The Blood on Satan's Claw Movie Review

Trailer here.

The Blood on Satan's Claw is a 1971 horror movie directed by Piers Haggard and starring Patrick Wymark, Linda Hayden and Michele Dotrice.

The film opens with a dead body in a field. A local man called Ralph goes to see a man called The Judge(Wymark) and tells him about it. The Judge doesn't want to know. A man called Peter(Simon Williams) brings his fiancée Rosalind(Tamara Ustinov) to meet his aunt, Mistress Banham. Rosalind has to sleep in the attic. Peter hears her screaming during the night and when Mistress Banham comes to investigate, Rosalind injures her.  She falls ill. Rosalind is taken away. She has developed a claw instead of her hand.  Peter thinks that there is evil in the house. He goes into the attic and he sees something under the floor. It is a creature with a claw and it tries to grab him. Peter hacks at it and the judge arrives and sees that he has chopped off his own hand. The judge borrows a book on the occult.

He is going to London. The justice is in charge while he is gone. The Judge tells the justice, Squire Middleton(James Hayter) to keep an eye on things. A young child, Mark isn't feeling well. Two local girls ask him to come out. Reverend Fallowfield(Anthony Ainley) is worried because the children haven't been attending classes. Mark gets killed by the other youngsters. A girl called Angel(Hayden) tries to seduce the Reverend. She wants him to come with her. She tells him that they killed Mark. He is appalled and he rejects her. She tells her father that the Reverend asked her to take off her dress and touched her.

Two young boys take a girl called Cathy off. They start messing with her and suddenly all of the children appear. Angel is their leader. She puts a flower crown on Cathy's head . The Devil appears to them and Cathy is killed. The Reverend is taken away because of what Angel said. He is released when Cathy's body is found. Ralph knows that it was the children. Cathy was his girlfriend and he is distressed by her death.  The judge is called back and he wants to know what is going on.  The locals think that a young woman called  Margaret(Dotrice) is a witch and they are going to throw her into the river. Ralph sees them and he pulls her out. He brings her away and he sees a mark of the devil on her. The doctor will cut it off. She tells Ralph that Angel wants her. She runs off and goes looking for Angel. She gets caught in a trap, Angel leaves her to die as Margaret has lost her mark. She is caught by the locals. The Judge tells Ralph to tie her up and they ask questions, She tells them that tonight is important.  Ralph discovers that he has fur on him which is the mark of the Devil. The judge and the villagers go to stop Angel and her child followers. They find them, Ralph is there too. The judge and the others attack the Satanists. The Devil appears and the judge stabs him with a crucifix and burns him. Angel dies too. Ralph returns to normal.

This film is pretty good. It is interesting and there are some good scenes. It is folk horror and it does remind me of The Wicker Man in some ways. I kept expecting to see Christopher Lee or Peter Cushing in this! It does have a Hammer feel about it. If you enjoy Hammer films, then this will be right up your alley, as it is quite similar to one, I feel. Tigon did have some great films, though such as Witchfinder General and Curse of the Crimson Altar. I liked this and I enjoyed it so it gets a 6/10.