Hammer House of Horror: The Mark of Satan tells the story of morgue attendant Edwyn Rord (Peter EcEnery) who is new to the job, three days in & a body turns up of someone who died in theatre named Samuel Holt. Samuel died because he tried to drill a hole in his own head to 'let the demons out', while stitching the body back together after the autopsy Edwyn picks his finger with the needle he is using & quickly becomes convinced that he is now infected with demons himself. Edwyn sees conspiracies in everything & everyone which leads to gruesome consequences...
The Mark of Satan was episode 13 of this unfairly short lived British horror anthology TV series produced by Hammer studios & it turned out to be the final episode in a quality series, this originally aired here in the UK during December 1980 & was the second of two Hammer House of Horror episodes to be directed by Don Leaver (the show's opener Witching Time was the other) & as with the other episodes I've seen I really rather liked this. The scripts for this series usually focused on a traditional horror themes such as voodoo, Werewolves, ghosts, witches & haunted houses but The Mark of Satan is a departure from that & isn't so much a straight forward horror film as a psychological thriller with horror overtones that I could describe as Jacob's Ladder (1990) as if was made by Hammer, on a low budget. The script by Don Shaw is a clever little tale of paranoia that's quite effective at what it sets out to do, you can sort of see Edwyn's point of view & what's going on even though he's totally bonkers, or then again considering the twist ending is he? At only 50 odd minutes in length this moves along at a nice pace, it never bores & the central premise is pretty interesting & draws you in to Edwyn's paranoia filled world...
The low TV budgets didn't help on this series but Hammer experience at making feature films obviously helped & this looks very good, quite cinematic having been shot on 35mm film rather than cheap videotape & a lot better than a lot of British TV from this era. There's no scares in this one although there's some suspense & a decent atmosphere. There's some gore here, there are various blood stained autopsy equipment, a brain in a tray & a bloody stabbing.
The Mark of Satan is a different sort of Hammer House of Horror episode that maybe isn't for everyone but I liked it all the same. A great way to round off a generally excellent series, it's a crime they don't make stuff like this anymore. Followed by Hammer House of Mystery of Suspense (1984) which toned down the horror & exploitative elements for it's intended US TV audience which was missing the point really, wasn't it?
The Mark of Satan was episode 13 of this unfairly short lived British horror anthology TV series produced by Hammer studios & it turned out to be the final episode in a quality series, this originally aired here in the UK during December 1980 & was the second of two Hammer House of Horror episodes to be directed by Don Leaver (the show's opener Witching Time was the other) & as with the other episodes I've seen I really rather liked this. The scripts for this series usually focused on a traditional horror themes such as voodoo, Werewolves, ghosts, witches & haunted houses but The Mark of Satan is a departure from that & isn't so much a straight forward horror film as a psychological thriller with horror overtones that I could describe as Jacob's Ladder (1990) as if was made by Hammer, on a low budget. The script by Don Shaw is a clever little tale of paranoia that's quite effective at what it sets out to do, you can sort of see Edwyn's point of view & what's going on even though he's totally bonkers, or then again considering the twist ending is he? At only 50 odd minutes in length this moves along at a nice pace, it never bores & the central premise is pretty interesting & draws you in to Edwyn's paranoia filled world...
The low TV budgets didn't help on this series but Hammer experience at making feature films obviously helped & this looks very good, quite cinematic having been shot on 35mm film rather than cheap videotape & a lot better than a lot of British TV from this era. There's no scares in this one although there's some suspense & a decent atmosphere. There's some gore here, there are various blood stained autopsy equipment, a brain in a tray & a bloody stabbing.
The Mark of Satan is a different sort of Hammer House of Horror episode that maybe isn't for everyone but I liked it all the same. A great way to round off a generally excellent series, it's a crime they don't make stuff like this anymore. Followed by Hammer House of Mystery of Suspense (1984) which toned down the horror & exploitative elements for it's intended US TV audience which was missing the point really, wasn't it?