BLOOD ON SATAN’S CLAW
FOLK IN HELL
WRITER ROBERT WYNNE-SIMMONS REVEALS THE STORY BEHIND CONTROVERSIAL 1971 FOLK HORROR CLASSIC BLOOD ON SATAN’S CLAW
WORDS: OLIVER PFEIFFER
ALAMY
FOLK HORROR FILMS ARE often characterised by deceptively idyllic landscapes, superstitions connected to ancient pagan mythologies, and the unnerving influences that these traditions can impose on people. It’s a terror that literally seeps from the soil in Piers Haggard’s Blood On Satan’s Claw, aka Satan’s Skin.
The 1971 cult classic shocker, set in 17th century England, hinges on the unearthing of a centuries-old, deformed and demonic skull in an isolated rural community, which turns its adolescent population murderous.
“I’d seen at school how cruel children could be to one another,” the film’s screenwriter Robert Wynne-Simmons tells SFX. “I came to realise this idea that children could actually be villains [hadn’t] been looked at. They were always depicted as innocent. They are innocent in a way; however, it was this idea that they could be more easily corrupted into doing something dreadful.”
After sending letters to numerous film companies, the then-budding writer received a response from Chilton Films (which was being fostered at the time by Tigon British Film Productions) who wanted to produce a horror film and asked whether he had any suggestions. “I had written some ghost stories when I was at school but I had to bluff my way into telling them I had more than I had,” he reveals. “I had just five days, but sent ideas from three different short stories.”