1970 • Germany • Directed by Michael Armstrong
Once proclaimed as “positively the most horrifying film ever made”, Mark of the Devil is a bloody and brutal critique of religious corruption. Horror icon Udo Kier (Flesh for Frankenstein, Suspiria) plays a witchfinder’s apprentice whose faith in his master (Herbert Lom) becomes severely tested when they settle in an Austrian village. Presided over by the sadistic albino (a memorably nasty turn from Reggie Nalder), the film presents its morality not so much in shades of grey as shades of black. Written and directed by Michael Armstrong, who would later pen Eskimo Nell, The Black Panther and House of the Long Shadows, this classic shocker has lost none of its power over the years.
Made in 1978 for Italian television, Orchestra Rehearsal is possibly Fellini's most satirical and overtly political film. An allegorical pseudo-documentary, the film depicts an Italian television crew's visit to a dilapidated auditorium (a converted 13th-century church) to meet an orchestra assem...
The final film of the official trilogy, Return of the Sister Street Fighter, finds Koryu Lee back in Yokohama searching for a woman who has become the mistress of another crime kingpin. Kurata again co-stars but this time as a crazed fighter working for the villains who swears that he's the man w...
The Final Episode of the Battles Without Honour and Humanity series brought a new, more contemporary mood to the film and its characters. The yakuza may be starting to resemble a legitimate business, but director Kinji Fukasaku, working with new screenwriter Kôji Takada, never lets the audience f...
