10 Obscure Folk Horror Movies You Need To Watch
6. The Blood On Satan's Claw
One has to travel all the way back to 1971 to find one of folk horror's most iconic staples. Regrettably, as a result of the film's age and relative obscurity amongst the wider horror genre, one would be hard pressed to find an average moviegoer who has gotten around to watching The Blood on Satan's Claw.
The folklore of England is deeply ingrained within The Blood on Satan's Claw, which is set against the backdrop of 18th century Britain. The film's premise concerns the discovery of a hideously deformed demonic skull, which proves to have appalling results on the children of the local area, essentially turning them into Black Mass-performing, bloodthirsty Devil worshippers, who proceed to gleefully inflict a wave of unholy terror on the unsuspecting population.
The key strength of The Blood on Satan's Claw is arguably the performance of the exceedingly young cast. Despite their tender years, the children that fall under the demonic influence of the skull are legitimately terrifying in their roles; their feverishly maniacal gazes saturated with an unexplainable bloodlust is a sight too unnerving for words, and a key element in the success of what proves to be a memorably disturbing folk horror experience that many film critics deem to be one of the original examples of the sub-genre.