVD that was ripped directly from a VHS video copy. That aspect makes me wonder just why the DVD is priced a bit higher than perhaps it warrants. Maybe it is also the fact that the film is so hard to find in other formats other than on MST3K. But I would much rather watch the film just as it was originally made and intended to be seen and relive the good old days of the drive-in. As for it being a "bad" or "awful" film, I have seen quite a few huge-budgeted films, featuring big-name casts that I enjoyed a lot less than The Touch of Satan.

Kind of Bittersweet Irony with a Lousy Plot

[aesgaard41 · 7/10 · 23 March 2001]

I kind of like this movie. Emby Mellay has a lovely alluring and sensual presence about her as a man she never knows approaches her and charms her, but the plot has a ridiculous nonsense in it that really keeps it from being a much better movie. It seems that she is a witch who has a pact with the Devil to keep her young and beautiful. it could have stayed there but there are dumb murders and an actress (or actor) in an awful old lady outfit. Just when you accept the movie with its foreshadowing and halfway charming atmosphere, the guy does the dumbest thing in the world. Sort of like "Psycho" or "The Undead" in reverse, the closing scene kills the whole movie.

A "Touch" too much....

[Mister-6 · 1/10 · 17 February 2001]

Tom Laughlin directed this.

Yep, good-old Billy Jack; the Master Gunfighter himself. And no, this one doesn't clock in at over three hours - it just FEELS like it.

"The Touch of Satan" is awash in stupid people. But not just any stupid people: slow, boring, lethargic and stupid people. From as far back as the 1800's to the 1970's, they all act the same - bored stiff. Even a batch of witch-burners chanting out "burn the witch...burn the witch....", exactly the way I wrote it. No exclamation points, no shouting, they just...say it. Hey Tom, give the cast some coffee, will ya?!

Some nondescript guy drives into this stupid, bored town and falls in love with a 200 year-old woman who doesn't look a day over 20 (or maybe 30 - okay, 39), in spite of having a haggard old woman living with her that pitchforks, meathooks or squeals at people at the most inconvenient times. There's a little blood, some nudity and a weird ending sequence where the credits and the end score both skip ahead a little. Coincidence, or...THE TOUCH OF SATAN? Aaah, who cares?

Oh, and a lot of dramatic pauses. I mean A LOT OF DRAMATIC PAUSES. Take them out, this crummy flick wouldn't even last twenty minutes. I know, they were trying to make it more dramatic and cerebral, blah blah blah. Great, if only this film had a brain to BE cerebral with!

Even Mike and the robots struggle along in this one. Favorite scene: their "whacka-chaka" sing-along with the beginning theme (very '70s, trust me).

No stars, not a single stinkin' one, for "The Touch of Satan". Only five for the MST3K version.

Hey "Satan", go "Touch" someone else.