Banned even from cinema release for years, and only issued a few years back heavily cut on video, the notorious "Mark of the Devil" comes to DVD. It is cut by 32 seconds but that's nearly four minutes less than the old Redemption tape of this grisly tale - about a witch hunter terrorising a superstitious 17th century town.

Yet, it's not the onscreen horror that made Michael Armstrong vow that he would never direct again. Instead it was the incredible shoot, which he discusses on this DVD.

TECHNICAL FEATURES

Picture Luridly shot, the colour scheme on this transfer is certainly interesting, but quite solid - despite being taken from an occasionally scratchy print.

Sound Billed as '2.0 surround', this sounds much more like plain old mono. But then, no one should be subjected to the bizarrely soppy music score in surround.

SPECIAL FEATURES

Marked by the Devil An appropriate title indeed for this interview with Michael Armstrong. After making the movie, so crushed was he by the experience he vowed never to direct again unless he had full artistic control: a promise he has kept.

Not only were seven to eight languages spoken on set, Michael found out rather more critically that there was no script for the actors to read. The original idea came from Adrian Hoven, who planned to write, direct and star in the project.

Somehow he managed to get funding, but was gradually replaced in most of the roles he envisaged once the producers realised what terrible ideas he had. Armstrong was brought in to rewrite but upon arriving on set to shoot found no scripts, as Adrian had made sure none were printed so his original ideas might be allowed to creep back in.

Add to that a cameraman who was an ally of Hoven's, people going off and shooting their own inserts, and no daily schedules, and Armstrong was soon left going as insane as the characters in the film.

Audio Commentary Michael Armstrong has plenty more extraordinary anecdotes to share about the shoot from hell, as well as picking up on all sorts of oddities he had nothing to do with. He "nearly died" upon hearing the twee music score, and was never a fan of the "zoom happy" techniques of the cameraman.

What does startle is that key scenes in the script are based upon real quotes from 17th century trials and indictments. Added to that, Armstrong reveals that many of the torture devices are real and authentic. Even that hideous head clamp for tearing out tongues.

Additional Extra Features Also on the disc are film notes, five picture galleries, and a trailer.

TECHNICAL INFORMATION
Chapters: 12
Ratio: 1.85:1 (anamorphic)
Sound: Dolby Digital 2.0
Audio Tracks: English
Subtitles: None
Captions: None
Menus: Animated, with music
Special Features Subtitles None of the special features come with subtitles.

This DVD was reviewed on a JVC XV-N5 DVD player.