The Blood on Satan's Claw (Devil's Advocates)

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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. 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. This book is a novelisation of the classic folk-horror film, 'The Blood on Satan's Claw' written fifty years later by the original screen play writer. If you've seen the film then you're probably the target audience for this and it's fun reading along waiting for all the bits you remember from the film to crop up and the novel does expand on the film in quite a few ways to give the reader a little more context. To many, the plot of this audio drama may seem like an old tired storyline, but keep in mind when this was originally written for the screenplay there wasn’t much like this. In many ways, while not the first film considered to fall under the folk horror banner, the original Blood on Satan’s Claw was one of the most influential. As I discussed in my review of a recent documentary on the genre, most horror movies do nothing for me anymore. I don’t find that slasher films have aged well, and “jump scare movies” are nearly unwatchable and boring. I’ll take a good story of modernity vs tradition over any of that because sometimes ancient evils once thought stamped out are more “scary” than a loud noise or a flashing light.

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. 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.

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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. 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.

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. Blood on Satan’s Claw reigns as one of the Unholy Trinity films of the folk-horror genre, and for good reason. It engraved the genre’s key components in stone for all who wanted to wander its forbidden and supernatural powers that continue to terrorize audiences 50 years after its release. Unlike the fictional creatures and growling monsters, the movie reveals the evil existent in humanity. Now that is terrifying. With the younger cast, Haggard dedicated two weeks prior to the shoot to hold rehearsals. [12] Filming [ edit ] The ruined Saint James Church in Bix Bottom was the setting for some of the film's most dramatic sequences

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.

Ungrateful Bastard: Margaret is chased by a mob of hysterical villagers, believing her to be a witch, and is nearly drowned. Ralph saves her, but she shows absolutely no gratitude, revealing that she actually is a witch. Body Horror: Let's just say that the Red Right Hand borne by those infected with Satan's skin isn't pretty.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]

The Farmer and the Viper: Ralph and Margaret. What, you thought saving her from a Witch Hunt and giving her a shot at redemption might have inspired a Heel–Face Turn, or perhaps led to a Rescue Romance? The most gratitude he gets is an offer of sex if he agrees to flee to the coven she fully intends to rejoin. Related: Harvest Home : The 1973 Pagan Horror Classic that Laid the Groundwork for Stephen King's "Children of the Corn" The Blood on Satan’s Claw (released originally in the UK under the title of Satan's Skin) is a 1971 English Folk Horror/ Religious Horror movie released by Tigon British Film Productions and directed by Piers Haggard. 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.Deighan, Samm (3 June 2013). "Blood on Satan's Claw (Blu-ray Review)". Diabolique Magazine. Archived from the original on 19 September 2021. The story is a rare example of diving headlong into the action done right. It spends little time establishing the status quo prior to its disruption, but instead gives a general impression of what it might have been prior to the supernatural horrors which stalk the land. While in many cases this could have been abrupt, the audio drama uses a strong cast and a building sense of dread to hook the listener very early on.