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. 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. Blood on Satan’s Claw director Piers Haggard told Mark Gatiss in the 2010 BBC documentary A History of Horror that he was not aware of the new cinematic terrain he was breaking into in 1971—a genre of English landscapes and witchcraft that reflected the era’s interest in satanism and cults. He showed the vicious things that occurred in beautiful places and how nature was a weapon used to enhance horror. Supernatural and violent endings were the last drops of blood on the dagger that took a stab at the horror genre. “I wasn’t really interested in Dracula,” Haggard recalled. “But I was interested in the dark things that people feel and the dark things that happen, and that’s what I wanted to explore.” I'm partial to these rural horror stories about communities collectively engaging with the devil, but not necessarily when they take the premise so straightforwardly as this. This audio drama has a very nice soundscape and better acting than most audiobooks, and on a scene to scene level the writing is good enough. The problem is that overall, despite the witchy trappings, it has the mentality of a very unimaginative slasher movie. The devil possesses practically all of the kids in town almost immediately, and the middle 80% is just a sequence of the same "kid getting murdered" scene playing out over and over again without much escalation or character building or mythology to build a more interesting context for them to fit into. It relies heavily on familiar tropes to get right into its business and get right out of it as soon as it's time to stop, without any particular narrative tissue in between. Moreover, while there are some kind of neat touches, a lot of the specific expression of the devil is either boring, problematic, or just dull. My favorite part about the community aspect of these stories is that the devil gets to be a social lever exploiting internal conflicts and prejudices, and this devil has exactly 0 of that subtlety or charisma. Flower curtains open as the sun rises at noon, and people with animal masks prey upon trespassers as spring makes way to summer. There is blood dripping like strawberry jam on your fingers and the group chants to honor your work. That, my friends, is folk horror—bloody and ritualistic terror thriving by day.

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. Hot for Preacher: Angel Blake bares her naked body to the Reverend Fallowfield. She doesn't take kindly to him turning her down. 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.

Director Piers Haggard was hired to direct the project, and worked with Wynne-Simmons to retool the screenplay from its anthology format to a singular, cohesive narrative. [11] Summarizing the screenplay, Haggard commented in 2003: 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.” 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. 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. Interplay of Sex and Violence: Angel looks entranced by Cathy's rape, flaying, and murder, but Margaret is very clearly getting off on it.

The obsession with British landscapes, superstitions, and the occult were the initial steps to the rebirth of folk horror as we have seen with recent movies, such as The Witch (2015) and Midsommar (2019). Blood on Satan’s Claw sparked the resurgence of old customs and beliefs, the supernatural, and violent events that could take place in the daylight. Fifty years later, it has earned the respect of horror fans, and it has scared viewers with its non-fiction plot that exists in the world.This digital audio exclusive stars Mark Gatiss and Reece Shearsmith, alongside the original film's Angel Blake, Linda Hayden. Gatiss and Shearsmith are both huge fans of the original film, even recording a commentary for the DVD release.