The Touch of Satan

1971 "To Love Her Is To Be Cursed!"
2.3| 1h30m| PG| en| More Info
Released: 23 August 1971 Released
Producted By: Stupendous Talking Pictures International
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Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
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Synopsis

A murderous and decrepit old woman resides on a California walnut farm with her family. On a whim, a traveler named Jodie makes a brief side trip to the farm, where he meets and falls in love with Melissa, the proverbial farmer's daughter. Jodie and Melissa grow closer as Melissa begins to reveal the strange, dark history of her family.

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Reviews

Nayan Gough A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.
Taha Avalos The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.
Deanna There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.
Francene Odetta It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.
jrware Meet the Stricklands, hard-working proprietors of the world's most labor intensive walnut ranch. There's sweaty Luther who in his spare time cooks up hard cider and sticks coffee cups to his upper lip. There's his wife, Molly, who collects pot holders and can boil a mean pot of water. Next is Melissa, who likes shopping for Carnation ice cream and spooking the town folk with her witchy ways and large forehead. Oh, and then there's lovable Lucinda, who's into doll collecting and dispatching farmers and police officers with pitch forks and meat hooks. One day, while tooling around in his pristine Maverick, rich boy Jody decides to take the road less traveled and ends up with these loons. What's worse, he falls in love with one of them. Luckily, it's not Luther. This is a B movie that gives B movies a bad name. The dialogue is nearly as unspeakable as the horrors offered up in hell, the lighting goes from too bright to pitch and there's absolutely no one to cheer for. It's easy to see why this "film" was such easy fodder for Mike and the 'bots on the Satellite of Love. It lends itself to such biting commentary.
SERVOMOORE 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.
Diana (spoilers)Did anyone else actually enjoy the mad killer Grandma? At least she wasn't boring, and she didn't perpetually pause like the rest of the cast. Jody's a dull wuss, Melissa's a floppy vacuous Rhoda like girl, and her 'parents' aren't much either. Lucinda's actually alot of fun-from drifting into Jody's room to scare the crap out of him, to stabbing the womany cop to death with a hay hook. And heck, she even almost managed to kill the annoying Jody, so kudos to the crazed old witch for at least providing some entertainment value in this otherwise extremely slow film. And senseless, let's not forget senseless. There are so many things in this film that simply don't make any sense at all. Just who ARE the 'Stricklands'? Are they related in any way, or did Melissa simply force them to live on her ranch and pretend to be her parents? Why did Satan bother to possess Melissa at all, if he/she never intended to return? Don't you think the Devil would have found something for his servant to do in the last one hundred and twenty years besides try to corral her mad sister? Why don't the townspeople realize that Melissa never ages? How does Jody sleeping with Melissa(maybe to prove his 'love' for her was real?) help her escape from her devilish deal? And what kind of moron does it take to sell himself to the Devil just to get seconds? So they're both in the service of the Devil, and the whole beginning of the plot is negated. Melissa doesn't escape her eternal torment, Satan now has puss boy's soul as well, and nothing has been accomplished. Way to go, idiot. Besides these annoying little niggles, there's also the crappy soundtrack, the lighting that makes it appear as though the sun is going nova in every shot, and the apparent sleepiness of all of the cast members except for the dynamic but crazed Lucinda. The Touch if Satan apparently is supposed to make one fall asleep.
NotHopeless Much to my joy, I was looking for something on my MST3K videotapes this weekend, and I stumbled across this movie on one of them...a new MST3K that I had taped years ago and never watched! Joy! Ok, so I watched this movie, and it's honestly not that bad! Yes, it's a bit cheesy in a 1970s sort of way, and there are a few pauses when people are speaking, and there are lines like "This is where the fish live", but this movie is really not that awful! Watching a film like "Manos" or "Red Zone Cuba" without the MST3K treatment would make a person long for the sweet release of death, but I think I could have watched this film without the riffing and still have enjoyed it. I thought it was a decent movie. True, it had plotholes big enough to drive a barfed-on Charger through, but it was a pretty decent movie. And I have a HUGE crush on the main character, Melissa. Touched by Satan or not, she's a sweetie who only wanted to help her sister. :(