The Blood on Satan's Claw (1970)

Here's one from the "obscure and awesome" file.  Taking place in the extreme, extreme, EXTREME days of yore, Blood on Satan's Claw is a startlingly effective little chiller that's about fifteen times as good as a movie with this title warrants.  If you want a little bit more coercion, this is a movie that proudly features gory murders, more than its fair share of genuinely creepy and disturbing scenes, and a good helping of gratuitous nudity with some stunning British beauties gettin' em out for your viewing pleasure.  Sound good?  That's what I thought.

PLOT:  The movie takes place in 17th century England, beginning with a peasant farmer digging up the remains of a strange creature.  Not soon afterward, the children in the village begin acting strangely and mysterious deaths begin to creep up, including the ambiguous (in a good way, I promise) murder involving a young man being choked to death by a disembodied hand.  Not soon after, we are introduced to a group of schoolchildren who begin worshiping the demon remains and offering ritual sacrifices (one of which is one of the four or five most disturbing scenes I've seen in any horror movie).  While all of this is going on, the local judge begins investigating and tracking down the source of the chaos.  In many regards, this is a film with similarities to Dario Argento's masterpiece Suspiria, in that it isn't a movie about plot, but more just creating an oppressively suspenseful atmosphere.  And it's got that in spades.
PLOT RATING: *** 1/2 out of ****.

CHARACTERS AND ACTORS:  Patrick Wymark plays The Judge (his name in the credits), and does an admirable job as a guy who appears appropriately skeptical of the fantastic claims coming from the townsfolk in the early goings before turning all-out Rambo for the finale.  Almost every character, from the local Reverend to the schoolchildren, is played by an actor who is not satisfied to go through the motions.  I don't know what to credit this to, if it's British training or the fact that the movie was filmed before "horror" became a dirty word, but it is much appreciatd nonetheless. 
CHARACTERS AND ACTORS RATING: *** 1/2 out of ****.

COOL FACTOR:  In my humble opinion, most "Gothic" horror films aren't terribly cool, but this is one that has coolness firmly in its corner.  The reason?  Linda Hayden and her coven of devil-worshiping teens.  If you're a fan of Hammer studios, you might recognize her as the very ample-busomed woman who assisted Christopher Lee in Taste the Blood of Dracula.  In this movie, she becomes a card-carrying Satanist seductress - and performs an unforgettable full-frontal scene.  Hayden and Co. make outstanding villains - they are characters that you both WANT to see on camera and genuinely want to see get their comeuppance, a rare thing these days when victim characters are so damned annoying that they leave me rooting for the bad guys by default.
COOL FACTOR: *** 1/2 out of ****.

OVERALL:  While I can't say that this flick is a masterpiece, Blood on Satan's Claw is a movie with an irrefutable power to give you the willies.  Throw in good acting, characters and a solid story and there's a real winner to be found here.  Keyword: FOUND, because this movie is rather hard to find on DVD - mine is a DVD-R purchased from a "guy on the corner" style online vendor, and the decided lack of subtitles pissed me off.  But it's worth it to pop this movie on after the sun goes down and feel the tension rising up in your throat. 
OVERALL RATING: *** 1/2 out of ****.  Check it out.