Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: Behemoth is killed rather swiftly with a pitchfork. However, it remains unknown if he'll actually stay dead. The story carefully balances a sense of desolation with moments of violence as supernatural elements slowly creep into the tale. While gradual at first, it cleverly works to show only so much of what’s going on, unveiling it as the devil begins to move more openly. The excellent sound design and voice acting is really what helps to convey the story’s atmospheric strength, and the script knows when let them take the heavy lifting when it comes to drama. Between this and the excellent sound effects, it manages to outshine its source material in moments of true terror. Put on a Bus: Rosalind is placed in a bedlam after nearly killing Isobel; Isobel is wounded and treated, but never shown again. Similarly, Peter doesn’t make any more appearances after he warns the judge about the coven.

In The Blood on Satan’s Claw’s most notorious scene, Mark’s sister Cathy (played by Wendy Padbury, who was known to TV viewers of the time as an earlier companion character, Zoe Heriot, in the BBC’s long-running sci-fi show Doctor Who) is lured away by some teenage boys to play a game. She is then held down by several teenagers and raped, before being killed with shears by Angel Blake. In a rural village in early 18th-century England, farmer Ralph Gower uncovers a deformed skull with one intact eye and strange fur. He insists that the local judge looks at it, but it mysteriously vanishes. The judge disregards the incident, crediting it to Ralph's superstitious fears. Meanwhile, Peter Edmonton brings his fiancee, Rosalind Barton, to meet his aunt, Mistress Banham, with whom the judge is staying. Mistress Banham and the judge disapprove of the match and arrange for Rosalind to sleep in a disused attic room. Rosalind begins screaming during the night and injures Banham when she investigates, causing her to fall mysteriously ill.Hamilton, John (2005). Beasts in the Cellar: The Exploitation Film Career of Tony Tenser. London: FAB Press. ISBN 978-1-903-25426-4. Card-Carrying Villain: Margaret identifies herself as "the devil's child", and Angel's other minions aren't much more subtle about their dark allegiance. Angel herself maintains an ingenuous charade. The story and its themes are stereotypical binary folklore: women are both more mystical and thus more prone to evil or darkness; men represent civilization, rational thinking and authority; Christianity must prevail against an ancient pre-Christian evil. It's still a weird and engaging story, just rooted in traditional tropes.

Undying Loyalty: Margaret, to Angel. Even after the latter leaves her in a bear trap to be torn apart by dogs. Seventeenth-century England, and a plough uncovers a grisly skull in the furrows of a farmer’s field. The skull disappears, but its malefic influence begins to work in insidious ways upon the nearby village of Hexbridge. First, the cows stop milking and the fruit turns rotten on the trees. Then, an insolent ungodliness takes hold of the local children, mysterious fur patches appear on limbs and people start disappearing….Something evil is stirring in the woods. Something that is corrupting the village youth, who retreat to the woodland deeps to play their pernicious games. Hysteria spreads as it becomes clear that the devil has come to Hexbridge, to incarnate himself on earth. Consequently, the film’s depiction of witchcraft is also complicated: on the one hand, the film never shies away from depicting the cruel and evil actions carried out by the coven, including the rape and murder of sacrificial victims from outside the community. At the same time, the film avoids presenting the coven as made up entirely of fundamentally evil people and instead offers some implicit explanation for why so many members of the community–particularly young people–find the movement so appealing. Evans-Powell, David (2021). The Blood on Satan's Claw. Devils Advocates. Liverpool: Auteur Publishing. ISBN 978-1-800-34806-6.Bait the Dog: Margaret is rescued from drowning by Ralph, then taken in by his family and sheared of the mark of the beast. But she rejects his offer of redemptive kinship, tempts him to the coven with promises of sex, and is ultimately compelled to cooperate purely through fear. Several of the younger cast members, particularly Hayden, Ustinov, and Richard Williams, recalled that Haggard's direction was concise and that the shoot operated smoothly. [18] Please Put Some Clothes On: Reverend Fallowfield, though obviously tempted by the sight of Angel Blake disrobing in front of him, averts his gaze and begs her to cover herself up. She is disinclined to comply.

a b c d Simpson, Michael (2003). "Piers Haggard interview". MJSimpson.co.uk. Archived from the original on 2 May 2013. The 1960s witnessed the rise of Satanism as Anton LaVey founded the first Church of Satan, and Alexander Sanders founded the tradition of Alexandrian Wicca in Europe. The occult was a freedom from religion and an openness of the unknown, power, sex, and witchcraft. “I was trying to make a folk horror in a way because we are all a bit interested in witchcraft, we were all a bit interested in free love,” said Haggard. "The rules of the cinema were changing and nudity became possible; over prevalent because the lid had slightly been taken off.” Anthony Ainley, who plays a curate who Linda Hayden's character attempted to seduce, once said in an interview, "When it came to doing the nude scene where Angel comes into the rectory at night and disrobes this was done at least three times and Linda was spot on with every take...she was a total professional with a refined sense of the erotic unusual for her age...I believe she was only 17 at the time." [22] Musical score [ edit ]Kill the Cutie: Poor Cathy is led to the coven’s meeting place, where she is brutally raped and partially flayed. Folk horror of the early ‘70s sits in a special place in film history. Sitting at the crossroads between classic Hammer and the golden age of the slasher film, they are a unique entity which does not fit into the definitions of popular genres. In the case of Blood on Satan’s Claw, while it failed financially these unique qualities earned it a very devoted cult audience. Two of who just happened to be Mark Gatiss and Mark Morris. This adaptation couldn’t have been in safer hands. The discovery of a skull buried in a field begins the horror that befalls the rural community of Chapel Folding. To me, this recording most resembles a 1970s Hammer horror movie -- the vauge setting, the overblown language, and rather silly plot. However, it worked then -- goodness knows how -- and it works now, with the added bonus of nostalgia. Guaranteed to make you unsettled every time you go past a hedgerow in the British countryside, The Blood on Satan’s Claw is a great introduction to folk horror.

Whilst the atrocity of rape had been featured in films before, such as Ingmar Bergman’s The Virgin Spring (Sweden, 1960) (a film which would influence the 1970’s horror subgenre of rape-revenge movies like The Last House on the Left (US, Wes Craven, 1972) and I Spit on Your Grave (US, Meir Zarchi, 1978)), and was implied in earlier horror films such as Hammer’s The Curse of the Werewolf (UK, Terence Fisher, 1961) and Tigon’s Witchfinder General, The Blood on Satan’s Claw depicted the crime unrelentingly. Also a Tigon film, neither The Blood on Satan’s Claw nor Witchfinder General share the camp gothic or fun entertainment value of Hammer’s output; they are dark, heavy films, and their sexual elements are likewise not the titillating bodice-heaving of Hammer horror. Cathy’s grim fate is watched by leering, aroused kids and also, unsettlingly, a pair of gleeful old folk. We the viewers are made to feel like voyeurs to this cruel event, and it feels disturbing. It is meant to feel disturbing – that is the whole point. As always with Audible productions, the sound engineering is excellent, with convincing sound effects and fitting music. The voice acting is Hammer-like -- melodramatic and overstated. I presume this is intentional. The plot, well -- Hammer again; nothing we haven't heard or seen a dozen times before. Big Bad: Behemoth, the demon responsible for corrupting the town, although he works primarily through his high priestess, Angel Blake, who is treated as this by the peasants unaware of the fiend behind her. Ignore the Fanservice: Reverend Fallowfield refuses to be tempted by Angel’s nakedness, much to her disappointment. Ralph has a moment like this later on, when a naked woman dances in front of him during the assault on the coven, although he's a little more enticed than the reverend. Seventeenth-century England, and a plough uncovers a grisly skull in the furrows of a farmer's field. The skull disappears, but its malefic influence begins to work in insidious ways upon the nearby village of Hexbridge. First, the cows stop milking and the fruit turns rotten on the trees. Then, an insolent ungodliness takes hold of the local children, mysterious fur patches appear on limbs and people start disappearing....Written by the film’s original screenwriter Robert Wynne-Simmons and featuring haunting new illustrations from Richard Wells, it is an atmospheric and defining cult classic in the making.