Highly Overrated But Still Good

Great movie! If you want to be entertained and have a few good laughs, see this movie. The music is also very good,

It's a feast for the eyes. But what really makes this dramedy work is the acting.

The biggest problem with this movie is it’s a little better than you think it might be, which somehow makes it worse. As in, it takes itself a bit too seriously, which makes most of the movie feel kind of dull.

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.

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.

Seriously, if it weren't for the fact that the DVD of this MST3K Episode contained the trailer, I would not believe this got any distribution.I'm not saying this film had no merits: some cinematography ain't bad, the music's relatively cool, and.... it's just that everything is so bad that it completely blots out those assests to this film, driving this film down to Hell where it belongs. I spent the whole thing wishing it would end with an atom bomb detonating, and taking everyone out. I actually bear the lead characters a grudge: shame on you, Jody guy, you were boring and apparently arrogant enough to assume your fifty year-old guy's face was handsome enough you didn't need to act, and Emby(Melissa), I now take pride in my dreckiest films because they don't include YOU! How could you guys not see what a terrible script you were backing? Hmmm?Now, the old homicidal (Promicidal) woman, you make that Crenshaw guy in Boggy Creek Two seem likable and dimensioned: I wasn't supposed to like you, but you went too far. Bad direction, bad characters, and most annoying, this script is ARROGANT in it's anti-Christianity. look, guys, your ability (what little there is) to make regular people seem bad doesn't prove a thing. You are in no position to criticize anyone else. Rating: .5/4, good for making fun of and destroying.

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.