The Blood on Satan's Claw

1971 horror movie

Rating: 14/20

Plot: It's the 1600s, and since there's not much to do in an English farming community, the teenagers all decide to become devil worshippers, a hobby which apparently involves raping and murdering each other. And we contemporary parents think Eminem is a bad influence on our kids!

There's a great deal to like about The Blood on Satan's Claw. Really, with a title like that, you'd better have a fairly good movie. This has an atmosphere or mood similar to The Wicker Man, and director Piers Haggard does a fine job creating atmosphere and mood with effectively unusual camera work and a really odd soundtrack. This feels different from most movies; there's a fuzz on the surface of this that never allowed me to feel comfortable with the setting or the characters. Speaking of fuzz, I also learned from this movie that Satan has fuzzy legs. This is imperfect storytelling. The plot either seems choppy or incomplete, and there were too many pieces missing for this story to flow. There's a really interesting character in this one, an evil girl with the wonderful name Angel Bleak. Or, if you don't trust my ears and go with what the Internet says, the not-as-wonderful name Angel Blake. She's played by the lovely Linda Hayden and manages to combine innocence and evil to create what would be a classic horror character if more people were willing to see a movie called The Blood on Satan's Claw. Plus, she disrobes! There are lulls and parts where this has difficulty making a connection, but it's just interesting enough to spend an hour and a half with.