Blood On Satan's Claw (1971)

Director: Piers Haggard

Starring: Patrick Wymark, Linda Hayden, Satan

More Info: IMDB

Tagline: A living nightmare of black magic... and unspeakable evil!

Plot: Horror thriller set in 17th century England about the remains of the devil being discovered causing the children of a village to each grow hideous body parts and large tufts of animal hair to be used to make him whole again.

My Rating: 8/10

Would I watch it again? Most definitely

#83 on Drive-In Delirium Volume 2 (part of the TRAILER TRASH PROJECT)

This one was quite unexpected. The first thing that sat me up, so to speak, was the music. It's beautifully hypnotic and serves the film very well. The filmmakers did an excellent job establishing time and place. It feels damp. It feels dreary. You're there with them.

There's something about children killing people (especially other children) that adds so much more to the creepiness and horror of it all. Perhaps it's because we look at them as innocents but I also think, to a lessor degree, that it has to do with the lack of films portraying them as evil or killers. If we saw more of them I'm sure we would become more and more desensitized to the idea. I keep coming back to the film WHO COULD KILL A CHILD?, which I'll review at some point this month, which is one of the best examples of its kind. Shocking. And much like the murders in WCKaC, the children are playful and delightful with it as if it were a game which adds to the horror.

And for those of you who need it...there's plenty of young female, Satan-worshiping, Georgian England nudity. Hubba hubba.

Kudos to Anchor Bay for releasing a great DVD loaded with extras including several featurettes and TWO commentaries!!! I haven't listened to the commentaries yet but the featurettes were enjoyable. I'm looking forward to a second and third look of the film with the commentaries. Highly recommended.