Special Issue #4
Cover art provided by Andrew Foley
The Blood on Satan’s Claw at 50
Among other things, Piers Haggard’s 1971 The Blood on Satan’s Claw was crucial in shaping the folk horror tradition. Near the end of part two, “Home Counties Horrors,” of his influential 2010 BBC documentary, Mark Gatiss shifts from discussing the dominant Hammer films of the 1960s to articulating a “new” kind of horror film that avoids what he calls “the gothic clichés.” “Amongst these,” he claims, “are a loose collection of films that we might call folk horror.” Haggard himself, whom Gatiss interviews, says, “I suppose I was trying to make a folk horror film.”
And there’s so much more: buried demonic remains, a cult of villagers who rape and murder, witchcraft, strangely animate claws, self-mutilation, black fur spreading over human bodies, and invocations of Behemoth!
In honor of the milestone 50th anniversary of what has become an indisputable cult classic, we are thrilled to present ten original essays that explain why The Blood on Satan’s Claw continues to engage fans of all kinds. We hope you enjoy!
Essay Collection
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Introduction: The Blood on Satan’s Claw at 50
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Refractions of Mary Bell in The Blood on Satan’s Claw: Angel, Cathy, and Margaret
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The Judge with No Name and Rebels Without A Cause? Uncanny Evil in The Blood on Satan’s Claw
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“Save me, Angel”: The Division of Women in The Blood on Satan’s Claw
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“Are you bent on reviving forgotten horrors?”: The Horned God as a Counter-Culture Figure in The Blood on Satan’s Claw
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Witchcraft and the Enlightenment in The Blood on Satan’s Claw
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“I shall use undreamed-of measures”: Authority and the Figure of the Witch-hunter in The Blood on Satan’s Claw; or, How the Judge Stamps out Radicalisation
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The Building of a Hero: The Apollonian and Dionysian synthesis of “The Judge” in The Blood on Satan’s Claw
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Diabolical demarcations: Landscape and “Anti-landscape” in The Blood on Satan’s Claw
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The Ruined Church in The Blood on Satan’s Claw: Fertility and Population Decline in Folk Horror
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Feeling the Devil’s Skin: The Sensory Affect of Fur in The Blood on Satan’s Claw