In a small British village in the 1700s, a young farmer named Ralph digs up a buried skull with, oddly, one intact eyeball still in place and a patch of fur. Calling it the face of a fiend, he reports it to the local judge but it vanishes before the judge can see it. But this seems to be the catalyst for a number of odd occurrences in the village. Young Peter brings his fiancée Rosalind to stay in the home of his aunt, where the judge is lodging while he's in town, but that night, she claims that she was attacked in the dark and goes a little nuts, barricading herself in her room. She has to be led screaming out of the house, during which time Peter notices that one of her hands has become a furry paw with claws. The next night, Peter is attacked by a clawed creature and tries to chop away at it, only to find he's cut off his own hand. Meanwhile, Reverend Fallowfield is upset at the "insolent ungodliness" being displayed by the young members of his Bible study group who are falling away into a possibly satanic circle (looking a bit like 60s flower children) led by the sexy Angel Blake who tries to seduce Fallowfield and leads her followers in dangerous games, one of which results in the death of a young boy. The upshot of all this: Angel is conducting black masses to resurrect the demon that Ralph found in his field, with fur sprouting on the skin of various body parts of people which are intended to be used in the reconstruction of the demon. The judge, who left town to study up on fighting the devil, returns for the bloody climax at a ritual intended to be the final step in the return of the devil in earthly form.
Over the past few years, a new horror genre has been identified, folk horror, which is, somewhat like film noir, a label that is being retroactively applied to movies from the past. It usually involves the use of rural folklore and pagan or satanic rituals. 1973's The Wicker Man is the most famous movie to receive the folk horror name, with 2019's Midsommar being one of the more obvious recent entries. The problem with the label—as with the noir label—is that it can end up being too inclusive and losing its definitions. Some people call anything that features witchcraft folk horror—early examples supposedly include Night of the Demon, Witchfinder General and The Devil Rides Out, all of which are good movies but on shaky ground as folk horror—and that makes the genre too elastic for my taste. The more the film involves a small community, locally passed-down rituals or actual folklore (The Dark Secret of Harvest Home, The Blair Witch Project), the more it feels like legitimate folk horror. I think this movie fits the bill, though it's unclear how Angel's teen cult comes into being. Did the demon possess her because she touched a claw remnant? Did she have a bent for evil? Did it involve some elements of the village's past?
A muted color palette and mostly outdoor settings give the film a darkly folkloric feel, with production values that make it seem like a scruffy version of a Hammer movie. The central presence of teenagers as the main cult members feels like a very Seventies strategy, though it also harks back to Arthur Miller's The Crucible. Specifics of the demonic reconstruction are left rather vague, which for me is a fault, keeping me from fully engaging with the plot and characters. Acting is about average, with the only real standout being Linda Hayden as Angel. I appreciate that the judge, the witchfinder stand-in played by Patrick Wymark, is not presented as evil or perverted, but he is also absent for the bulk of the film and his return near the end doesn't feel organic to the narrative, though it is necessary for the town's salvation. But overall, as an example of folk horror, this is worth seeing. An alternate title is Satan's Skin which is actually more appropriate if less interesting. Pictured top right are Linda Hayden and Godfrey James as Angel's father; above left is Simon Williams as Peter.[Streaming]
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