The Touch of Satan 1971

In a quiet rural setting, a farmer is murdered by an elderly woman with a burned face, an act that unsettles the local family and raises eerie questions about a violent history they’d rather forget. The scene centers on an older couple and a young woman as they argue about how to handle the aftermath, dropping vague references that the elderly woman may have harmed others in the past. The tension lingers, hinting at a long shadow of cruelty that won’t be easily explained away.

The story then follows a new traveler, Jodie [Michael Berry], a young man on an open-ended cross‑country trip to figure out whether he will follow in his father’s footsteps and practice law. He stops at a tranquil pond for lunch, where he meets Melissa [Emby Mellay], a teenage girl connected to the earlier scene. She persuades him to visit her family on their walnut farm, a suggestion that unsettles her parents but piques Jodie’s curiosity. The newly formed attraction between them grows quickly, even as the ominous presence of the elderly woman keeps cropping up in the background, and unsettling clues begin to accumulate.

As the courtship deepens, Melissa reveals a breathtaking and terrifying truth: she is a 127-year-old witch, and she is the birth sister of the elderly insane woman. Melissa has even hinted to Jodie that he might be speaking to her great-grandmother, a claim that strains credulity and tests Jodie’s willingness to believe the impossible. The two become closer, and their bond intensifies despite the ominous aura around Melissa and the strange dramas unfolding on the walnut farm.

The danger comes to a head when the elderly woman murders a deputy in plain sight of Jodie. In the midst of the shock, Melissa confesses that she is cursed and possessed by a malevolent force, a force she names as Satan. Jodie is initially skeptical, and his disbelief stands as a barrier to confronting the terrifying truth surrounding Melissa and her family.

A dream-sequence narrative later unfolds, revealing the origin of the curse: Melissa’s sister was burned at the stake by an angry mob in the 19th century. To save her sister from this fate, Melissa offered her soul to Satan in exchange for power and eternal life. The price of that bargain becomes clear over time, as Melissa is granted youth and longevity at the cost of a chilling, perpetual connection to darkness.

When the old woman makes another lethal move toward Jodie, Melissa uses her supernatural abilities to intervene, and the sister meets her end in a fire she herself had started. After this confrontation, Jodie begins to trust in Melissa’s truth and the two share an intimate moment that seems to lift some of the curse’s chill from Melissa. Yet this apparent freedom is short-lived: Melissa ages instantly to her true, youthful age, and Jodie is forced to make a grim choice. To restore Melissa’s youth and secure her life, he must sell his own soul to Satan.

The finale leaves viewers with a haunting realization: both characters are bound to Satan, and Melissa’s desperate bid to save herself has ensnared Jodie in the same dark contract. The relationship, built on fear, love, and a supernatural bargain, closes with the acknowledgment that their fates are intertwined in a perpetual, ominous pact.