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The Touch of Satan

  • 1971
  • PG
  • 1h 30m
IMDb RATING
2.4/10
3.2K
YOUR RATING
The Touch of Satan (1971)
A young man meets a farm girl who is actually a witch.
Play trailer1:57
1 Video
33 Photos
Horror

A young man finds himself in a strange town with strange things going on. Two sisters, possessed, create a Jekyll-Hyde atmosphere where bizarre killings occur. Our hero fall in love an enter... Read allA young man finds himself in a strange town with strange things going on. Two sisters, possessed, create a Jekyll-Hyde atmosphere where bizarre killings occur. Our hero fall in love an enters a new world of mind-shattering experiences.A young man finds himself in a strange town with strange things going on. Two sisters, possessed, create a Jekyll-Hyde atmosphere where bizarre killings occur. Our hero fall in love an enters a new world of mind-shattering experiences.

  • Director
    • Don Henderson
  • Writer
    • James E. McLarty
  • Stars
    • Michael Berry
    • Emby Mellay
    • Lee Amber
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • IMDb RATING
    2.4/10
    3.2K
    YOUR RATING
    • Director
      • Don Henderson
    • Writer
      • James E. McLarty
    • Stars
      • Michael Berry
      • Emby Mellay
      • Lee Amber
    • 60User reviews
    • 12Critic reviews
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • Videos1

    Trailer
    Trailer 1:57
    Trailer

    Photos33

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    Top cast13

    Edit
    Michael Berry
    • Jodie Lee Thompson
    Emby Mellay
    Emby Mellay
    • Melissa Strickland
    Lee Amber
    • Luther Strickland
    Yvonne Winslow
    • Molly Strickland
    Jeanne Gerson
    • Lucinda Strickland
    Robert Easton
    Robert Easton
    • Mr. Keitel
    Lew Horn
    Lew Horn
    • Deputy John Mason
    Sharon Crabtree
    • Young Lucinda
    John J. Fox
    • Attendant
    Hal K. Dawson
    • Mr. Gentry
    Frank Jansen
    Frank Jansen
    • Frank Larsen
    Ellen Bailey
    • Sarah Strickland
    Don Henderson
    • David Strickland
    • (uncredited)
    • Director
      • Don Henderson
    • Writer
      • James E. McLarty
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

    User reviews60

    2.43.2K
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    Featured reviews

    otisfirefly2001

    wickedly stupid....No fun for anyone!

    This is completely stupid. I joke to film making everywhere.

    ::The main problems::

    Acting is so terrible, it actually made me cry when I heard the dialogue being spurted out of the actors mouths. Not one of the actors could act and I bet they never got another job afte that. though they were probably too busy doing drugs to complete any other movies.

    The story is very lame, stupid, and annoying. Choke full of crap that would make even the most amateur film maker want to stop making movies. We get something in the story about witches and Satan, but nothing really pans out at all. It all just falls flat within the first three minutes of this lame movie, but by then you have probably turned the channel already. Which if I was not viewing the MST3K version, I proboby would have done within the first minute of this trash!

    The mood is overdone completely and really goes into overkill within the last few minutes of the movie. I think they tried to set too much mood and didn't take enough time on the plot, which might of helped this movie.

    The special effects are lame, and really only consist of bad face make-up which is really very lame. Though it is probably just the time period and might not have been helped.

    I do not want to recommend this movie to anyone....At anytime....Anywhere. This movie is very lame, and a venture down amateur film making lane! If you take a stop on crap film making street first of course.

    Do not see this movie unless it is with the help of Mike Nelson, Crow T. Robot, & Tom Servo. You can find it on Mystery Science Theater 3000 Volume 5. You might be sorry if you do not view it with them, as it is a headache inducing movie.
    amann-2

    Oh the fluffy "Touch of Satan", the fabric of our lives...

    If you like self punishment this movie is for you. How anyone could be able to watch this un-MSTed without blowing their brains out is beyond me.

    The acting of the unwitting boy and the 200+ old (but only looks in her 20s) witch are just horrible. Were these two not aware that 15 second pauses between lines are not good ways to keep an audience interested? Not that the other actors are much better. Melissa's "parents" are out-acted by pot holders and the old (at least 190 years old and at least looks her age) crazy sister of Melissa. Even Satan didn't do anything cool in this movie, nor did he/she even bother to appear (physically) in it.

    The plot is in a whole world of disarray. They left out the part of the script where it is explained how the simple Ma and Pa farmer folk got to be the witch's and her sister's parents. The walnut farm which doesn't have a single walnut tree on the property, and if there is they like to eat hay. Getting rid of a cop and his car off the edge of a cliff will attract absolutely no attention to the local police of foul play. Even though he happen to be calling in on the CB when he was killed by the psycho sister. Oh yes, and finally old decrepid granny-looking women can sneak up on almost anyone and kill them (even in broad daylight!). The ending is the typical devil schlock. (I won't ruin it for those who actually WANT to watch this movie.:P) But it ain't surprising.

    The most hilarious line in the movie is where the two "lovebirds" are standing and staring at a lake and Melissa says, "This is where the fish live." Nobody (or movie) can be taken seriously after a line like that.

    Not even the real touch of satan could save this movie. The scene that sums this movie up is the one of the boy puking beside his car. It's exactly what you'll do if you had to sit through the *PURE UNADULTERATED EVIL* of "The Touch of Satan"!

    Thank God for MST3K...
    3planktonrules

    Bad....but not horrible.

    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.
    5FieCrier

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

    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.
    1Gafke

    Dreadful & Dull

    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.

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    Related interests

    Mia Farrow in Rosemary's Baby (1968)
    Horror

    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      Satan's "I am a friend and companion of the night . . . " speech is taken from H.P. Lovecraft's short story "The Horror At Red Hook."
    • Goofs
      During the finale of the movie when Jodie walks up to Melissa at the pond there is a long shot that shows him standing directly in front of her. In the reverse shot he is shown standing several feet from her.
    • Quotes

      [at the pond]

      Melissa: This is where the fish lives.

    • Crazy credits
      In the version of this film that appeared on Mystery Science Theater 3000 there is a brief negative flaw in the closing credits. The cast begins to scroll up when suddenly the bottom of the credits drop and reappear.
    • Alternate versions
      The film was edited down for its appearance on Mystery Science Theater 3000 in 1998. Among the scenes edited were a conversation between Melissa and Lucinda, more graphic images of Lucinda killing the deputy, a conversation between Luther and Molly Strickland about Melissa and Jodie's relationship, and a scene where Melissa and Lucinda's father denounces them after the villagers attack.
    • Connections
      Featured in Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Touch of Satan (1998)

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    FAQ14

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    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • August 23, 1971 (United States)
    • Country of origin
      • United States
    • Language
      • English
    • Also known as
      • Night of the Demon
    • Filming locations
      • Santa Ynez, California, USA
    • Production company
      • Stupendous Talking Pictures International
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Tech specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      • 1h 30m(90 min)
    • Color
      • Color
    • Sound mix
      • Mono
    • Aspect ratio
      • 1.66 : 1

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