DVD Corner

Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Touch Of Satan DVD Review

For the most part, “The Touch Of Satan” is spellbindingly funny.

While Pearl Forrester is on vacation, Bobo and Brain Guy have the unfortunate luck of being stuck with a babysitter (Steffi). Equally unfortunate is the fact that Mike, Tom and Crow are still forced to watch a bad movie which is, in this case, the dopey 1971 horror flick “The Touch Of Satan”.

‘Satan’ is a cheesy feature film that revolves around a traveling Davis Spade look alike character named Jodie who stops off in a small town on his way to San Francisco. While eating lunch by a pond in the town, he encounters an odd woman named Melissa who spouts such laughable dialogue as “This is where the fish lives”. As he spends more time around Melissa on her family’s farm, he starts to fall for her. Little does he know, however, that Melissa’s family isn’t exactly normal. Her burned face “great grandmother” (Lucinda) is actually a killer and Melissa herself may be harboring a dark secret.

The first half of “The Touch Of Satan” starts out with an abundance of laughs as Mike and the bots crack jokes about cows, the out of place score, Oliver Hardy, the slow pace, the “Za!” scene, and the incredibly long pauses in between dialogue. Even the host segments involving a walnut farm and a killer granny Servo provide plenty of laughs. As the film drags on, however, the film becomes a little more serious in tone thereby not offering as many memorable riffing moments. With that said, this is still an enjoyable episode from the Sci-Fi era that is well worth owning for those that didn’t get a chance to pick up the now out-of-print MST3K volume 5 set from Rhino.

Video/Audio:

The picture quality for the host segments is as good as it gets (for DVD), while the print for “The Touch Of Satan” is riddled with scratches, faded colors, and lines. It’s in poor shape, but it’s not one of the worst prints that have been seen on “Mystery Science Theater 3000”.

As for the audio track, the riffing and host segments sound fine, but the audio of ‘Satan’ isn’t exactly high quality. The dialogue is audible enough to hear, but it sounds a bit quiet.

Sadly, no extras have been included on this disc.

Note: “The Atomic Brain” and “The Touch Of Satan” are available to purchase on http://www.shoutfactory.com

November 6, 2011 - Posted by nicklyons1 | DVD review | Mike Nelson, MST3K: The Touch Of Satan DVD Review, Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Touch Of Satan DVD Review, Shout! Factory