‘A chill-filled festival of horror!’
The Blood on Satan’s Claw is a British supernatural horror film in which the children of a village slowly convert into a coven of devil worshipers.
Directed by Piers Haggard (Quatermass TV serial [1979]; Venom [1981]) from a screenplay written by Robert Wynne-Simmons, with additional material by Haggard. Released in January 1971, it was promoted as Blood on Satan’s Claw and was also issued in the US as Satan’s Skin.
The 1970 Tigon British Films Productions movie stars Patrick Wymark, Linda Hayden, Barry Andrews, and Michele Dotrice.
Plot:
In early 18th-century England, Ralph Gower (Barry Andrews) uncovers a deformed skull with one eye and strange fur on it while ploughing a field. Ralph insists that the local judge (Patrick Wymark) look at it, but the skull has vanished and the judge disregards Ralph’s supernatural fears.
Later, many people in the village become affected by its supernatural power, including a young woman (Tamara Ustinov) who sprouts a claw, and children who find a strange claw and then behave oddly and grow patches of fur on their bodies.
Peter Edmonton (Simon Williams) rides to a neighbouring town to find the judge and bring him back to eradicate the evil. After doing some research in a book about witchcraft, the judge returns. The judge learns that the evil children in the village will gather nearby…
Our review:
This seminal British folk horror film is in many ways an unofficial follow-up to the same producers’ 1968 classic Witchfinder General, which had delivered a slap in the face to cosy Hammer horror and influenced several similarly-themed films at the time (amongst them Mark of the Devil; Cry of the Banshee and The Bloody Judge).
Like Witchfinder, The Blood on Satan’s Claw is a rural tale of witchcraft and corruption, but whilst Michael Reeves’ earlier film had shown the brutality of witch-hunts where innocents were tortured and murdered, this film has a more overtly supernatural slant.
The plot skillfully interweaves a few different tales, all taking place in a small country village during the 17th century after discovering a skull, with eyeballs intact, in a local field. The Devil is soon at work, corrupting the local children (led by popular exploitation queen Linda Hayden) who eagerly take to sexcapades and even murder before the local magistrate (Patrick Wymark) finally arrives to put an end to the satanic influence.
The Blood on Satan’s Claw still looks fresh today, thanks to authentic locations and a series of images which still have the power to shock. Performances are generally excellent, with Linda Hayden excelling as the seductive Angel Blake. Her full-frontal scene in the church remains one of British horror’s most unnervingly sensual moments. This is a unique movie to savour with some deliciously ripe dialogue (“I scarce can tell it, I was so afeared”).
David Flint, MOVIES & MANIA – Visit David’s uncompromising website Desperate Living, for more rabid reviews
Choice dialogue:
Ralph Gower: “But it weren’t human, sir, there were fur!”
The Judge: “So, young man. Beware the wiles of women.”
The Judge: “Witchcraft is dead! And discredited! Are you bent on reviving forgotten horrors?”
Cast and characters:
Patrick Wymark … The Judge
Linda Hayden … Angel Blake
Barry Andrews … Ralph Gower
Michele Dotrice .. Margaret
Wendy Padbury … Cathy Vespers
Anthony Ainley … Reverend Fallowfield
Charlotte Mitchell … Ellen
Tamara Ustinov … Rosalind Barton
Simon Williams … Peter Edmonton
James Hayter … Squire Middleton
Howard Goorney … The Doctor
Avice Landone … Isobel Banham (as Avice Landon)
Robin Davies … Mark Vespers
Peter Ardran … The Devil
John Ash … Coven member
Peter Avella … Villager
John Clifford … Villager
Les Conrad … Villager
Maxwell Craig … Villager
Bill Cummings … Villager
Harry Fielder … Militiaman
Denis Gilmore … Red haired coven member
Hilda Green … Villager
Bill Hemmings … Villager
Geoffrey Hughes … Drinking villager
Godfrey James Mr Blake – Angel’s Father
Eric Mason … Villager
David Mayberry … Coven member
Andrew McCulloch … Villager
Derrick O’Connor … Member of mob chasing Margaret
Yvonne Paul … Dancing girl
Dinny Powell … Gravedigger/militiaman
Milton Reid … Dog handler
Jill Riddick … Coven member
Lesley Roach … Village girl
Zuleika Robson … Coven member
Jack Sharp … Villager
Roberta Tovey … Ann – coven member
John Trayhorn … Village boy
Joseph Tregonino … Villager
Jason Twelvetrees … Ned Carter – woodsman
Anna Wing … Villager
Technical specs:
1 hour 37 minutes
Eastmancolor
Aspect ratio: 1.85: 1
Audio: Mono
Filming locations:
St James’s old church, Bix Bottom, Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire (the worshippers’ meeting place)
Bix Bottom Valley, Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire, England
St Mary the Virgin, Hurley, Maidenhead, Berkshire (The funeral of Mark)
Pages Farm, Bix, Henley-On-Thames, Oxfordshire (The farmhouse)
Black Park Lake, Black Park Country Park, Black Park Road, Wexham, Slough, Buckinghamshire, England (Margaret is thrown into the water as a witch)
Warburg Nature Reserve, Bix Bottom, Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire (woodland scenes
Mill Wood, Long Hanborough, Witney, Oxfordshire, England (Angel avoids man traps)
Pinewood Studios, Pinewood Road, Iver Heath, Iver, Buckinghamshire, England
Offline reading:
Beasts in the Cellar: The Exploitation Film Career of Tony Tenser by John Hamilton, FAB Press
Buy Beasts in the Cellar: Amazon.co.uk
Censorship:
Chiltern Films Ltd. submitted The Blood on Satan’s Claw to the BBFC on 21 September 1970. Cuts were required to receive an ‘X’ certificate. These were restored in 2003.
Goofs:
Co-production company Tigon is misspelt as ‘Tigron’ on the credits!
In 1970, the heady, carefree days of the sixties were already a distant memory in the horror film world; British horror, in particular, took on a distinctly sideways glance at life and history, what was considered twee, naive and inconsequential was now dark, mysterious and cursed. Piers Haggard’s The Blood on Satan’s Claw – also known as Satan’s Skin – followed quickly on from the sentiments and pastoral bleakness of Witchfinder General, both exercises in the futility of Man against nature and fate.
The soundtrack to The Blood on Satan’s Claw was composed by French-born Australian Marc Wilkinson, already having made a name for himself a couple of years earlier with his score to Lindsay Anderson’s If… On the surface, his score for ‘Claw’ is exactly as you’d expect [though much lovelier] – gentle drifts of woozy woodwind and the early electronic instrument, the ondes martenot. However, the sound of ‘Claw’ features something far more sinister, something that elevates it, perhaps, to be the most horrible of all horror soundtracks.
Since the earliest of times, music has moved humankind and featured heavily in all aspects of divinity and worship. By the 11th Century, great importance was placed upon sacred music and the meanings of melodies and methods of creating it. Following along this train of thought, there was also that which was forbidden; primary amongst these was the ‘tritone’ – a musical interval which spans three whole tones – perhaps what we would write today as C and F# or as augmented fourths or diminished fifths.
Tritone:
The sound is one of dissonance – not unpleasurably, as it may suggest but neck-twistingly alluring and intriguing. Indeed, the theory behind the banning of such a creation by the Church was that it may take the singers, players or listeners of such a sound closer than Man may ever be to God…or otherwise. It was called ‘Diabolus in Musica’; ‘the Devil’s music’ or ‘the Devil’s chord’.
Though shunned and reviled in the Middle Ages – the earliest references go back to the 9th Century – there was enough fear and suspicion around it that torture would be employed against practitioners in some instances, even by the 18th Century it was being used with dubious dedication – baroque composer and violinist Giuseppe Tartini’s most famous work, the notoriously difficult to play ‘Devil’s Trill Sonata’ was explained by the composer as having being taught to him by Satan himself. Tartini’s rumoured six-fingered hand was a possible explanation as to his proficiency in playing it; the tritone made a big return in the 19th Century, used almost exclusively to create a feeling of foreboding and overriding evil; Richard Wagner and Camille Saint-Saens were fond of utilising it. Though now not banned in any sense, the effect it had was still to unsettle any audience.
Wilkinson’s use in his score uses a descending chromatic scale as the main theme – this was nothing new, as previously seen, a descending scale had been used since the earliest horror scores to signify a descent into musical and visual Hell. Wilkinson’s trick was to omit the perfect fifth, the one-note needed to create stability to the scale; in turn, this highlighted the diminished fifth – it sounds wrong as if you’ve missed a step whilst walking down the stairs or your finger has hit the wrong key at the end of typing a word. There’s something incomplete about it, something fundamentally at odds with what we have been attuned to accept…and yet, it’s perfect.
The Devil’s Interval is used in popular culture regularly now; everything from The Simpsons’ theme tune to Black Sabbath’s self-titled song employs it but ‘Claw’ stands as one of the most poignant. A perfect marriage of the conventional and the dysfunctional, there could scarcely be a better backing to any film, than Linda Hayden’s lascivious minx versus Patrick Wymark’s Puritan fear, all wrapped up in a curious, entrancing yet truly damned score. Bravo, Satan.
Daz Lawrence, MOVIES & MANIA
The sold-out soundtrack CD is still available to buy from some Amazon.co.uk resellers
Blood on Satan’s Claw is a 2018 British audio adaptation of the 1970 film of nearly the same name by novelist Mark Morris (Cinema Macabre; Doctor Who). The Bafflegab Productions release is available on a CD or digital download.
17th 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 deep to play their pernicious games.
Hysteria spreads as it becomes clear that the Devil has come to Hexbridge, to incarnate himself on earth. Can the villagers, led by Squire Middleton (Mark Gatiss) and Reverend Fallowfield (Reece Shearsmith), prevent the Devil from gaining human form?
Starring the voices of Mark Gatiss (Sherlock), Reece Shearsmith (Inside No. 9), Alice Lowe (Prevenge), John Heffernan (Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell), Ralph Ineson (The Witch), Thomas Turgoose (This is England), Rebecca Ryan (Shameless), Philip Hill-Pearson (Good Cop) and Linda Hayden (Angel Blake in the original movie).
Recommended external reviews:
British Horror Films
Dark Corners [YouTube]
Deep Focus
Ferdy on Films
Grumpy Andrew’s Horror House [YouTube]
