The Blood on Satan's Claw (1971)
Directed by Piers Haggard

Film Review

It was a burgeoning interest in the Occult in the late 1960s that led the small independent British film production company Tigon to notch up its first notable hit with Witchfinder General (1968), an idiosyncratic period piece that is now widely acknowledged as a classic in the Occult horror genre.  The same year saw the release of two other satanically themed chillers - The Devil Rides Out (1968) and Rosemary's Baby (1968) - and these two films would end up being recycled (with elements lifted from Arthur Miller's The Crucible and Tigon's previous foray with Civil War era witchcraft) as The Blood on Satan's Claw.  (In between these two films, Tigon also made Curse of the Crimson Altar (1968), a far less successful Occult offering that is now all but forgotten).  The film was not a great commercial success and helped to hasten Tigon's demise, but it has since acquired a cult following and can justify its inclusion in the Pantheon of British horror classics by the mere fact that there is - literally - nothing like it.

Thanks mainly to its imaginative camerawork and a score that is relentlessly eerie, The Blood on Satan's Claw succeeds in recreating the distinctive satanically charged atmosphere of Witchfinder General, and even surpasses it in a few scenes of genuine blood-curdling terror.  This was one of a small handful of films directed for the cinema by Piers Haggard, who devoted virtually of his career to television and is perhaps best known for the sci-fi mini-series Quatermass (1979).  Haggard and his talented cinematographer Dick Bush perform wonders with the film's derisory eighty thousand pound budget, and there is scarcely a scene in the film that is not filled to the brim with spine-tingling menace and a sense that something unutterably horrible is gradually coming into focus.  Unfortunately, their efforts are somewhat undermined by a script that is - quite frankly - appalling.

The script's failings stem from the fact that the film was originally intended as an anthology (in the popular Amicus mould), consisting of three linked witchcraft-themed short films.  Not long before the film went into production, its producers dispensed with the anthology idea and writer Robert Wynne-Simmons was tasked with weaving his three disconnected stories into a single coherent narrative, something that he fails spectacularly to do.  The result is a disjointed, ramshackle storyline in which no character is convincingly developed and which fails to deliver a satisfying climax, although there are sufficient imaginative twists and full-bodied horror kicks on the way to make up for this.  Had more care and attention been lavished on the script, The Blood on Satan's Claw could well have been one of the finest horror films to come out of a British film studio, instead of one that is of minority interest, enjoyed by devoted fans who are willing to overlook its multiple shortcomings for the visceral shock of seeing dear little Wendy Padbury raped and butchered in the most gruesome of satanic rituals (therapy no doubt for an actress keen to move on from Crossroads and Doctor Who).

Low budget horror films by and large stand or fall according to the quality of the performances.  Hammer, Amicus and their American counterpart AIP all succeeded in the horror genre because they could rely upon a pool of immensely talented actors to sell their own particular brand of gore-garnished schlock to an American and British public.  Likewise, the main redeeming feature of The Blood on Satan's Claw is a well-chosen cast of performers who, undeterred by the most risible dialogue, each brings a frightening realism to their character's predicament.  Padbury's slaughter is so terrifying because the actress makes it so harrowingly convincing, but Patrick Wymark is no less authentic as the enlightened judge who is forced to accept the terrible truth that the Occult is a real phenomenon, not merely superstitious delusion.  James Hayter's character may be unbelievably thick (how stupidly he swallows a satanically possessed girl's denouncement of the local vicar Anthony Ainley, even if he does look and act like the Devil incarnate), and yet he is as solid and believable as a granite landmark in an unfamiliar foggy landscape, someone we can readily identify with.  It is the credible performances which gives the film its striking sense of reality and makes it so easy for us to accept its fantastic B-movie premise.

Although she comes worryingly close to being upstaged by her over-endowed eyebrows in her later scenes, Linda Hayden is the film's stunning centrepiece as the most unsuitably named Angel Blake - seldom has an actress been quite so convincing as an innocent overtaken by demonic forces.  Admittedly, some of the supporting cast struggle with the clichéd Mummerset dialogue and end up looking like a sad job-lot of rejects from The Archers, with lines such as 'be thou afeared' and such like being delivered in the manner suitable for a tiny tots pantomime.  But thankfully such toe-curling amateurishness does not distract too greatly from the riveting performances from the more capable actors.  Michele Dotrice and Barry Andrews both deserve a special mention for making their satanic corruption so believable - you can genuinely feel their characters' anguish as evil enters their bodies and starts to take possession of them.

The Blood on Satan's Claw has a great deal in its favour but it also has one flaw that even its most devoted fans find hard to forgive, which is its totally botched denouement.  A poor script notwithstanding, the film builds very effectively to its climax, stacking up its superbly rendered shock moments so that we are led to anticipate a truly spectacular ending, and of course it doesn't materialise.  Even a respectable film like The Devil Rides Out  failed to pull off this coup and so it's no surprise that Tigon's third Occult offering fizzles out like a damp squib, with a reanimated Old Nick, portrayed as a man in a cheap monkey outfit, throwing himself onto a conveniently placed sword and well - basically - just giving up the will to live.

At least in Hammer's films we are usually assured a reasonably feisty punch up between the forces of darkness and light in the final reel - often with Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee leaping around the set in mortal combat as if their future careers depended on it.  The Blood on Satan's Claw, by contrast, has an ending that looks like a lazy afterthought, appended after all the inspiration and money had been used up getting to this point.  But, despite being left feeling slightly short-changed by the dimmest of plot resolutions, as the credits roll you can't help admitting to yourself that this was an enjoyable and compelling romp.  Its flaws are manifold but its delights are even more numerous, and once the film's hairy spider-like tendrils have worked their way into the pleasure centres of your brain you just know you will have to watch it again - and again.  This is the stuff on which cults are made.

Film Synopsis

In England of the 17th century, ploughman Ralph Gower finds the decomposed remains of a creature, part animal, part human, buried in a field.  Convinced that this discovery has demonic associations, Ralph persuades the local judge to look at it, but by the time they return the scary relic has disappeared.  A man of reason, the judge dismisses Ralph's concerns as superstitious nonsense and goes about his business, unaware that an ancient evil has already begun to affect the surrounding district.  It begins when Peter Edmonton brings his fiancée Rosalind to the homestead of his aunt, landowner Isobel Banham.  Rosalind ends up having to spend the night in a dusty old attic; by morning, she is a raving lunatic and is soon being carted off to Bedlam.  Peter then has a strange dream in which he wrestles with a hairy creature which he attacks with a knife.  As he dreams, Peter slices off his own hand.  Meanwhile, the children of the village are behaving strangely, led astray by the demonically possessed Angel Blake.  Not only do the rebellious youngsters skip classes, to the chagrin of the prim Reverend Fallowfield, but they also participate in satanic rituals in which they rape, mutilate and kill each other, as strange, furry growths appear on their bodies.  Finally, the judge is forced to return to the village and battle with the forces of Satan - just as these bring into being a monstrous fiend of terrifying proportions...