Blood on Satan's Claw

Alternate titles : The Devil's Skin, The Devil's Touch

Tagline : "A living nightmare of black magic... and unspeakable evil!"

One of several films to come out in the wake of "Witchfinder General", this 1971 film by TV director Piers Haggard takes place in a small English village during the 17th century, where the locals find themselves over run with people possessed by Witchcraft.

The problems start when a local farmer ploughs up a bizarre looking skeleton that appears to be more beast than man. However, when the locals go to investigate the remains seem to have disappeared.

Shortly afterwards, the children, lead by a young girl named Angel Blake (Lynda Hayden), start exhibiting strange behaviour and performing bizarre ceremonies in the woods, which involve several disturbing scenes of rape and murder. Then several villagers start growing strange clumps of hair on their bodies, which they believe to be the skin of Satan.

The local Judge (Patrick Wymark) isn't at first convinced by the local superstitions, but after seeing first hand the unusual goings on, realises the devil is indeed at work and some decidedly "unconventional" methods must be employed in order to bring the evil to a halt (where's Mathew Hopkins when you need him?).

This film was produced by Tigon pictures, who were also behind "Witchfinder General" and were one of Hammer films main rivals back in the day. So if you like these classic medieval horrors you should definitely enjoy this..

Overall Marks : 6/10.

Terrifying Trivia

• The film was originally released in the UK as "The Devil's Touch", but was only given a limited run as it didn't fair too well at the box office. The film was later re-released using the US title "Blood on Satan's Claw" as a double bill feature with "The Beast in the Cellar".
• Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing were both considered for the role of the Judge, but the producers decided it would be too expensive to hire either of them.
• Patrick Wymark died shortly after finishing this film.
• The movie was originally intended as 3 short interlinking films as the studio had wanted to produce this an anthology. But once Piers Haggard was assigned to direct, he insisted this wouldn't work and the three short stories be combined into one
• Linda Hayden was 17 years old when she made this film. She also appeared in "Taste the blood of Dracula" and the old video nasty title "Expose" (AKA House on Straw Hill).
• Anthony Ainley, who played the Reverend, went on to play the role of The Master in the popular UK sci-fi show "Dr Who". Wendy Padbury, who plays Cathy, had previously played Zoe in that show and Roberta Tovey, who has an uncredited role as one of the coven members, was in the 1960's movie adaptation of it.
• Tamara Ustinov, who plays Rosalind, is the daughter of noted British actor Peter Ustinov.
• Geoffrey Hughes, who played Eddie Yates in Coronation Street, and Anna Wing, who played Lou Beale in Eastenders, both have uncredited roles as villagers.
• The original UK cinema release trimmed down the rape scene and cut out a scene where a naked girl is dancing in front of a boy with a knife. These cuts were restored for the 2003 UK DVD release.

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