TOUCH OF SATAN-1971-In a pre-credit sequence a deformed old lady (Jeanne Gerson) kills a rural police officer. Later a guy named Jodie (Michael Berry) is traveling to California when he turns into a road and stops to eat his lunch by a lake. There he meets Melissa (Emby Mellay in her only movie). She talks about her father's walnut farm and then invites Jodie for dinner. Her parents don't exactly seem enthused to see him and talk mysteriously about what Melissa can and can't do. When Jodie agrees to stay the night he meets grandma Lucinda, the same disfigured old lady from before who clutches a doll and mumbles a lot. When Jodie and Melissa go to town for groceries and get a cold reception from some fellow shoppers, Melissa says it's because she's a witch!
Flashbacks (featuring perennial hillbilly Robert Easton) reveal the truth. In the 1870's Melissa made a pact with the devil to save her sister (the deformed old hag Lucinda) from being burned at the stake. When Lucinda kills another cop things kind of get weird for Jodie who refuses to believe the story. He finds out the truth in the twist finale.
This is a pretty low budget outing but I kind of liked it. It's full of unanswered questions and strange dialogue (like Melissa suddenly saying "This is where the fish lives" while looking at the lake) and although it's mostly talk it doesn't really drag as the running time is fairly short.
Director Don Henderson also made THE BABYSITTER and WEEKEND WITH THE BABYSITTER. The old age make-up was provided by Joe Blasco who later did early Cronenberg and ILSA movies.
I'm not sure if it's available on DVD but Mystery Science Theater has used it, where a lot of people learned about it. I first saw it on late night TV in the early '80's.
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