Good story, Not enough for a whole film

It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

I first saw this movie years ago when Mystery Science Theater (or MST3K) showed it. Since then, thanks to the miracle of something called videotape (and more recently on DVD), I've gone back to the definitive version (with the Bots) numerous times! Putting aside their funny antics, I'll try to rate the movie based on its own merits (or lack thereof.) First, the acting is uneven. The main character, Jodie, is kind of a bland Donald Sutherland. His hair, clothes, and mentality firmly point out that he's from the 70s. He's also pretty naive. Even though there's a lot of foreboding, Jodie is completely unaware of it. The actress who plays Melissa is equally bland, pretty but still bland. Between these two will pass numerous uncomfortable pauses. And when I mean pauses, I mean P... A... U... S... E... S... This is another one of those movies where you get the feeling the filmmakers didn't have enough material to make it a feature-length, so they compensated by putting long, slow pauses. Now mind you, pauses work when done right. Anton Chekov made a ton of plays using the pause to enhance meaning. The problem is when there's too much of a pause, it loses meaning. Not to mention, considering Jodie and Melissa are supposed to be budding lovers, it seems odd that they still share so many uncomfortably long pauses. The acting gets slightly better with the supporting cast. My personal favorite is the actress playing the witch/sister/great grandmother (depending on who's telling the story) Lucinda. When she flips out, it's convincing and startling. Good make-up too! In fact, that is the best feature about the film: killer witch/ sister/ great grandmother! Getting back to the love story, it's just as uneven as the rest of this film. Having just met Melissa, Jodie automatically agrees to stay for a few days with her creepy family. He's completely oblivious to their "less-than-welcoming" mood. As the movie goes on, we learn that Melissa is thought of as a witch in town. What follows is some of the blandest events to unfold. You get the feeling that there is a demonic force going on, but the pace needs to be ramped up! The ending is eerie, though it still seems out-of-place considering that the relationship between Jodie and Melissa doesn't appear to be that serious. Throughout the film, it's obvious there is no real chemistry between the two actors and it makes their relationship seem forced. Oh, did I mention the laughable dialogue? My favorite is when Melissa stops by a pond and says "This is where the fish lives." Huh, the fish? Just the fish? Just one fish? What does that have to do with anything?! And why, oh why, did they have "Amazing Grace" play at least three times in this movie? Public domain? The overall problem is that there is a decent and scary little witch movie buried within. Unfortunately, it's so buried underneath ho-hum acting, poorly paced scenes, and those god-awful pauses that it isn't scary. Could you imagine if they remade this nowadays? Here's one movie I wouldn't mind seeing the studios remake!

This movie just sounds too plain awful. I can't even imagine seeing this film un-Mystified right before my eyes. And what I mean by that is watching it without the ultimate "Mystery Science Theater 3000" treatment this movie deserves. I've seen some "Mystery Science Theater 3000" episodes in my life, and believe me, watching most of these movies as originally intended (as in a theater, of course) would give be permanent depression! And this would most likely include this movie, too! So if you happen to come upon "The Touch of Satan," do yourself and your mind a favor: watch it with Mike and the Bots, will you, please? I've never seen it, but I know I'll do that!

(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.

A young man (Michael Berry) on a cross-country trip to California stops one day to have a little lunch and meets a beautiful but highly suspicious farm girl (Emby Mellay) in "The Touch of Satan", one of the very worst movies ever put on celluloid. Naturally Mellay is not what she seems, she is really a 120-year-old witch who sold her soul to save her sister as she was being burned at the stake by an angry mob that believed she herself was a witch. Mellay makes a deal with Satan to save her sister, but pays her soul in return. Rumors around the spooky town come up and the suspense builds for Berry, but in the end will he try to destroy the curse or will he lose his soul as his love (or lust really) grows for Mellay? Whacked situations, a squeaky soundtrack, sophomoric performances, bargain-basement visual effects and a crummy script make this production one you should avoid unless you like those movies with camp value. I don't. Turkey (0 stars out of 5).