908-The Touch of Satan

Film Year:  1971
Genre:  Horror
Director:  Tom Henderson
Starring:  Michael Berry, Emby Mellay
MST Season:  9

The Movie

Touching love story of finding where the fish lives tells us of a city boy Jodie falling in love with Melissa, the daughter of a walnut farmer.  Of course wacky antics of meeting the parents ensue, though nothing as un-funny as Robert DeNiro with a lie detector, just the hilarity of Lucinda, a murderous old lady they keep locked up.  This woman is actually Melissa’s sister, who Melissa saved from being burned as a witch over a century prior by selling her soul to the Devil.

Probably the one thing you realize about The Touch of Satan as it ends is that it didn’t really have such a bad story.  If the movie had actual talent or maybe a budget to execute it, maybe The Touch of Satan could have rose above the inferno of bottom feeding fodder.  It might have even achieved cult status.  Unfortunately the production sucks.  There’s really no way to steer past that.  It has a kind of neat story buried by amateurs.  The film is ugly at just about all ends (admittedly the lousy print the show features does the movie no favors) and the acting is stilted and uninvolved.  The best that can be said about the actors is that lead actress Emby Mellay is easy on the eyes, and I’d probably sell my soul for her as well.

If the movie has any virtue of the production as is, it’s probably because it looks like a snuff film, kind of like Manos only not as other-worldly.  The movie clearly wants to be creepy, but one can’t help but feel it’s a little sad that MST itself feels like it has more lavish production values than the film it’s mocking.

The Episode

The movie doesn’t quite fit the mould of the science fiction fodder they had been doing on the Sci-Fi Channel, as it’s mostly a dreary horror story and not some goofball cheesefest.  It could possibly be that the crew hadn’t done a movie like this in so long that they are confused on how to approach it.  They pick apart the lacking script, specifically some unfortunate dialogue (“This is where the fish lives” is pretty much an instant classic quote), but then they continue to drive run-on dialogue gags into the ground almost instantly before moving on to the next one the movie gives them.  The SOL crew is at their best when they go after Lucinda, the movie’s biggest attempt at frightening the audience, trying desperately to be like Mother from Psycho but coming off more like Grandma Flanders from The Simpsons.  There’s a goldmine of senile old bat jokes being thrown around.

The host segments are mostly winners, with top prize going to Steffi the Babysitter (played by prop master Beth “Beez” McKeever) filling in for Pearl as she travels off to consult film critic Leonard Maltin on what bad movies she should use to torment Mike (which will result in the next episode, Gorgo).  Steffi makes for some of the best Mad segments since the golden days of Dr. Forrester and Frank, as her constant babying of Observer (AKA Brian) brings many laughs while her treatment of Bobo as the family pet is a scream (“NO CHEW!”  “NO BARK!”).  I find myself a bit saddened that this is the only time we see Steffi, but am also glad she wasn’t driven into the ground.  She’s a rather brilliant one-shot character that did her business and left on a high note.

The other segments hold their own, mostly mocking the movie.  I really like Mike’s walnut farming sketch, and Servo’s grandma is a hoot.  One of the lesser ones is Crow thinking he’s a witch, but it features some pretty solid dialogue saving it.  The opening Wassail segment falls under the same category, as it’s a bit of an odd duck but with a catchy beat.

As a whole though, The Touch of Satan is an episode that is hardly remembered as it ends.  The dreary movie might be to blame, but it’s somewhat sad that the combined efforts of Lucinda and Steffi can’t make me think higher of this episode than I do.  Unfortunately it’s just not one that I come back to, even if those two girls really hit a home run here.

Note:  In the opening credits Crow makes reference to the movie being about “A hip Satan who solves crimes.”  Seems kind of ridiculous at first, but then I’m reminded that it sounds like the Fox series Lucifer.  I’m starting to think Crow finally made it in show biz and sold his idea.

Average

The DVD

The Touch of Satan was released by Rhino Home Video as a part of their all Sci-Fi era Volume 5 set.  The episode featured great video (for everything except that washed out movie) as well as grand audio.

On the extras side, the disc offers an introduction by Mike Nelson, who calls the movie “A Touch of Satan.”  There’s also a scratchy, widescreen trailer for the movie, which is in better shape than the movie appeared on the show (which isn’t saying much).

Shout Factory later re-released Volume 5.  Video and audio are just as good as the Rhino release.  Mike's intro is retained for this version.