Not part of a collection.
The Blood on Satan's Claw
A chill-filled festival of horror!
After a landsman in 18th century England discovers a corpse covered in fur buried in a field, the town becomes infected by "the devil's skin," leading the local children to engage in demonic rituals and criminal behavior.
- Original title
- The Blood on Satan's Claw
- Language
- EN
- Country
- GB
- Budget
- $140,000
- Revenue
- —
FolknHell
Aug 25, 2026 · via TMDB
Few films make their intentions quite as efficiently as *The Blood on Satan's Claw*. Ralph ploughs an apparently ordinary field, turns over something that should have remained underneath it, and finds a decayed skull with a living eye staring back. Rural idyll, meet problem. That image does an enormous amount of work. The evil here is not arriving from somewhere else. It is unearthed. Something buried beneath the landscape has been disturbed and, from that point onwards, the village seems to grow Satan rather than merely encounter him. Hairy patches and claws appear on human bodies, pieces are harvested, and the local children gradually become a coven constructing something far nastier than an unsupervised youth club. The film itself is almost as strangely assembled. Characters who initially appear central simply disappear, emotional consequences are frequently brushed aside, and scenes sometimes linger a beat beyond the moment when they seem to have finished. Its origins as a portmanteau story remain visible in the joins. At times *The Blood on Satan's Claw* feels less like a narrative unfolding than several excellent horrors being persuaded to share a field. But some of those horrors are extraordinarily effective. Angel Blake's manipulation of the Reverend is deeply uncomfortable, precisely because the film refuses to make it safely theatrical. The violence among the children becomes similarly horrible as play, sex, ritual and murder collapse into one another. Even the adults offer precious little moral refuge. They lock people away, leap eagerly to accusations and drown a suspected witch, then apparently regard the matter as settled. The children may be inventing their own laws in the woods, but the grown-ups hardly arrive carrying an unimpeachable alternative. And this is where the film's reputation makes sense. Isolation, landscape, inherited evil, religious authority, ruined places, corrupted youth and something ancient pushing physically through the soil are not decorative folk-horror furniture here. They are the machinery of the film. It is disjointed, abrupt and sometimes downright peculiar. Yet the more coherent films that followed have spent decades borrowing its grammar. *The Blood on Satan's Claw* may wobble as drama, but as an image of folk horror clawing its way out of the English earth, it remains horribly difficult to dislodge. --- Reviewed by FolknHell, the folk horror film podcast · folknhell com Hear the full FolknHell podcast discussion of The Blood on Satan's Claw: folknhell com/the-blood-on-satans-claw-1971-review along with our other reviews, transcripts and episodes.
Wuchak
Mar 27, 2020 · via TMDB
***Creepy, unsettling, unconventional, realistic and artistic, but also tedious*** In the early 1700s, devil worship rears its sinister head in a village in England. Barry Andrews (who looks like Roger Daltrey) plays the young man who initially acquires evidence of the deviltry while Patrick Wymark plays the investigator and Anthony Ainley the minister. The young females include Tamara Ustinov (Rosalind), Linda Hayden (Angela), Wendy Padbury (Cathy) and Michele Dotrice (Margaret). When you think of 60s-70s British horror you automatically think of Hammer Films, but Tigon’s “The Blood on Satan’s Claw” (1971) doesn’t have that Hammer or Amicus vibe; or even American International. It’s avant-garde, inventive and lifelike with a harrowing pervasive dread. Unfortunately, it’s also tedious, particularly during the first half. One sequence is especially unsettling and remains controversial to this day. However, it was preceded by non-horror films with scenes that were even more unsettling and controversial, like Roger Corman's "The Wild Angels" from five years earlier, which showed a bike gang beating up the kindly minister who performed the funeral of their fallen comrade, as well as totally trashing his sanctuary (!). Then two of the bikers cruelly rape their dead comrade's girlfriend (!). To top it off, they outrageously abuse his corpse at the funeral party (!!). "Last Summer" (1969) is another example, masquerading as a teen beach drama. So, while a certain scene in "Blood on Satan's Claw" is effectively unsettling, other movies outside the horror genre had already paved the way. The film runs 1 hour, 37 minutes, and was shot just west of London at Pinewood Studios, Iver Heath, Buckinghamshire, and places nearby, like Oxfordshire. GRADE: B-
John Chard
Oct 18, 2019 · via TMDB
Tigon's Talons. Out of Tigon Productions comes The Blood On Satan's Claw. Directed by Piers Haggard (who co-writes with Robert Wynne-Simmons) it stars Patrick Wymark, Linda Hayden, Barry Andrews, Michele Dotrice & Wendy Padbury. Story is set in rural 17th century England and sees a village fall under demonic possession after a living one eyed skull is unearthed by the local ploughman. Well it's quite a title the film has got, the sort that conjures up many a blood curdling image. Yet it's some what misleading, but in a good way. There is indeed claws involved, and definitely "Old Nick" is part of the equation, but Haggard's film is more moody and quirky than the title suggests. It has definite links to Tigon's flag bearer, "Witchfinder General", though not nearly as clever or as brilliantly cruel as Michael Reeves' film. We are in the company of Wiccan ceremonies and satanically influenced children, throw in some sexually charged dalliances and we are good to go. Hell there's even some smarts in the writing about class distinction and snobbery. However, the first half of the piece is more rewarding than the last half. The atmosphere and eerie thematics give way to standardised jolts and gore, with a finale that just comes off as slow-mo silliness that doesn't befit the earlier build ups in the script. The music (Marc Wilkinson), photography (Dick Bush), costumes (Dulcie Midwinter) and the acting (particularly petticoat terror Hayden) are of a very high standard. It's such a pity that the director loses sight of the tone marker set and fails to see it through to a satisfying conclusion. Still, it's definitely one of the better British horrors from the 70s - with eye catching period detail and a haunting poetic feel for the most part, The Blood On Satan's Claw is a safe recommend to those that like a bit of Witchcraft and Satanism in their horror diets. 7/10
User reviews courtesy of TMDB.
Amazon Prime Video
YouTube TV
Fandor Amazon Channel
Screambox Amazon Channel
Midnight Pulp
ScreenPix Apple TV Channel
Amazon Prime Video with Ads
Midnight Pulp Amazon Channel
ScreenPix Amazon Channel
Cineverse Amazon Channel
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 Vespers
Tamara Ustinov
Rosalind Barton
Simon Williams
Peter Edmonton
James Hayter
Squire Middleton
Howard Goorney
The Doctor
Avice Landone
Isobel Banham
Roberta Tovey
Ann
Robin Davies
Mark Vespers
Geoffrey Hughes
Drinking Villager
Anna Wing
Concerned Villager
Godfrey James
Mr. Blake (uncredited)
Milton Reid
Dog Handler (uncredited)
Dick Bush
Director of Photography
Piers Haggard
Additional Writing
Piers Haggard
Director
Devil's Punchbowl
Mountain King
LEGION
Deadly Revisions
The Vizconde Massacre: God, Help Us!
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
Alien
Naberius
A Nightmare on Elm Street
Don't Torture a Duckling
Blood and Black Lace
The Lost Boys
Ring
Glenville
Fréwaka
The Bellman
The Hands of Orlac
The Fearless Vampire Killers
The Entity
The Curse of Frankenstein
The First Omen
Malignant
Son of Frankenstein
Welcome to the Occult Forest: The Movie
Siege of Terror
Happy Death Day
Black Phone 2
Singapore Sling
A Bay of Blood
Atrocious
Funny Games
Carry On Screaming!
Beyond the Darkness
The Stepfather
Annihilation
Dead & Buried
The Blair Witch Project
Dolls
Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom
Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed
Ten Little Indians
Cannibal Holocaust
Cremaster 2
MaXXXine
The Cell
Untraceable
Victims
Corpse Prison: Part 2
The Blob
The Hole
Gothika
Mudhoney!
The Corruption of Chris Miller
I Saw What You Did
Wolf Lake
House of 1000 Corpses
The Hills Have Eyes
The Two Faces of Dr. Jekyll
Baron Blood
Freddy vs. Jason
Lady in White
Village of the Damned
Burke & Hare
The Gate
The Anchor
Vampire's Kiss
It's Alive
We Are What We Are
Shadow of Illusion
The First Purge
Murder Box
Everybody Dies by the End
Calvaire
Death Smiles on a Murderer
The Blackening
The Dare
Roar
Nightmare at Shadow Woods
Fair Game
Pathology
Midnighters
The Strangers: Chapter 1
Left Bank
Tenement
The Rage: Carrie 2
Night of the Seagulls
Hellbender
Absurd
White Noise 2: The Light
Cannibal Apocalypse
Riba
Cannibal Ferox
Cherry Falls
Haunted Honeymoon
The Gore Gore Girls
Succubus
Dead in 3 Days
Pig
Doctor Blood's Coffin
Diary of a Necromancer
Mercy
Curse of the Crimson Altar
Brain Sex
Welcome to Arrow Beach
Emanuelle and Françoise
WolfCop
The Dark Side of the Moon
Wishcraft
The Loreley's Grasp
Attack of the Killer Tomatoes!
The Hillside Strangler
Murder Obsession
Pyro... The Thing Without a Face
Trick of the Witch
The Inn
The Ghost Galleon
Demon Witch Child
Secret Santa
Blood Cousins
Color Me Blood Red
Killer Workout
White Settlers
Chasing the Devil
Tistlebu
Nightmare Man
Silent Night, Deadly Night Part 2
The Mummy Lives
The Tomb
Spirit of Itchi
Juvenile Crime
Siew Lup
The Nanny's Night
Dwellers
Witchcraft VII: Judgement Hour
Alone in the Dark
Consequences
Sathura Adi 3500
Forgive Me For Raping You
Witchcraft VIII: Salem's Ghost
Witchcraft XVI: Hollywood Coven
Big Top Evil
Qatil Chandalini
Solomon's Requiem
Canonização
Les Femmes
Strings
Bile
Drop-Outs
Harlem Woods
Roe v. Blade
Potatoface
Black Samphire
GOKDU;spreads its wings
The Binding
Witchcraft XVII: The Initiation
A Redly Dead
The Visitor
The Wicker Man
Passenger
28 Years Later: The Bone Temple
The Witch
Hokum
Saccharine
Hellraiser
The Entity
They Reach
The Last Voyage of the Demeter
Silver Bullet
Oddity
Fear Street: 1994
Silent Hill
28 Years Later
The Devil Rides Out
The Accursed
Pumpkinhead
Saint Catherine
Hellbound: Hellraiser II
The Boogeyman
Diabolic
Horror Express
The Exorcist III
House of 1000 Corpses
Paranormal Activity: Next of Kin
Never Let Go
The Wretched
Dark Harvest
Begotten
The Wolfman
The Town that Dreaded Sundown
Husk
Dolly
Apr 14, 1971
New York City, New York
