By MICHAEL GINGOLD
The sequel to the sequel is coming later this month, complete with barf bag.
Indie filmmaker Jason Paul Collum gave us the first word and images from MARK OF THE DEVIL 777: THE MORALIST, PART 2, the follow-up to his 1995 camcorder flick MARK OF THE DEVIL 666: THE MORALIST, itself an unofficial sequel to the 1970 cult fave MARK OF THE DEVIL. Karen Dilloo, Aurelia Despin, Darcey Vanderhoef, Tina Ona Paukstelis and Mick Wynhoff star, with appearances by classic scream starlets Brinke Stevens and Michelle Bauer. The synopsis: “The story brings back survivor Meredith O’Brien [Dilloo], whose teen daughter [Despin] and a group of people who had previously survived assaults in their lives are marked by a group of bumbling Satanists to be sacrifices in an attempt to raise the devil.”
The movie will hit Blu-ray and DVD December 20 via MakeFlix (to also be released through Amazon.com), with special features including trailers, a photo gallery, a making-of featurette and a director introduction, plus a liner notes card. In addition, as a homage to the ’70 MARK OF THE DEVIL, each disc will come with a branded vomit bag. “I’m hoping to satiate gore fans with some effects that are disturbing, and others that are ridiculous,” Collum, seen in the third photo below with Dilloo, says. “Hopefully there are a few shots where that bag might come in handy.”
MARK OF THE DEVIL 777, he continues, “was essentially done on a dare. It came during the pandemic. One reviewer said my movies aren’t ‘B-movies’ because they’re ‘not stupid or campy and don’t have enough blood and boobs,’ while another opined I wouldn’t know how to make a no-budget camcorder movie like the ones I began my career with, because I’m now ‘too spoiled’ with ‘budgets’ for everything that followed [his 2004 documentary] SOMETHING TO SCREAM ABOUT. I needed something to film during the COVID lockdown, where I could shoot in limited spaces without many actors or crew in those spaces–so I decided, ‘Challenge accepted.’”
Collum shot and edited the movie on an iPhone SE over five non-consecutive days in early 2021, homaging the shot-on-video grassroots fright flicks of the 1980s and ’90s. “It largely pays homage to the campy, cheesy dialogue, acting, gore effects and zaniness found in some of those out-of-control movies like VIDEO VIOLENCE 1 and 2, 555, SPLATTER FARM, OZONE, THE RIPPER and my own features, like 5 DARK SOULS and obviously MARK OF THE DEVIL 666, which was my first full-length movie.” Collum released the latter on DVD in 2020, and was surprised by the positive response. “I figured, if that less-than-stellar movie can find a fanbase, maybe there’s room for one more. Only this time I’m going to have fun with it.”
He also went back to the short films he made during high school and college in the ’80s and ’90s, using excerpts to represent the past attacks on the movie’s characters and using the same actors in the present-day scenes. “I figure it will add some authenticity to the events that follow these victims,” he says.
