The Blood on Satan's Claw[a] is a 1971 British supernatural period folk horror film directed by Piers Haggard and starring Patrick Wymark, Linda Hayden, and Barry Andrews.

[6] Set in early 18th-century England, it follows the residents of a rural village whose youth fall under the influence of a demonic presence after a local farmer unearths a mysterious deformed skull buried in a field.

It is widely regarded as one of three films that introduced the folk horror aesthetic to British cinema, an "unholy trinity" whose other entries are Witchfinder General (1968) and The Wicker Man (1973).

The screenplay for the film was originally written by Robert Wynne-Simmons as an anthology of horror stories set in a small village, and had the working title of Satan's Skin.

[7] In a rural village in early 18th-century England, farmer Ralph Gower uncovers a deformed skull with one intact eye and strange fur.

The boys lead Cathy to Angel, who marches her in a procession with the other children to the ruined church, where they perform a Black Mass to the demon Behemoth, who appears as a furred beast.

Margaret is caught and, interrogated by the judge, reveals that the cult will meet at the ruined church to complete the ritual to rebuild the demon’s body.

[8] The disparate stories included one involving a woman locked in an attic by her abusive aunt; a group of children who uncover a monstrous carcass in a field; and a man who cuts off his own hand, which is possessed by a demon.

"[9]Tigon executives ultimately opted to have Wynne-Simmons transpose the story to an early-eighteenth-century farming community, having felt that the Victorian Era had been exhausted by various genre films.

"[9] Additionally, several other changes were mandated by Tigon, including a redraft of the ending, which originally had the Judge enlisting a militia to murder the entire village to eradicate the cult.

[11] Director Piers Haggard was hired to direct the project, and worked with Wynne-Simmons to retool the screenplay from its anthology format to a singular, cohesive narrative.

[4]By Haggard's account, the film's original working title was The Devil’s Touch, which was subsequently changed to Satan's Skin.

The role of the judge was originally offered to Peter Cushing, who declined it due to his wife's illness; Christopher Lee was considered, but his fee was too high for the budget so Patrick Wymark was cast instead.

[15] The shoot lasted approximately eight weeks, and mainly took place in the small village of Bix Bottom, Oxfordshire, located in the Chiltern Hills.

[16] Several of the younger cast members, particularly Hayden, Ustinov, and Richard Williams, recalled that Haggard's direction was concise and that the shoot operated smoothly.

[20] When devising the film's visual elements, Haggard was influenced by the works of Ingmar Bergman, particularly The Seventh Seal (1957) and The Virgin Spring (1960).

[21] Haggard adopted a "painterly" style for the film, marked by low camera angles that cast the actors on high landscapes against open skies.

"[4] The Blood on Satan's Claw was acquired by the American distribution company, Cannon Films, who released it theatrically in the United States in the spring of 1971, with a New York City opening taking place on April 15, 1971.

[2] Under ten seconds of cuts were mandated by the BBFC, though some sequences were optically darkened, including the scene in which a nude Angel attempts to seduce the Curate.

[11] According to screenwriter Wynne-Simmons, a shot of Angel performing oral sex on the demon was also significantly truncated and darkened, though a brief portion of it appears in the final cut of the film.

Linda Hayden is excellent as Angel Blake, the leader of the devil children, and the sequence in which she attempts to seduce the local priest in his own church is extremely powerful.

But as the film progresses, its script and direction lose in subtlety and gain in crudeness: the sequence showing, in nauseating detail, the removal of the "devil skin" from a girl is both stylistically inept and thematically irrelevant.

"[30] Note: in a later edition,The Monthly Film Bulletin in its Addenda and Corrigenda section wrote: "SATAN'S SKIN (Reviewed M.F.B.

Blood on Satan's Claw was also the version used on Trunk Records' 2007 soundtrack release, the 2018 Audible drama, and the cover of the 2022 novelisation by screenwriter Robert Wynne-Simmons.