Blood On Satan's Claw is an extremely flawed, but fascinating horror movie. Initially, it was supposed to be anthology of three stories all linked together with "the Devil's skin" infecting individuals and turning them into evil, Satan worshiping thugs, but the filmmakers decided to condense the three story lines into one narrative, turning it into a disjointed, often plodding horror film. It's fairly common for characters to disappear from the narrative and never to be heard from again..... WITH NO EXPLANATION.
The story is about a farming community that is effected by demonic possession after a plow boy, Ralph (Barry Andrews), accidentally unearths the remains of a demonic creature with strange fur on it. Shortly afterwards, the children (more accurately young adults) of the community start getting infected with a strange patch of fur on their bodies and join a satanic cult. The leader of the cult is Angel Blake, who is determined to bring the Devil back in the flesh. Apparently, these strange patches of fur are the "Devil's skin" and she needs all of them to resurrect him from the netherworld. The cult aspect of the film is poorly handled, because it's never established when it actually begins. Angel Blake, for instance, goes from being a normal teenage girl to evil temptress in a blink of an eye, there's no transitional period. A half hour into the film, the cult is well underway, and more than half the children in the area have already joined, much to the chagrin of the local Reverend (Anthony Ainley). The first half hour of the film centers around the character of Peter and his fiancee Rosalind. Peter lives with his upper class, well to do aunt, who naturally disapproves of him marrying a peasant girl like Rosalind. Peter's aunt forces Rosalind to sleep in the attic of the house, after Peter has successfully campaigned to let her stay the night, and it's there that Rosalind is possessed by some demonic force. Screams ring through the household and Peter's aunt goes upstairs to check what all the commotion is about, only to have her face scratched to hell by the possessed Rosalind, who's right hand has been replaced by claws....Satan's claws.
The film is lacking in the protagonist department as well, there really is no strong central figure for the audience to get involved with. The Judge (Patrick Wymark) is, by default, the hero of the film as he vanquishes Satan at the film's climax, but he's not a particularly sympathetic character and is off screen for a good chunk of the narrative. He does have a character arc as he goes from being completely skeptical (and ignorant) of the supernatural to eventually accepting it and using his knowledge of it to stop the spread of evil.
The closest the film comes to having a protagonist we care about is Ralph. He is a sympathetic character, but is often on the periphery of events, rather than the center; he is a beat too late from saving his beloved Cathy from the satanic cult. At the film's climax, he contemplates giving into his more primal urges, until the Judge arrives just in the nick of time to save him. He does manage to save Margaret, member of the cult, from certain death by pulling her from the river, after an angry mob has attempted to drown her by tossing her in. Ralph is an idealist and hopes that he can save Margaret from the clutches of the satanic cult. He naturally gets frustrated when the only thing Margaret prattles on and on about is her devotion to the Dark Lord.
The ending of the film is fairly anti-climatic: The Judge and a mob of villagers descends upon the coven, while Ralph is being seduced by the "charms" of a curvaceous cult member. Angel sees the mob coming, panics, and promptly runs into a pitchfork that one of the villagers is wielding. The Judge impales Satan (who is not fully completed, still needing "Devil's skin" from Ralph's leg) with a sword and then throws Beelzebub into a fire. Freeze frame. Credits roll. The Judge has little difficulty in disposing of the Prince of Darkness and everything is right with the world.
As sloppy and uninvolving as the film is at time, it's also hard to completely dismiss. There are some genuinely chilling moments throughout the film that remain ingrained in your memory.
1) The opening sequence in which Ralph unearths the one eyed skull of Satan. This starts out as a rather tranquil moment with Ralph waving to Cathy and then proceeding to go on with his plowing. Then, quite abruptly, the peace is shattered with the discovering of the deformed skull.
2) The murder of Mark Vespers. It is established early on the Mark has a crush on Angel Blake, so when two girls come to his doorway asking him if he wants to play and that ANGEL with be there, he naturally accepts the invitation. The scene starts out in a seemingly innocent manner as the kids frolic around the wood, but out of nowhere hand emerges from the bushes and strangles Mark. The strangulation is implied, rather than actually shown, but once again it's rather jarring moment.
3) Angel's seduction of Reverend Fallowfield. Reverend Fallowfield is a stern taskmaster, who gets increasingly frustrated by the lack of focus his pupils have during his lessons. Naturally, when half of his class stops showing up this seriously pisses him off and he puts the blame on Angel Blake, as she is the ringleader of the group. Fallowfield is about ready to close up the church one night, when Angel comes in to have (what he assumes) a conversation him. However, Angel removes all her clothes and tries to seduce the Reverend into sleeping with her, he is tempted at first, but eventually rebukes her advances. The next day, Angel tells her father that the Reverend molested her and he takes this up with the town's squire. The squire has the Reverend arrested and this seemingly puts him out of the way. However, the Reverend is acquitted of all charges, when Ralph comes back carrying Cathy's corpse and telling the authorities that Angel is responsible for the murder. The Reverend, despite his acquittal, disappears from the proceeding altogether.
4) The rape and murder of Cathy Vespers. This is probably the most shocking scene in the picture, because it shows a rather sweet girl getting murdered in a rather brutal fashion. It's definitely hard to watch. Cathy is picking flowers in the woods, when two mischievous boys approach and ask her to play with them. They then tie a rope around her, in a seeming playful manner, and lead her to the middle of the woods where the rest of the coven is waiting. Angel emerges into the frame and starts to recite incantations, while Satan looks on in the background. Then the coven descends upon Cathy and tears off her clothes. One of the male members then step forward, slowly pulls down his pants, and rapes Cathy. After the rape is finished, Angel stabs Cathy in the back with a pair of sheers. Again, this is an extremely hard and painful scene to watch, but's effective in conveying the sheer terror of the moment. Our sympathies lie completely with Cathy and we are sickened by the abuse she is forced to endure. And, we can sympathizes with Ralph's pain when he finds the mangled body of his beloved lying in the woods. It's quite possibly one of the darkest scenes in cinema history. The rape itself is not graphic and rather short lived, but the build up to the moment makes it even more horrific. It's a rather long scene and disorienting one at that, the film cuts between shots of the coven, including a perverted old couple, and close ups of the frightened Cathy. Like her, we have no idea what is going to happen, so when the male starts to undress, our stomachs start to turn.
The 17th century witch movie ( or "folk horror" as Mark Gatiss termed it) was almost a subgenre in itself in the late 60s/early 70s with the release of films like The Witchfinder General, Cry of the Banshee, and Blood On Satan's Claw. In these films, violence is an epidemic that sweeps through the country side, only to come to abrupt end, but at an exceedingly high price. The Witchfinder General is the only one that doesn't have a supernatural element to the story line, but rather it's about a corrupt individual, Matthew Hopkins(Vincent Price), who sweeps through the countryside ridding the world of suspected witches, and people who are antagonistic towards him. It's a film that showcases humanity at it's worst and even the ending is a downer, despite the slewing of Hopkins, because it's implied that the protagonist of the piece, Richard Marshall (Ian Ogilvy) has been driven mad in his quest for revenge. Cry of the Banshee shades the same flaws as Blood On Satan's Claw, but in this case the coven is the wronged party, while their persecutors are part of the decadent upper class.
Another interesting aspect of Blood On Satan's Claw is that it features not one, but two Doctor Who regulars, Wendy Padbury (Cathy Vespers) and Anthony Ainley. Padbury was just coming off her stint as Zoe Heriot, companion to the Second Doctor portrayed by Patrick Troughton, when she made this movie. Ainley would go onto play the recurring role of The Master throughout the 80s. They share a few scenes together as Cathy is a member of Reverend Fallowfield's parish. Hell, even Barry Andrews would later go on to do a guest starring role in one of Tom Baker's later serials, Nightmare of Eden.
The film is well acted for the most part, and director Piers Haggard does have a great eye for detail and establishing menace, it's just too bad the script is so incoherent, because the film had potential to be a classic.
Cast: Patrick Wymark (The Judge), Barry Andrews (Ralph Gower), Linda Hayden (Angel Blake), Michele Dotrice (Margaret), Wendy Padbury (Cathy Vespers), Anthony Ainley (Reverend Fallowfield), Charlotte Mitchell (Ellen Vespers), Tamara Ustinov (Rosalind Burton), Simon Williams (Peter Edmonton).
Director: Piers Haggard.
Screenplay: Robert Wynne-Simmons, Piers Haggard
Running Time: 93 min.
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