FolknHell

FolknHell dig up The Blood On Satan’s Claw, Piers Haggard’s 1971 folk horror classic, originally released as Satan’s Skin, and ask, "Is it one of the true pillars of the genre, or just a disjointed rural nightmare with excellent eyebrows?"

This episode, Andy Davidson, Dave Houghton and David Hall head into the furrows for The Blood On Satan’s Claw, Piers Haggard’s 1971 tale of rural panic, possessed children, suspiciously hairy patches and authority figures making one terrible decision after another.
Often named as part of folk horror’s so-called Unholy Trinity alongside The Wicker Man and Witchfinder General, this is a film with impeccable credentials: an isolated village, something nasty unearthed from the land, old evil pushing up through the soil, and a community that reacts to crisis with all the calm restraint of a mob holding rope.

The chaps discuss the film’s odd portmanteau origins, its brilliant but bumpy structure, Angel Blake’s alarming rise as the leader of the village children, the deeply uncomfortable mix of sex, violence and moral panic, and whether this is actually the most openly supernatural member of the Unholy Trinity.
There is also time for Anthony Ainley’s excellent priest, Patrick Wymark’s magnificently unpleasant judge, the skull with the living eye, Satan being assembled like a rural occult flat-pack, and the heroic return of the wobbly sword.

Scores are cast, claws are counted, and the big question is asked: is The Blood On Satan’s Claw a great folk horror film, or just a flawed but essential one?

Spoilers throughout, obviously. If you have not seen the film, consider this your warning from the edge of the field.

FolknHell Verdict
The Blood On Satan’s Claw is absolutely folk horror. Rural isolation, threat from the land, old evil, corrupted youth, religious authority, mob justice and deeply strange local behaviour all come bundled together in one filthy little 1971 package.
It is also messy, abrupt and sometimes baffling, but that is part of its strange power. The FolknHell score: 19 out of 30.

Scores
David Hall: 6/10
Dave Houghton: 6/10
Andy Davidson: 7/10
Total: 19/30

Links:
Read the episode review: [FolknHell review page link]
Read the full transcript: [FolknHell transcript page link]
Read the deeper blog article: [FolknHell blog article link]
Read the full transcript: [FolknHell transcript page link]
TMDb
Rotten Tomatoes

Suggested Tags
folk horror, British horror, The Blood On Satan’s Claw, Satan’s Skin, Piers Haggard, Tigon, 1970s horror, Unholy Trinity, occult horror, rural horror, FolknHell

Content Warning
Contains discussion of sexual violence, child death, body horror, religious abuse, mob justice and spoilers for The Blood On Satan’s Claw.
Folknhell is the folk horror podcast where Andy Davidson, Dave Houghton and David Hall dig into strange cinema, argue about whether it really counts as folk horror, and score every film out of 30.

Add your own score and comments about the films at https://www.folknhell.com/scores

Find us on the socials:
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A remote hotel. A haunted honeymoon suite. A chalk circle that really should have been finished properly. Hokum gives us scares, screams and one very busy dumbwaiter, but does it give us folk horror?

In this episode the FolknHell trio check into Hokum, Damien McCarthy’s 2026 horror about a cynical, suicidal writer retreating to a remote Irish inn to scatter his parents’ ashes, finish his book, and generally be horrible to almost everyone he meets. Before long, there are rumours of a witch, a locked honeymoon suite, a missing hotel worker, magic mushrooms, a terrifying cellar, and a plot that starts behaving like a locked-room mystery after several pints.

The good news: the film is genuinely scary. Andy and Dave both found it tense, jumpy and effective in the cinema, while David admits it made him scream “like a lemon”. The bad news: the more they talk, the more Hokum starts to wobble. Om Bauman is hard to care about, the backstory arrives far too late, the police apparently cannot search a building properly, and the folk horror elements feel less woven in than nailed on.

The big debate lands on whether Hokum is folk horror at all. There is an isolated setting, a witch, folklore, chalk protection and a buried basement, but the real threat is human panic, cowardice and Mel making every possible wrong decision.

Final verdict: scary once, flawed on reflection, and probably folk horror adjacent rather than the real thing.

Total FolknHell score: 15 out of 30.

For more reviews, scores and discussions visit the FolknHell website
Folknhell is the folk horror podcast where Andy Davidson, Dave Houghton and David Hall dig into strange cinema, argue about whether it really counts as folk horror, and score every film out of 30.

Add your own score and comments about the films at https://www.folknhell.com/scores

Find us on the socials:
YouTube: @folknhell
Facebook: FolknHell
X: @FolknHell
Bluesky: FolknHell

See acast.com/privacy for info.
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A hitman thriller that slowly mutates into something ancient, ritualistic and deeply disturbing. The more we watched Kill List, the less certain we became about what we were actually seeing.

Ben Wheatley's Kill List has built a reputation as one of the most important British horror films of the 21st century, and after revisiting it the FolknHell crew found themselves just as fascinated, confused and impressed as ever.

What begins as the story of two ex-soldiers turned contract killers gradually unfolds into something much stranger. Jay and Gal take on a lucrative assignment, only to discover a trail of ritualistic murders, grateful victims, occult symbols and a conspiracy that stretches far beyond a simple kill contract.

The conversation explores the film's claustrophobic handheld style, its brutal realism, and its portrait of male alienation and trauma. Andy, Dave and David discuss how the film seems to reveal new layers on every viewing, yet somehow becomes more puzzling at the same time.

Naturally, the big question is whether Kill List belongs in the folk horror canon. Despite its modern setting and lack of traditional folk horror imagery, the hosts ultimately conclude that its secretive cult, ritual sacrifice, ancient symbols and collision between modern life and older belief systems firmly earn it a place in the genre.

The verdict? A rare moment of complete agreement. Andy, Dave and David all awarded the film 8/10, praising its ambition, rewatch value and willingness to leave audiences unsettled long after the credits roll.

Enjoyed this episode? Add your own score and comments for the film at https://www.folknhell.com/scores
Folknhell is the folk horror podcast where Andy Davidson, Dave Houghton and David Hall dig into strange cinema, argue about whether it really counts as folk horror, and score every film out of 30.

Add your own score and comments about the films at https://www.folknhell.com/scores

Find us on the socials:
YouTube: @folknhell
Facebook: FolknHell
X: @FolknHell
Bluesky: FolknHell

See acast.com/privacy for info.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Stone circles, satanic runes and one of the greatest horror performances in British cinema. Andy, Dave and David are joined by legendary horror author Ramsey Campbell to dig into Night of the Demon, a film that helped shape folk horror decades before the genre even had a label. The demon gets debated, the atmosphere gets worshipped, and scepticism does not fare especially well.

This very special FolknHell episode with the legendary horror writer Ramsey Campbell joining the boys to talk about his all time favourite horror film, Jacques Tourneur’s Night of the Demon. Before getting to the film itself, the conversation detours through folk horror’s literary roots, The Hungry Moon, Arthur Machen, Lovecraft, Penda’s Fen, and why British landscapes still feel uniquely suited to supernatural dread.

Once the film begins, things get gloriously obsessive. The hosts get stuck into the film’s extraordinary atmosphere, Ted Scaife’s cinematography, Ken Adam’s production design, and Neil McGinnis’ astonishing performance as Julian Carswell, a charming occultist who might genuinely have summoned something infernal. There is plenty of debate around the decision to show the demon so early, with David arguing it weakens Holden’s sceptical arc while Dave and Ramsey defend the dramatic irony it creates.

The folk horror question turns out to be surprisingly complicated. By the FolknHell criteria, Night of the Demon only partially fits, yet everybody agrees it absolutely belongs in the canon. Ancient belief systems, witchcraft, isolated rituals, haunted landscapes and old forces bleeding into modern Britain are all over this thing. It may not sit comfortably inside the so called “Unholy Trinity”, but nobody here is arguing against its place at the table.

The final scores land high. Dave and Andy both land on 9, while David comes in as the resident harsher marker with a 7.

Final score: 25 out of 30
Folknhell is the folk horror podcast where Andy Davidson, Dave Houghton and David Hall dig into strange cinema, argue about whether it really counts as folk horror, and score every film out of 30.

Add your own score and comments about the films at https://www.folknhell.com/scores

Find us on the socials:
YouTube: @folknhell
Facebook: FolknHell
X: @FolknHell
Bluesky: FolknHell

See acast.com/privacy for info.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A country retreat should be peaceful. Unless every man you meet has the same face, the same blame, and eventually, rather more birth canal than anyone ever asked for!

Alex Garland’s Men follows Harper, played by Jessie Buckley, as she retreats to a rural house after the violent death of her husband. What looks like a healing break quickly becomes an unnerving confrontation with grief, guilt and a village full of men, all played by Rory Kinnear, who seem to embody different shades of male threat, blame and entitlement.

Andy, Dave and David are split on how well it works. David finds a lot to admire in the film’s attempt to explore trauma from a woman’s perspective, reading the house as Harper’s head and the male characters as psychological archetypes rather than literal villagers. Dave is intrigued but kept at arm’s length by the film’s allegorical style, feeling that the lack of reality also reduces the sense of jeopardy. Andy is the least convinced, praising the performances and visuals but finding the film heavy handed, especially once the final act starts birthing Rory Kinnears like a cursed Russian doll.

On the folk horror question, the verdict is clear but nuanced. Men uses folk horror imagery beautifully, with the Green Man, fertility carvings, old houses, rural isolation and ancient symbolic weight all doing plenty of atmospheric work. But the hosts land on it being dressed in folk horror rather than truly being folk horror. The threat is not the land or the community. It is Harper’s trauma, guilt and the men in her head.

Final score: 15 out of 30.
Folknhell is the folk horror podcast where Andy Davidson, Dave Houghton and David Hall dig into strange cinema, argue about whether it really counts as folk horror, and score every film out of 30.

Add your own score and comments about the films at https://www.folknhell.com/scores

Find us on the socials:
YouTube: @folknhell
Facebook: FolknHell
X: @FolknHell
Bluesky: FolknHell

See acast.com/privacy for info.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.