The Blood on Satan’s Claw

With “The Blood on Satan’s Claw”, Piers Haggard, jack-of-all-trades director more accustomed to television than cinema, directs his minor masterpiece, a dark witchcraft horror film that manages to deliver intense thrills and chills.

Credit goes to a highly realistic period setting (we’re in an England poised between the 17th and 18th centuries, during the reign of James Stuart), strong and believable actors, and a series of atypically ghoulish scenes. Particularly surprising is the emphasis on the erotic component, which is depicted with a boldness far superior to that of other genre films of the period.

The decision to focus on a small rural community still wallowing in the mire of superstition and credulity was also right on the mark. In this environment, even the town doctor demonstrates that he puts more stock in supernatural beliefs far more akin to mysticism and the realm of faith rather than scientific knowledge (“I will open a vein and the humour will, perhaps, pass out“). It’s a shame the ending was so hasty and conventional, making it the one true weak link in a film whose merits greatly outnumber its flaws.

Plenty of memorable moments: the lascivious expression of the first “infected” woman, the priest’s seduction by the temptress Angel (whose character was in part inspired by the case of the very young child-killer Mary Bell), the rape of the poor peasant woman, the bloody ravings of the young man in love.

Fitting music composed by the inspired Marc Wilkinson (the haunting main theme is excellent). The film was produced by the British Tigon Film Productions. Although less well-known than its contemporaries Hammer and Amicus, Tigon often demonstrated a certain “savoir faire” when it came to horror movies (“The Sorcerers”, 1967 and “The Creeping Flesh”, 1973).